Hellbound (1994) Cannon/Action-Horror-Thriller RT: 95 minutes Rated R (language, violence) Director: Aaron Norris Screenplay: Brent Friedman and Donald G. Thompson Music: George S. Clinton Cinematography: Joao Fernandes Release date: January 21, 1994 (Los Angeles, CA) Cast: Chuck Norris, Calvin Levels, Christopher Neame, Sheree J. Wilson, David Robb, Cherie Franklin, Jack Adalist, Erez Atar. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ** ½
Hellbound marks the end of an era. It’s not only the last of the Cannon movies; it’s the last to receive theatrical distribution. It never made it to Philadelphia even though one theater advertised it as a coming attraction for nearly a year.
In addition, it’s the next-to-last theatrical film starring martial artist Chuck Norris. In it, he plays a Chicago cop going up against an evil supernatural being. Sounds like a real winner, right? That’s what I thought when I first saw the trailer for Hellbound in late ’93. I had to wait until April ’95 when it came out on video to feast my eyes on it. I didn’t like it at the time, but after watching the recent documentary about Cannon Films, I felt like giving it a second chance. I watched it with lower expectations this time and it paid off. It’s as silly as all get-out, but it’s kind of fun if you’re willing to accept the ludicrous premise. Directed by Aaron Norris (Missing in Action III), it’s a weird mixture of cop flick and supernatural thriller. It’s an uneasy blend to be sure, but I’m giving it a lot of leeway since it’s a Cannon production.
Norris plays Frank Shatter, a Chicago cop on the trail of a demonic being called Prosatanos played by Christopher Neame (Steel Dawn). He and his partner Calvin Jackson (Levels, Adventures in Babysitting) stumble onto the demon after discovering the body of a rabbi with his heart torn out in a seedy hotel. It’s not the first time Prosatanos, an emissary of Satan, has walked among us. He was vanquished by Richard the Lionhearted in 1186 and sealed in a tomb for nearly 800 years until grave robbers unwittingly release him. He’s searching for the nine pieces of a scepter that will allow him to bring about Armageddon. Shatter and Jackson are summoned to Israel to answer questions about the rabbi’s murder. Even though the local police chief expressly forbids them from plying their trade on his turf, they continue their investigation which brings them into contact with an archeology professor named Lockley, also played by Neame.
Chuck gets a romantic interest in the form of Leslie (Wilson, Fraternity Vacation), assistant to Professor Lockley. As part of the ceremony, he needs to make a human sacrifice. Guess who that sacrifice will be. How else would Chuck have somebody to rescue at the end?
From start to finish, Hellbound is pure hokum. How seriously can you take a movie that contains lines like “The scepter is the key to the gates of Hell.”? That the actors deliver such lines with straight faces is an accomplishment in and of itself. The movie opens with a Star Wars-style text crawl explaining the prophecy that a warrior from the West will ultimately defeat Prosatanos. Nice to see Hellbound get off to such a laughably dumb start.
We already know what kind of an actor Norris is; therefore, the makers give him several opportunities to show off his martial arts skills. What he lacks in one area, he makes up for in another. Levels doesn’t so much play a character as he does a character type, the comic relief sidekick. He’s no Steve James, but he’ll do. As Lockley/Prosatanos, Neame hams it up to the max. Wilson is okay as the only significant female character.
But who really cares about the acting in a movie like Hellbound? How is it in other areas? It has a few decent fight scenes, cheesy special effects and an engaging storyline. It’s darker in tone than any of Norris’ other movies. It’s actually strange to see him in a horror movie; that is, unless you recall Silent Rage, the 1982 movie that pitted him against a revived-from-the-dead psychopath. Hellbound was shot entirely in Israel, even the Chicago scenes. That explains why we don’t get any shots of the usual Windy City landmarks. It’s a goofy one, but no more so than any other low-budget supernatural thriller from the previous two decades. It is the only one starring Chuck Norris so it has that going for it.
