Item: Hellraiser
Rating: 8
Author: Alex Maidy

Last Updated on October 10, 2022

Plot: A reimagining of Clive Barker’s 1987 horror classic from director David Bruckner in which a young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.

Review: The Hellraiser franchise has had to weather a lot of mediocre sequels, nine to be exact, since Clive Barker‘s directorial debut unleashed Pinhead upon the cinematic world. Defining the sadomasochistic world of the Cenobites, Barker’s 1987 horror film has ranked as one of the most iconic horror creations of all time. In the decades since, multiple filmmakers have tried to deepen the mythology of the original story by giving us origin stories and alternate realities featuring the puzzle box and demonic entities. None of these films has managed to evoke the sinister feel of the first movie or capitalize on the story’s potential until now. The latest Hellraiser, a franchise reboot, is the best movie in the series since the first and may possibly even be a little better.

Unlike the remakes of Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the new Hellraiser works because it never tries to replicate the 1987 movie nor the story that inspired it. The new Hellraiser instead keeps the core elements of the story and ventures into an entirely new direction that explains more about the Cenobites and their puzzle box than the prior ten films did altogether. Scripted by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski (The Night House) from a story developed alongside David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight), Hellraiser is a legitimately scary movie that does not skimp on the gore or atmosphere as it lays the foundation for what kind of movie it is going to be within the first few minutes as we meet the enigmatic and filthy rich Mr. Voight (Goran Visnjic) who plies an unsuspecting young man into trying to solve the puzzle box for him. Things obviously do not work out and that is only the beginning.

The story shifts then to follow Riley (Odessa A’zion), a recovering addict living with her brother Matt and his boyfriend Colin (Adam Faison), and their roommate Nora (Aoife Hinds). Riley is sleeping with another addict from her program, Trevor (Drew Starkey), to her brother’s chagrin. Needing to try and get out on her own, Trevor and Riley come across the puzzle box which unleashes the Cenobites upon them. Led by Pinhead (Jamie Clayton), the Cenobites begin to claim souls for their leader, Leviathan, while Riley tries to figure out where the box came from and how it connects to Voight. As the film proceeds, we are witness to all sorts of brutal deaths at the command of Pinhead and her retinue of Cenobites including The Chatterer (Jason Liles), The Weeper (Yinka Olorunnife), The Gasp (Selina Lo), and more.

What immediately struck me when watching Hellraiser was just how good Jamie Clayton is in the role of Pinhead. Doug Bradley will forever be associated with the role he originated and played for eight of the ten films in the franchise. Clayton makes the character her own but it never feels like a gender-flipped portrayal. Clayton plays Pinhead, officially known as The Priest, as a stoic and controlled leader of the Cenobites who calmly executes the will of her master, Leviathan, by following a strict code dictated by the puzzle box. Several times in Hellraiser, Clayton echoes some iconic lines from Bradley’s iteration of the character but as this version reaches its climax, I was completely sold on Clayton taking on the mantle of Pinhead for as many sequels as this movie can get. We also get a solid performance from Selina Lo as The Gasp, a very cool Cenobite design and the most vocal of them aside from Pinhead.

On the human side, Odessa A’zion is excellent as the troubled Riley who must balance the chasm of her own addictions with facing the threat of the Cenobites. I don’t want to give away any plot details for the film, but the angle of this Hellraiser is far less focused on the sexual side the franchise has become associated with and instead links the concept of self-harm to the torture inflicted by the demonic entities and their master. The entire story comes together in the end which links the story arcs for Riley and Voight alongside the mission and goals of the Cenobites themselves. Collins and Piotrowski’s screenplay is visualized wonderfully by David Bruckner. Bruckner, who helmed The Night House, knows how to channel an atmosphere of dread and foreboding that elevates the scares in Hellraiser beyond what we have seen in this franchise before. Yes, Hellraiser is still gory and disturbing body horror, but it feels much more aligned with the story rather than existing merely for shock value.

Hellraiser has long felt like a franchise of missed opportunities that was not able to deliver the layers that Clive Barker’s source material deserved. Of all the adaptations of Barker’s works over the years, few are as good as this Hellraiser. Equal parts scary and disturbing, David Bruckner has evolved the story into something that resembles a puzzle box itself. From Ben Lovett’s eerie musical score to the cinematography of Eli Born, this movie is easily the most visually striking movie in the franchise. This is a straightforward movie that any horror fan can grasp while also being anchored by themes that work on multiple levels. Led by a great performance from Jamie Clayton, Hellraiser may be the best horror remake in decades and one of the best horror films of 2022.

Hellraiser is available to watch on the Hulu streaming service.