Hellraiser held its World Premiere during Fantastic Fest.
While the original ‘Hellraiser’ from Clive Barker is a beloved horror classic, the nine sequels that followed are…less loved to say the least. When a franchise has been beaten into the ground, there are typically two options in the modern film era: either create a legacy sequel (such as ‘Halloween’ in 2018) or reboot it completely. ‘Hellraiser’ is getting the much-needed reboot treatment and will be going directly to Hulu on October 7, just a few weeks after its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2022.
The plot of ‘Hellraiser’ revolves around a small transforming puzzle box that can summon the iconic Pinhead (Jamie Clayton) and the rest of the Cenobites, a group of disfigured beings from another dimension. As you might expect, summoning the Cenobites does not lead anywhere good for our group of protagonists, led by Odessa A’zion as Riley, a former drug addict who accidentally gets her brother and friends involved with Pinhead and the gang.
Director David Bruckner seemed positively giddy to introduce his version of ‘Hellraiser’ when he took the stage at Fantastic Fest. Bruckner has a couple of solid horror movies under his belt already, with 2017’s ‘The Ritual’ and 2020’s ‘The Night House’ respectively, and ‘Hellraiser’ is the first big horror franchise he has been able to get his hands on. It’s clear that he’s passionate about the project, and that passion is displayed on the screen with a unique style and interesting new reimaginings of the Cenobites, which are different enough from the originals while still being faithful. They’re genuinely scary, but you can’t take your eyes off of them.
Hellraiser doesn’t rely on cheap jump scares.
Instead, Hellraiser lets the atmosphere do the talking. Fans of gore will be happy to know there are some great kills with plenty of skin-peeling and blood to go around. Other than that, it’s a relatively brisk walk through the plot, without much surprise or interesting new developments.
Verdict
I give the ‘Hellraiser’ reboot 3 out of 5 stars. It is a faithful adaptation that will make fans of the original very happy. However, other than being a faithful adaptation, it doesn’t do much else that’s new or distinctive for the horror genre. It’s effective, but little else. Do you Vouch for it? Read more Reviews on Nerdtropolis and Subscribe to our YouTube.
Drew Munhausen
Media and Movie Mastermind who co-hosts the Moviegoers Society Podcast and Fresh out the Pod.