Prior to the review of the new installment in the long-running (35 years!) Hellraiser horror movie franchise, i did my due diligence. I revisited all 10 previous films, from the critically acclaimed 1987 original and its 1988 sequel, to the subsequent two theatrical and six direct-to-video items. Throughout the marathon I took copious notes, careful to follow the characters and plot developments through their many permutations.
Just kidding!
Hellraiser
It comes down to
You can’t control a good Pinhead.
Sure, I saw the first two movies at the time and maybe I even caught 1992’s Hellraiser III: Hell on earth and 1996’s Hellraiser IV: Bloodline. But by the time the series went straight to home video, I happily jumped out of it, because I wasn’t the type to proudly have a wealth of horror movie memorabilia in my basement. So for all of you Hellraiser lovers out there, apologies.
For the uninitiated, the series, originally based on Clive Barkerthe novella The Hellbound Heart (the writer also directed the original film), centers around a mysterious puzzle box known as the “Lament Configuration,” a type of demonic Rubik’s Cube that serves as a portal for the sadistic, aliens known as the cenobites.
The Cenobites (am I the only one whose name conjures up images of delicious sweet treats bought in malls?), have a habit of brutally torturing people who have the misfortune to summon them. Apparently dedicated to exploring the fine line between pleasure and pain, they would have fit perfectly in 80s S&M clubs.
The leader of the Cenobites is the iconic horror character Pinhead, previously played in most of the English actor Doug Bradley’s films. For this remake/reboot/sequel (it’s a bit of each), Jamie Clayton (Sense8) makes history as the series’ first female Pinhead. How well this will come across to fans is anyone’s guess, as most horror movie buffs aren’t exactly known for their commitment to gender equality. (Just ask anyone involved with the woman) Ghostbusters reboot.) But the character was originally conceived by Barker as androgynous, and Clayton, her voice electronically altered, strikes a suitably scary, forbidding, and even sensual figure. Assuming you don’t mind her outfits being made up of her own flayed skin and she’s got, you know, big pins sticking out of her head.
Stretched to too long two hours, the storyline revolves around Riley (Odessa A’zion), a young woman with substance abuse problems who impulsively goes along with her boyfriend Trevor (Drew Starkey)’s plan to break into a storage room. The only item they find there is the puzzle box, which has the unfortunate tendency to put users in their hands. All hell breaks loose when that happens, starting with the disappearance of Riley’s brother, Matt (Brandon Flynn).
Riley and Trevor, with the help of Matt’s friend (Adam Faison) and their roommate Nora (Aiofe Hinds), try to unravel the mystery, which leads them to creatures like The Chatterer, The Whisperer, The Gasp, among others. others, as well as Pinhead. There’s also a depraved billionaire (Goran Visnjic, enjoying the scenery), who unleashed the Cenobites in the first place, and his seedy lawyer (Hiam Abbass, succession, Frame).
The new Hellraiser looks great (at least from what you can tell, it’s terribly dark), with a visual style befitting the relatively large budget and talents of director David Bruckner, who, judging by this and the recent The Nighthousequickly establishes himself as a serious horror filmmaker.
The screenplay, written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski (veterinarian) David S. Goyer gets a story credit), proves less interesting and never bothers to fully flesh out his determinedly diverse collection of characters. Of course, when you consider what happens to most of their meat, that’s not necessarily a big drawback.
Fans will be relieved to know that this Hellraiser definitely doesn’t skimp on the gore, offering enough guts and skinned skin to satisfy the most bloodthirsty of viewers. When a pin pierces a person’s flesh, you even occasionally see the damage from within the body, as if to provide an educational anatomical experience for young viewers looking to enter the medical profession. Special mention should be made of the imaginative creature designs and makeup (which leave its cinematic predecessors in the dust), the immersive sound design, and the effectively eerie music score, which features familiar themes from Christopher Young’s original.