Hellraiser
Jamie Clayton takes a stab at Pinhead in the Hellraiser reboot.
Hulu’s stab at another reboot pays off in this gore-filled thriller.
Riley (Odessa A’zion) just needs an easy win. She’s a recovering addict whose brother micromanages her life. Furious that she’s financially and emotionally dependent on him, Riley decides to make some real money.
Her boyfriend has an idea. He’s a courier who routinely drops off precious cargo for mysterious rich clientele. His most recent delivery has been abandoned, and is sitting in a warehouse, collecting dust. He suggests that they steal the delivery and sell it on the black market.
Ready for some quick cash, Riley agrees. When they break into the delivery site, they find a box. Fascinated by the beautiful design, Riley plays with it. To her surprise, it moves. She has summoned the Cenobites, a group of mutilated beings from another dimension who conflate pleasure and pain. When they’re called, they take victims to their realm where they can torture them for eternity.
It turns out breaking into creepy warehouses to steal mysterious artifacts isn’t a bright idea. Who knew?
Hulu’s had good luck with franchise reboots. The recent Prey movie totally revitalized the Predator franchise and opened the world for more movies. It’s clear Hellraiser has similar ideas. This new film leaves the door open for sequels galore. And the good news is that Hellraiser is certainly the best entry the franchise has seen in years, but that’s also the bad news.
After 11 films, the Hellraiser franchise has produced precisely two movies that aren’t terrible — the original and this reboot. The other films are so torturous to sit through, one wonders if they weren’t lovingly crafted by the Cenobites themselves. Still, this reboot, helmed by The Night House director David Bruckner, is at least trying to take the franchise in new and interesting directions.
Bruckner, who has a talent for architectural filmmaking, creates an interesting world. The Cenobites seem to use reality as their own puzzle box, breaking off pieces of walls or opening the ground to get to their victims. There’s also a gorgeous set that acts as the locale for the final hour of the film, which is reminiscent of Thirteen Ghosts (don’t let that scare you too much).
While the world itself if is certainly much more interesting than the ones offered in previous films, the biggest change to the franchise is the design of the Cenobites. Bruckner drew inspiration from novelist and director of the first film Clive Barker’s writing, where he described the creatures as having “repulsive glamour”. Bruckner might have taken this too far, however, because the Cenobites now look like they stepped off the edgiest runway at New York Fashion Week.
The concept is very cool — instead of the black leather S&M style outfits of the original movie, the Cenobites use their own skin as leather, twisting and tearing it into terrifying outfits. But the actual execution of the outfits leaves something to be desired. Everything is oddly sterile, even the gooey guts beneath the cenobites’ torn skin. And Pinhead (now rebranded The Priest), who is the flagship Cenobite for the series, now has little pearls on the tips of all the nails going into their skull. It’s very glamorous, but also a bit silly. The redesign gives off the appearance that the Cenobites all stopped at Crate & Barrel before coming to terrorize Riley.
While the Cenobites work out their look, there are also a few script problems to deal with. First, the film is over two hours long, which is just too long for 90% of horror movies. Especially for a story as basic as the one we’re telling — girl meets puzzle box, girl meets Cenobites, bodies start to drop — Hellraiser could have been edited into 90 minutes. Second, the protagonist gets her agency taken away from her so she isn’t totally unlikeable. Whenever Riley is given a horrible choice, the movie gives her some way around it so a death isn’t directly her fault. For a film that’s all about the folly of hedonism and how our addictive natures lead to disaster, Riley gets off pretty easy.
Still, Hellraiser is certainly worth a look if you’re in the market for gory new horror. And if you ever come across a spooky puzzle box, just leave it alone.
Verdict: Fans of the franchise should be pleased with this bloody good reboot, but if you’re new to the series you may wonder what all the fuss is about.
Hellraiser is rated R and available to stream on Hulu starting October 7.
