Hellraiser

Hellraiser 2022 is not a bad movie. It is just not what I was hoping for. Honestly, for me, it was lacking great gore. The story was serviceable, as were the characters. Yet, I kept hoping for a film that tapped into the horror of what the Cenobites do to their victims. For me, that is what Hellraiser is supposed to do: go face first into the blood and pain. I wanted to see heads being pulled apart, bodies being skinned alive, bubbling masses of flesh developing into a human form, sexual tension, incest, lust, and the deep exploration of humans addicted to gratifying their desires only to end up in hell being ripped apart. I want a bloody gory Hellraiser!

Also, the movie reminded me of 13 Ghosts in how the house was designed to keep the Cenobites out. You know, rich guy wants to chase after the unknown, figures out how to keep the evil characters trapped, and then goes down in a ball of flames after a plot for people to be bait falters. And it did all of this while keeping the gore to a minimum.

Looking back at what made the original so good was how off putting it was , dark and very original.

The source material being the same we wouldn't expect much new .

Where this outing fails is to raise the bar on what made the original so good.

The tension and build up is ok but I felt disappointed with the costumes. To me the heavy layered latex looked like heavy layered latex. The original was a darker filmed movie and the Cenobites were so disturbing the first time you see them . In this newer version we have a wider field of view shot further away and it looses its claustrophobic feel . Escaping seems easier and that drives the tension down.

So different cinematography and poor customers and such take away .

The good is the protagonist the actor does a good job portraying seemly troubled youth .

Act 3 has a bit of a twist but comes too late in the film to save it.

College kids get chased around the woods by Cenobites. Cenobites lay siege to those kids in a mansion. It's like the zombie formula, but with Cenobites.

All of which makes the Cenobites feel pretty ineffectual. Never mind that Cenobites getting locked out of a house isn't really in keeping with, you know, opening all those portals from other dimensions in the walls and floor. Maybe it's a magic house, I don't know.

The Hellraiser reboot has decent art direction. It has a budget. There's nothing wrong with the new Pinhead, she's fine. But in terms of story, they phoned it in this time. We're left with a movie that's perfectly acceptable as some time-waster slasher that you forget the moment the credits roll, but that's all. Lamentable, considering the potential.

Regardless what mainstream critics/reviewers are saying this film was a pretty disaster. Pretty because the production value was decent, more so than the plethora of previous sequels to the franchise. However, the acting, plot, storyline, overall horror is lost entirely. They completely changed anything that made Hellraiser what it was, the lore has been completely changed. Gender swapping Pinhead is also pointless, Doug Bradley will and is the only Pinhead. To be honest this is no surprise given Disney/Hollywood can't reboot/imagine anything new and only ruin franchises now. Waste of time don't bother.

It's a shame that studio executives completely disregard fans and the original source material, when ever considering to remake, or reboot a title. It's not shocking either to see Disney is going doing a terrible rabbithole in ruining classic titles. At this stage it's best to simply watch the first two Hellraisers, Hellraise 3 and 4 are moderately decent sequels. Anything beyond this point was a simple cash-grab or purposefully made to retain the title by the studio so it wouldn't expire.

Keep away. 0 / 10.

My latest watch, I actually watched twice because I wanted to give it a fair shake. In a nutshell, the 2022 'Hellraiser' reboot just does not have enough spark to reignite the fire in the franchise. While I won't say Jamie Clayton did a bad job, her pinhead was more quiet and reserved which really made miss Bradley's deep voice and imposing figure. There was a genuine lack of sex and grit and the majority of the time the cenobites were on screen it was dark to the point of annoyance. This is NOT a movie inspired by grungy BDSM clubs in NYC. The story was okay with a bit of a cliche ending, and it could have used more editing to cut down on the runtime. All and all 'Hellraiser' was basically like digging up a beloved friend, reanimating their corpse, and then sending them back to their job at Wawa. Personally I would never bring someone back from the dead merely for the promise of mediocrity.