There's a certain inherent appeal in the Hellraiser films. Its similar to the appeal of the Friday the 13th films: There's something inhuman and unstoppable with motivations completely alien and all it wants is you. The "infinite dimensions of pleasure and pain" in Hellraiser are a super compelling concept, hedonism taken to its absolute extreme. If only Hellbound stuck to that formula.
Hellbound picks up from where Hellraiser left off. Kirsty, our protagonist from the first film, is committed into the care of a doctor who harbors a sick obsession with Hell. After the doctor succeeds in bringing a villain from Kirsty's past back to life, she and her fellow patient, an autistic girl obsessed with puzzles, enter Hell to save Kirsty's dad, encountering not only the Cenobites but many monsters from both of their pasts.
The problem with Hellbound is similar to a lot of horror sequels. They decide that the best way to continue the story is by overexplaining everything, and this is especially a problem as a sequel to Hellraiser as it was an exposition-heavy film to begin with. We're exposed to Hell, which to be fair looks pretty cool if unoriginal, and learn Pinhead's origin story and the process by which a human becomes a Cenobite, significantly demystifying the horror present in the concept. Like Hellraiser, the acting is okay and the make-up and effects are phenomenal, but, unlike the original, it lacks the conceptual pull to create a compelling film. Jesus wept.
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