We watched Hellraiser (2022) and were reminded of a series which has virtually infinite potential and has fallen from grace, and risen like Lazarus to raise heck again.
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https://youtu.be/oUlgwJNdu2I
Hellraiser can be found on Hulu in their formidable Huluween selection
Synopsis
Riley (
Odessa A’zion) is a young woman struggling with addiction and staying sober. Her boyfriend, Trevor (
Drew Starkey) is also a recovering addict who seems to be a little less concerned about sobriety and walking the straight and narrow.
Riley’s brother, Colin (
Adam Faison) and his gay boyfriend, Matt (
Brandon Flynn) are worried about Riley.
When Riley and her straight boyfriend, Trevor break into a storage locker and steal the puzzle box - wacky hijinks ensue and everyone gets more heck than they bargained for.
Review
Hellraiser (2022) is a promising new movie based in the
Hellraiser universe. It’s 54% reboot, 27% homage, 33% slow and boring, with a nice 12% helping of gloop.
Probably the biggest thing that Hellraiser has going for it is
David Bruckner is at the helm, fresh off one of our favorite movies of 2020 -
The Night House and
The Ritual from 2017.
What works
Hellraiser does a lot of things right. It keeps the plot pretty easy to follow, and stays true to a lot of the lore of the series. It also has a lot of nods to sequels in the long line of Yellsayser movies.
The re-imagined Cenobites are off putting and sometimes horrifying, which is fabulous.
Jamie Clayton as The Preist aka lady pinhead is something to behold, and strangely sexless as a character.
Lots of this movie was upsetting and hard to watch, but there was some stuff that didn’t work too well for me. I’m a bit tired of the same story playing out over and over again.
Watch The Original Hellraiser Buy or Rent on Amazon
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What doesn't work
With this intellectual property, you could go to actual hell, and have any number of incredible and weird stories play out. Just take
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 as an example.
Instead, we have to see a bunch of new people going through a lot of similar actions that we’ve seen before.