Hellbound: Hellraiser II
New World Pictures | Release Date: December 23, 1988 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
IGNChristopher Monfette
Hellbound is gorier, larger, and more accessible than the first. It rehashes the original at the outset so people can grasp it whether or not they'd seen the first and as a result is an easier film to enjoy. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesChris Willman
This follow-up is faster and campier than its mostly somber predecessor, but the basic grim tenets of British horror author Clive Barker's supernatural worldview are still intact: a universe with a senseless hell but no heaven, without a god but with plenty of demons, without real good but oozing evil to spare. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay Scott
Clive Barker is not without a sense of humor. And he's certainly not without a sense of what will scare his audiences senseless. [28 Dec 1988]
50
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
The obsessive lust that drives Higgins to horrific extremes in Hellraiser was almost enough to carry that film, but Hellbound has no such straw to cling to, and the film collapses into a bloody mess of bravura set pieces that never add up to a satisfying whole. Read full review
50
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Hellraiser II is a maggotty carnival of mayhem, mutation and dismemberment, awash in blood and recommended only for those who thrive on such junk. Read full review
50
Washington PostRichard Harrington
The effects are generally good, and those Cenobites are definitely not the kind of folks you'd have over on New Year's Eve. Still, it's odd that the most intriguing, and threatening, items in the film are those darn puzzle boxes. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEric Henderson
The sequel’s cure proves infinitely bloodier than the original’s disease, and its over-the-top depictions of brimstone and flesh are so loopy and unmoored, you’d swear the place where nobody dared to go suddenly became Xanadu. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneDave Kehr
Hellbound offers a consistent, low-level queasiness, an effect more of revulsion than horror. It's nothing that a good shot of Pepto-Bismol wouldn't take care of. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Offering memorable imagery and little more, it eventually devolves into distasteful gore for its own sake. It's far less compelling than its no less bloody but far more intelligent inspiration. Read full review
40
The New York TimesCaryn James
Though the script for Hellbound is related to the Barker story, the film drops its plot whenever a fake-looking monster walks on the screen. Ogling strange creatures is the film's true reason for being. Read full review
40
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
A disappointing sequel to Clive Barker's innovatory body horror pic, which - while making some effort to flesh out the Cenobite mythology - simply performs cosmetic surgery on the original. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldJuan Carlos Coto
Hellbound is long overdue at the video morgue. [23 Dec 1988, p.C5]
12
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Hellbound: Hellraiser II is like some kind of avant-garde film strip in which there is no beginning, no middle, no end, but simply a series of gruesome images that can be watched in any order. Read full review
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