Hellraiser (2022) follows the story of Riley, who finds herself confronting beings from another dimension, who took her brother away. The movie is now streaming on Hulu.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Serena, the lawyer of Roland Voight, a wealthy businessman, investor, and art collector, buys a mysterious ancient puzzle box her client seeks.
The next step for the same box sees Voight and Serena trapping a young boy named Joey into solving that puzzle to unlock its last configuration.
Joey manages to do so, but in turn, a blade from the box comes out and stabs him. The box collects Joey’s blood and changes its shape.
Moments later, chains from around Voight’s house come out to take Joey away while Voight prays for someone to appear.
Six years later, Riley, a young woman suffering from drug addiction, crosses paths with the same box again when she breaks into a warehouse with her boyfriend, Trevor.
Riley’s brother, Matt, never liked Trevor and was upset with his sister’s antics. Thus, he decided to throw her out of his house.
Riley didn’t take that decision well and found herself swallowing some pills and solving that puzzle box in a park. She unlocks its next configuration and dodges the blade inside from stabbing her.
Soon, she starts seeing terrifying mutilated beings surrounding her. Those beings address that the blade was meant for her. If she won’t come with them, then she should bring someone else for them.
Matt, who had a bad dream that Riley might be in trouble, leaves home looking for her. He ends up finding her passed out in the park. While picking up her sister, Matt accidentally gets stabbed by the box as he places his hands on it.
The box collects Matt’s blood, and before Riley could wake up, the mutilated beings come and take Matt away.
Riley blames herself for Matt’s disappearance and continues to have visions of those mutilated beings. In order to solve this mystery, she tries to find the owner of the puzzle box.
Riley and Trevor meet Serena, Voight’s lawyer, whose name was on the shipment from where they stole the box. Serena advises them to stay away from the box and tries to take it away from Riley.
The struggle between Serena and Riley over the box sees them unlocking the next configuration. This time around, Serena gets hurt by the blade.
Riley and Trevor later find out that even Serena disappeared into thin air, just like how Matt did. Adamant that she wants to put a stop to all of this, Riley researches a bit on Roland Voight and his shady history.
She also finds out that some of Voight’s associates also disappeared before he did. Assuming that there is a connection, she leaves for Voight’s mansion, which is now protected by a metal framework.
Hellraiser (2022) ending explained in detail:
What does Riley find out about the mutilated beings and the puzzle box?
Inside Voight’s mansion, Riley comes across Voight’s extensive research on the puzzle box and mutilated beings called the Cenobites.
The puzzle box has six sides and six configurations. Riley has already unlocked three, and she has to unlock three more.
If she manages to reach the final configuration, she will be granted a passage to another realm and an audience with the god.
The god of the Cenobites offers choices to whoever holds the final configuration. These choices or configurations are the ultimate desires of a human being.
The configurations are Lament, as in life; Lore, as in knowledge; Lauderant, as in love; Liminal, as in sensation; Lazarus, as in resurrection; and Leviathan, as in power.
Riley over here is aiming for resurrection, as she wants to bring her brother, Matt, back to life.
How Riley outplayed the Cenobites?
Trevor, along with Matt’s boyfriend, Colin, and Colin’s roommate, Nora, came looking for Riley and found her in Voight’s mansion. While Riley explained everything to Colin, someone attacked Nora with the box to unlock the next configuration.
The group escaped the mansion in order to save her, but the Cenobites managed to get their hands on Nora.
Riley thought of abandoning her conquest after Nora’s death, but the Cenobites tempted her with their offer to resurrect her brother.
When she still opted to back out, the lead Cenobite decided to target her and unlocked the next configuration. In turn, Riley’s blood was on the blade this time.
The Cenobites gathered to kill her, and Riley found herself in a difficult situation where she needed to kill Trevor with that box, or else she will be the one dying.
Riley gave this a thought and instead attacked the Cenobite coming at them. Thus, the lead Cenobite had no option but to kill one of its own kind.
What was Trevor and Voight’s plan all along?
Riley, Colin, and Trevor went back inside the mansion and realized that the Cenboites can’t enter there, since Voight’s mansion is guarded by a metal framing.
Riley planned on killing another Cenobite by luring one of them in.
Roland Voight, alive in flesh, showed up and attacked Colin with the box while Riley trapped one of the Cenobites. Voight had also attacked Nora earlier, and this was his plan all along.
Voight paid Trevor to lure people towards the box, hoping they will unlock the configurations. He wanted to confront the god of the Cenobites as the gift they gave him wasn’t the one he was expecting.
Despite being wealthy, Voight had lusted for more, and he had asked for Liminal, as in sensation, when he unlocked all the configurations. What the Cenobites had to offer was beyond what Voight could imagine.
They preyed on Voight’s nerves by attaching an instrument to his upper body. This instrument pulled his nerves and allowed Voight to never go numb.
What happens to Roland Voight?
Roland Voight confronted the lead Cenobite for the gift they gave him. Since attaining it, he has only suffered from pain.
The lead Cenobite claimed that the gift can’t be taken back, it can only be exchanged. Roland Voight, on his side, was sure that anything is better than what he got.
The lead Cenobite chose to give him the Leviathan configuration. According to that configuration, the Cenobites took Voight to their dimension and transformed him into one of their own kind.
What does Riley ask for?
While Voight tried to make a deal with the lead Cenobite, Riley stole the box and followed Colin, who was the next target of the Cenobites.
Riley knew she was the one who had the choice of choosing the person to sacrifice, so she saved Colin by stabbing Trevor with the box, as she was disappointed that he was the one behind all of this.
Riley had the last configuration in her hand after Trevor’s death.
The Cenobites took care of Voight and asked Riley about the choice she has made. Riley acknowledged that the Cenboites had nothing good to offer. So she asked for nothing.
The Cenobites took her answer to be the Lament configuration, as in life. The puzzle box moved back to its original square shape, and the Cenobites disappeared.
Riley left the box in the mansion and went out with Colin, believing she made the right choice.
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