The original Hellraiser, written and directed by Clive Barker, is a horror classic responsible for pushing many boundaries of horror at the time. It had some extremely dark concepts, especially when it came to family dynamics and sexuality, and it made people really uncomfortable. It’s not nearly as gory or wild as countless other horror movies that have come out since then, and most people who only know it as “the film with Pinhead” are often surprised to find out how little he’s actually in it. Unfortunately, despite Pinhead’s iconic look, and the creative coolness of the original film that still holds up today, there’s no other horror franchise that I can think of that has managed to achieve such heights of quality to then fall so quickly into filth and squalor, and then be dragged through the mud for miles, sequel after sequel, until there was simply no respect left for it. The only other one that comes close in my mind is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, especially when you consider the recent film that came out on Netflix.

This Hellraiser came out on streaming as well but was published by Hulu instead. Having just released another movie in a classic horror franchise that has been dragged through the proverbial mud and done a decent job of repairing some of the damage, I have to say I was a little hopeful for this. I was still very skeptical—as I often am—that Hulu would be able to pull off a Hellraiser reboot. But with the director of The Night House and The Ritual behind the camera, I was eager to see if it could be done.

Pros

Effects look good
Cenobite design is creative
Focuses on the puzzle box and adds some interesting lore around it
Latter half of the film has decent action and pacing
Has some solid concepts without straying from the core plot of Hellraiser
Sets and look of the film are striking

Cons

First half of the movie is slow; could have been shorter
Most characters are dumb, annoying, or add nothing to the experience
Plot doesn’t really go anywhere until the end

Plot & Thoughts

If you’re familiar with the Hellraiser franchise, you know that the plot typically does not revolve around the iconic Pinhead, but a small puzzle box, often referred to as the Lament Configuration. It’s a box that opens the door to other realities where pleasure and pain are one and the same and the inhabitants take on grotesque and horrific forms to satiate their lust. There have been movies in the Hellraiser franchise that have managed to mostly ignore the puzzle box and, coincidentally enough, they tend to be the worst ones to watch. Thankfully, the puzzle box is the star of the show in this reboot, so we’re off to a good start.

The film begins at a lavish mansion in Belgrade, Serbia, where a young man wanders into a room to find the puzzle box, as well as the mansion owner who gently encourages him to solve it. After twisting a few things, a small blade jumps out of the box and cuts the man before hooks on chains from beyond this universe grab him, and rip him to shreds off-screen. The film then cuts away to a young couple having sex and we’re introduced to our main characters. Riley (Odessa A’zion) is a recovering addict who is living with her brother Matt (Brandon Flynn) and his boyfriend Colin (Adam Faison). Matt is not a fan of Riley’s boyfriend Trevor (Drew Starkey), as he is not really helping with her addiction issues by drinking around her and mostly enabling her to fall off the wagon. Despite her brother’s warning Riley continues to see Trevor who includes her on an odd job where they break into a storage container with a safe, containing (of course) the Lament Configuration. However, this time it’s in a much different shape than we saw a few minutes earlier.

Riley ends up taking the box with her and after multiple scenes of relatively dull and uninteresting characterization, she takes a few pills and ends up solving the puzzle box. The small blade of the box shoots out upon her completing the puzzle, but it misses her. Lucky for her, but very unlucky for the next person to find it and get cut. Their blood activates the box, releasing the cenobites and making the box go into its next phase in its metamorphosis. From then on, the story essentially focuses on Riley trying to figure out what the box is for while running from the cenobites.

The premise of having a recovering addict be the protagonist in a Hellraiser movie is not a bad one. It allows her to be an unreliable narrator who can’t entirely be trusted when it comes to things she sees. The characters around her would likely disbelieve the things she tells them, discounting them as just drug-induced visions. The theme of drug addiction also suits Hellraiser as it is often a life centered around pleasure and pain. All that being said, I don’t think this movie really nails the theme or use of its characters in a meaningful way. I think the actors do a fine job with their roles, but they don’t manage to be compelling or interesting characters capable of keeping the film interesting.

Thus, the first half of the film tends to drag. It’s only when Riley finally starts to understand what the box is and when the cenobites become more prominent that the film starts to pick up. When it does finally pick up, I think this movie gets interesting and satiates the expectations of a Hellraiser fan to a certain degree. If you compare it with the original movie, that film was not reliant on making the cenobites the stars of the show to keep our interest, because you had more interesting and horrific characters moving the plot along without them. The cenobites were mostly just icing on the cake. Riley and her friends are not very interesting, nor is the mystery of the puzzle box enough to propel the plot in this case. In fact, Riley’s addiction eventually doesn’t matter as much and it feels almost like a half-assed effort to have it be a plot point as a result.

Despite the characters not being all that interesting, I still think this is a relatively solid entry into the franchise. The important core concepts of Hellraiser remain intact and the film benefits greatly from being made by people who wanted to tell a faithful new story in the Hellraiser universe. I like the way the Lament Configuration is back to being the focus of attention and how the film even provides a little lore around its purpose and uses.

Likewise, the cenobites and their designs are fantastic. Unlike some truly awful cenobites from the various Hellraiser sequels, real thought and effort went into their creation and presentation. The make-up effects and prosthetics look fantastic, especially on the Gasp cenobite (Selina Lo). I also think that, despite Doug Bradley no longer playing the cenobite priest Pinhead, Jamie Clayton does a good job in her portrayal of the character. It may be an unnecessary gender swap, but if there was any iconic horror villain who could pull it off, it would be Pinhead. Clayton’s voice may not be as deep and dooming as Bradley when she says “We have such sights to show you,” but she still manages to evoke enough sinister malice that she captures your attention. Even Doug Bradley approves, according to the trivia.

TL;DR

It’s not perfect, but Hellraiser (2022) manages to be a worthy entry in the long-running limping horror franchise that suffered for years from having abysmal sequels with lame plots and tacked-on use of its iconic cenobite and the Lament Configuration. There were many Hellraiser films that were clearly written as something else before someone making the film forced the Hellraiser elements into the plot. That is not the case here. The filmmakers were able to take the important core concepts of Hellraiser and put them into something that suits the franchise. The characters may not be that interesting, and the plot takes a while to really get going, but when you finally get to the latter half of the film, it delivers. If you want a simple recommendation of which movies to watch in the franchise, just watch the first two and this one. Skip the rest.

Dagon Dogs Posts