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.

I find it odd that people are losing attention spans yet movies are getting slower and slower to getting to their point.

The original Hellraiser was like an exciting and very creative visual unfolding of hell. It SHOWED you the journey instead of telling you. It took place inside a good man's home who had a loving and strong relationship with his daughter. It made us care and relate.

It made you feel like you were inside its hellish world.

The reboot is like someone overly talking and explaining Hellraiser to you until you become bored and don't even care anymore. It takes place in many locations around a lazy junkie type girl who we don't care about.

This one makes you feel like an outsider just hearing about its world.

When did movies forget that they are a mainly a visual medium that require more well-rounded people that most of us can grab onto?

At its core, the original Hellraiser (1987) was a story about the darkest, sordid recess of human nature. It was about desire and lust, possession and betrayal and how these powerful, very human feelings can push people on the brink of inhumane horror.

It was - at the same time - also a story of lovecraftian cosmic horror, where the characters face a terror so powerful and behond human comprehension that defeat was inevitable. All things considered, it was a truly nihilistic and dark statement on human nature.

The somewhat-superior-somewhat-inferior sequel - Hellboud: Hellraiser II (1988) - dealt with the consequences of such horror, with the obsession derived from it, with madness and will, with power and seduction.

Both movies had thematic layers and depth and the horror, the cenobites, the lore were just tools and background to tell these deeply nihilistic stories about the horrors that lies in the depths of human nature.

From there on out, the franchise went off the rails, piling up inferior movie after inferior movie. The reason of this debacle is that the producers made the horrible mistake of thinking that the lore (the cenobites, the box/the Lament configuration and so on) were actually the point.

Which brings us to THIS movie. After a brief, shallow and bland characters introduction, the entire focus of the story starts revolving around the box, cenobites and all that stuff, in the same shallow, bland way the characters were presented.

It isn't even interesting from a lore perspective: at least, the otherwise abysmal Hellraiser: Judgement (2018) gave some juicy bits of new, fascinating lore. Here it's just the same ol' same old except it's more incoherent than in previous installments to the point where almost nothing makes sense.

Eventually, the whole movie became a run of the mill slasher, with cenobites chasing empty characters in the woods. There are no themes in sight, nothing is said about human nature , no layers, no depth. Sure, its gory but its lifeless and, what's worse for an Hellraiser installment, its meatless. Flesh-less.

Clayton's performance as the new Hell Priest/Pinhead is interesting and works perfectly fine. It does not compare with Doug Bradley's, but it doesn't have to.

Everything else is just bland and lifeless - which is too bad, considering the other movies in this director's filmography were pretty great, subtle and smart - and there is clearly an attempt at going in the right direction, with lots of practical effects, gorgeus set design and some attention to details: it really smells as if the failing are on the studio/the producers.

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.

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.