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.
