As a horror flick fan, I’ve seen plenty of serial films.
Take for example the “Halloween,” “Saw,” “Alien,” “Friday the 13th,” “Universal Monsters,” and “Scream” franchises.
There are several installations in those films spanning decades’ worth of cast members and a variety of branching storylines.
Not to mention that Universal Monsters is the oldest and clocks in with the starting year of 1931 – and it’s still going!
That said, the Hellraiser reboot is a welcome dip into the lore behind the franchise – even if the pacing feels a bit rushed.
In true Hellraiser fashion, the sacrificial deaths are filled with gore and screams, but they largely happen off-screen – their torture is given full-frontal view though.
I found the torture scenes and “hinted” deaths to be a bit more creative here than in the original film and also enjoyed the variety of Cenobites depicted.
Hellraiser is a supernatural horror film directed by David Bruckner, with a screenplay by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, from a screen story they co-wrote with David S. Goyer.
A second adaptation of the 1986 novella “The Hellbound Heart” by Clive Barker, which served as the basis for his 1987 film Hellraiser, it is a reboot of the titular franchise, and the 11th installment overall.
As a co-production between Spyglass Media Group and Phantom Four Films, the film stars Odessa A’zion, Jamie Clayton, Brandon Flynn, Goran Višnjić, Drew Starkey, Adam Faison, Aoife Hinds, Selina Lo Kit Clarke, and Hiam Abbass.
The movie is 120 minutes long and rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language throughout, some sexual content, and brief graphic nudity.
During a party at hedonistic millionaire Roland Voight’s (Visnjic) mansion, sex worker Joey (Clarke) comes across a mechanical puzzle box, which Voight insists he solve.
Joey solves the configuration and is stabbed by a blade hidden inside the box.
A portal opens, from which chains fly out and rip Joey apart, as Voight demands an audience with Leviathan.
Six years later, recovering addict Riley (A’zion) is living with her brother Matt (Flynn), his boyfriend Colin (Faison), and their roommate Nora (Hinds).
Riley’s boyfriend Trevor (Starkey) convinces her to help break into an abandoned storage warehouse, where they discover the puzzle box.
Returning home late, Riley gets into an argument with Matt and leaves.
At an empty park, she solves the box, but avoids being cut by the blade and has dipped back into a mystery trio of pills to deal with what’s going on in her life now.
The Cenobites, a group of deformed humanoids, appear and demand she choose another as a sacrifice.
Matt finds Riley blacked out and, as he tries to wake her up, inadvertently cuts himself on the box.
He goes to a nearby restroom to clean his wound and while waiting outside, Riley hears him scream and discovers that he has vanished.
Believing the box caused Matt’s disappearance, Riley and Trevor track down Serena Menaker (Abbass), Voight’s former lawyer, who had hidden it in the warehouse.
Menaker is dying from cancer and warns Riley that the box should remain hidden and that it’s dangerous.
Eventually, Menaker tries to take the box from Riley but is inadvertently cut by the blade and is later taken by the Cenobites.
From then on, it’s a race for Riley to solve the mystery of the box and her brother’s disappearance before the Cenobites come to take her away.
Overall, it’s a fair remake and worth a watch if you’ve got a Hulu subscription – if not, maybe it’ll come to Redbox or out on video soon.
