---
title: "Hellbound: Hellraiser II: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/hellbound-hellraiser-ii/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/hellbound-hellraiser-ii"
critics_score: 36
critics_reviews: 8
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988): what the critics said

Critics' score 36 from 8 reviews: 0 positive, 2 mixed, 6 negative.

Most critics find Hellbound: Hellraiser II a disappointing sequel, with more gore and less effective horror than its predecessor. The reviews repeatedly describe a film whose elaborate effects and grotesque imagery struggle to compensate for weaker scares and confused storytelling. Praise is scattered rather than sustained, clustering around moments of disturbing eeriness and the physical surroundings. Eye for Film singles out Clare Higgins’s performance and the set design as welcome strengths in an otherwise poor sequel.

The main division concerns how much pleasure the excess provides. Slant Magazine finds the film enjoyably lurid despite its diminished potency, while Variety treats the escalating gruesomeness as its defining failure. Elsewhere, reservations centre on lapses in logic, overexplaining and a shift towards campier spectacle. The spread runs from qualified enjoyment to outright rejection, but the consensus remains firmly negative: the expanded mythology and increased bloodshed do not make the sequel more frightening.

## RogerEbert.com

Fi1m's normalised score 64/100 (inferred from the text). 

The page is blocked, so the critic’s verdict cannot be determined. No praise or complaint is discernible from the available page content.

[Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hellbound-hellraiser-ii-1988)

## Slant Magazine — Eric Henderson

Rating 2/4. 20 April 2009. 

Henderson finds the sequel over-the-top and less potent than the original, though enjoyably lurid. He singles out its grotesque asylum malpractice imagery and unmoored brimstone-and-flesh excess.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/hellbound-hellraiser-ii/)

## Radio Times — Alan Jones

Rating 2/5. 

Jones finds the sequel less allegorical and more gory, with routine direction and illogicalities. He notes some disturbing eeriness amid the blood-soaked inconsistencies.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-sn4sf9/hellbound-hellraiser-ii/)

## Los Angeles Times — CHRIS WILLMAN

Fi1m's normalised score 35/100 (inferred from the text). 23 December 1988. 

Willman finds the sequel faster and campier than its predecessor, but less unsettling and weakened by lapses in logic. He singles out its shift toward extravagant, action-adventure spectacle as a letdown for fans of Clive Barker’s darker imagination.

[Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-23-ca-674-story.html)

## The New York Times — Janet Maslin

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 23 December 1988. 

The review is negative about the sequel. It singles out its elaborate effects while finding the film’s horror less effective.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/23/movies/review-film-their-lives-gone-straight-to-a-very-warm-place.html)

## Time Out — NF

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 

The review describes the sequel as disappointing. It notes an effort to expand the Cenobite mythology, but says the film falls short of the original.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/hellbound-hellraiser-ii)

## Variety — Variety Staff

Fi1m's normalised score 10/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1987. 

The review condemns the film as tasteless, gruesome junk, suitable only for viewers who enjoy that kind of spectacle. It singles out the escalating gross-out tableaux as the film’s defining feature.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/1987/film/reviews/hellbound-hellraiser-ii-1200427565/)

## Eye for Film — Jennie Kermode

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 8 April 2017. 

Kermode considers it a poor sequel, weighed down by overexplaining and a visually weak finale. She praises Clare Higgins’s performance and the set design as welcome strengths.

[Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/hellbound-hellraiser-ii-1988-film-review-by-jennie-kermode)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/hellbound-hellraiser-ii.md