Hellraiser 2022 review: Pinhead returns on Hulu, but only cuts skin deep

Honestly, making a good Hellraiser movie isn’t all that difficult. Franchises with more than three or four entries are bound to be uneven, but Hellraiser’s drop-off is particularly steep, starting with sequels that improve upon the original (Hellbound: Hellraiser II) in two movies that are not goodexactly, but it’s a lot of fun to watch (Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth When Hellraiser: Bloodline), much worse than the long run of direct-to-video sequels, the series begins to look like a meta-joke in which the pain is being inflicted on the audience rather than the characters. of the age hellraiser And Clive Barker’s satanic vision.

Director David Bruckner is one of those fans. That’s evident when watching his new reboot of Hellraiser, which stays true to its spirit rather than returning exactly to the source material. I’m an addict. The tone of the movie is very serious and adult, scream (2022) and body body body. The Occult Art Deco production design expands the original puzzle box to stunning architectural size. Cenobites inspire a breathtaking combination of wonder and terror, gentle speech and luminescence in the pale moonlight. And chains… oh yeah, there are chains that fly in all directions and tear apart human bodies like sacks of milk.

Still, Bruckner’s priorities and those of screenwriters Ben Collins and Luke Piotrovsky (night house), slightly different. There is omnivorous sexuality in the 2022 movie, hellraiser —We see a gay and straight couple naked in bed together. There is more male nudity than female. , had a twisted charm.Here, it’s plain evil and unappealing to everyone except the Cenobite leader and her minions who are billed as priests (Jamie Clayton). hellraiserThe Fallen Millionaire (and there must simply be a Fallen Millionaire) regrets his adventures in the “Further Realm of Experience.”

Instead, Bruckner and company embark on franchise lore. The film fleshes out the world of Cenobites in a new and comprehensive way, showing how the lament configuration (i.e. the puzzle that summons the Cenobites) works and what a penitent must go through to claim. We’ll explain exactly the 7 steps you shouldn’t take. It is “to have an audience with God”. Each of these steps requires human sacrifice, hellraiser By making the hero understand this, and deliberately drawing out the intervals between these bloody offerings, you buy yourself time. It is here that the film begins to lose focus.

hellraiser opens with a title card reading “Belgrade, Serbia” replacing Morocco as the world capital of taboo pleasures. Returned to Voight (Goran Visnich), who immediately sacrifices the young man to summon the god Leviathan. Fast forward six years and the box is left lying in an empty warehouse shipping container. “Free” it while looking for valuables that can be cashed.

The couple met at a 12-step meeting, but just dealing with boxes left Riley, a recovering addict, off the wagon. Here, Bruckner’s film reaches a more realistic tone and places Hellraiser. A universe that looks a lot more like our world than any of Barker’s original worlds. Subsequent arguments between Riley and her more responsible brother Matt (Brandon Flynn) likewise base the film on realistic conflicts and settings — the arrival of the Cenobites turning a public park into a surreal nightmare. , until Matt inexplicably disappears.

Overwhelmed with guilt and grief, Riley sets out to find clues about the puzzle box she suspects may have contributed to Matt’s disappearance, turning the film into a procedural plot that was supposed to last until the end. to launch. Instead, the focus shifts as Riley breaks into Voight’s Massachusetts mansion, with Matt’s boyfriend Colin (Adam Faison) and roommate Nora (Oife Hines) following close behind. There is hellraiser It pivots from mystery to siege film as the group barricades inside Voight’s palatial home while the Cenobites gather outside.

Photo: Spyglass Media Group/Hulu

Highlights of this part of the movie hellraiserThe two biggest weaknesses of are character count and length. The movie earns most of its two hours of screen time, but Riley is getting the rest of the gang up to speed on what they are and what they want. the film. And, aside from the fact that she has a brother and is vulnerable to alcohol and drugs, we know very little about Riley. A moment of silence, please, for poor Nora, who doesn’t have any distinctive features.

Perhaps fittingly, the most compelling character in the film is the Senovite. Of the five actors who have left their mark on the hellish bureaucracy colloquially known as Pinhead, Jamie Clayton is the only actor other than Doug Bradley who truly embraces “Pinhead” as a character. is. Clayton’s version is more breathtaking and more feminine than Bradley’s authoritative priestly figure. She is more of a holy mystic than a pope. Her black eyes stare with the cold curiosity of a geosurgeon at the humans begging for mercy before her, patiently awaiting their arrival with an imposing posture and delicate hands. Pinhead is another silent type of terrifying, and the sheer volume of dialogue she provides in the film (much more than Bradley in the 1987 film) is rather ironic.

Cenobite design hellraiser Taking advantage of advances in prosthetics, they’ve discarded their black leather fetish gear in favor of suits made from their own stripped skin. It has never looked more like a vagina. The new design evokes horrors of iron lungs, torn hands and human taxidermy. The film is bloody and intense when it needs to be, and at one point a pin goes through a character’s throat and out the other side. But its most original flourishes of horror are built into the set, which shifts into place, like fragments of Lament’s composition when the Cenobites are nearby.

hellraiser 2022 easily clears the admittedly low bar of being one of the best Hellraiser movies. Hellbound: Hellraiser II, It might be the second best in the series, after that movie. It’s a real shame this movie won’t get a theatrical release, as it has some great grotesque visuals. The only thing to worry about at this point is that Barker’s kinky edge has been honed in a more sex-averse era and his enigmatic storytelling was discarded in favor of a more readable but less convincing explanation.

hellraiser will be released to Hulu October 7th.