by Danny Stewart

BearManor Media, out now

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the third entry in the Hellraiser series.

You cannot question author Danny Stewart’s enthusiasm for Hellraiser III, and many times in his book he states that it’s his favourite Hellraiser movie. ‘Pinhead’ actor Doug Bradley questions this statement during one of the book’s interview, and I would guess that many fans would wonder why he holds it in higher esteem than Clive Barker’s original, but that’s the thing about personal opinions.

Primarily a series of interviews and behind-the-scenes stills, how much you enjoy the book will depend on what you want to know about the production, and to what level of detail. There are a lot of interviews here, from director Anthony Hickox and star Doug Bradley (though not Terry Farrell), all the way down to the casting intern and the person doing the craft service. Atkins and Hickox have some interesting stories about the challenges of making the movie, the former sharing some interesting notes on early drafts of the script, and there’s also some facts from the movie’s technicians that I’d not previously heard.

The latter part of the book is pages of location and effects photos, often variations on the same thing. Here, as with the rest of the book, I can’t help feel that a bit of editing would have led to a tighter book. There’s also a good number of typos that should have been picked up during proofreading.

Verdict: I can’t imagine that there’s any aspect of Hellraiser III that isn’t tackled in Danny Stewart’s affectionate companion to the movie. Subsequent reprints would however benefit from some tighter editing. 6/10

Nick Joy