Name: Hellraiser (2022)
Director: David Bruckner
Released: 2022-10-07T12:30:00

Hellraiser (2022) sees Riley, a young woman suffering from addiction, confronting beings from another dimension when her brother disappears. The movie is now available to stream on Hulu.

Story

Riley, along with her boyfriend, Trevor, discovers a mysterious ancient puzzle box after breaking into an abandoned shipment.

Riley’s brother, Matt, despises his sister’s antics and soon an argument between them leads him to throw his sister out of the house.

As someone suffering from addiction, Riley quickly turned to drugs and tried to meddle with the box she found, only to realize that the box holds a terrifying purpose.

She starts seeing horrifying mutilated beings who want to torture and kill her, but they also want to give her a choice. If she doesn’t want to die, they want her to bring sacrifices for them.

Matt, who was worried about his sister, leaves home looking for her and finds her passed out in a park. In the process of picking his sister up, he accidentally places his hands on the box’s blade.

The box absorbs Matt’s blood, and before Riley could wake up, the mutilated beings reappear and take Matt away.

Blaming Matt’s disappearance on herself, Riley seeks the owner of the box, the actual purpose of this ancient puzzle, and who these beings called the Cenobites are.

Performances

Odessa A’zion as Riley McKendry shines and carries the film on her back as the new Gen-Z cast takes the lead.

Jamie Clayton as the lead Cenobite brings a flavor of her own to the iconic horror character, originally played by Doug Bradley.

Clayton over here has her own aura around the character, and the new fans are bound to keep the lead Cenobite in their minds and may end up researching more about the character.

Postivies

As a reboot, Hellraiser hardly touches the original film and only uses the Cenobites as lore to introduce a fresh story.

Though there are some predictable spots in the first half of the film, the second half makes up for it with some really smart moves from the lead characters.

The new looks of Cenobites are welcomed. Therefore, the costume department should be applauded.

The film retains the magic of the original movie, which neither falls into the genre of supernatural horror nor into slasher films. It has a genre of its own that relies on pain and desires.

Negatives

If we keep the main character of Riley and the lead Cenobite aside, the other characters mostly come out as bland. Even the villainous Roland Voight, played by Goran Višnjić.

The scary scenes are not particularly scary. Yes, there is gore, but not that intense compared to the original film.

These scenes are just there and don’t add anything interesting or worth looking out for, although they should be the ones catching the eyes of the viewers.

Verdict

Hellraiser (2022) certainly revives the original material that has a cult following, but over the years, as a franchise, has found itself lost.

It’s a new start and will definitely appeal to the new audiences who are in the era of cinematic universes and would like to know more about the Cenobites.