Hellraiser

Regardless what mainstream critics/reviewers are saying this film was a pretty disaster. Pretty because the production value was decent, more so than the plethora of previous sequels to the franchise. However, the acting, plot, storyline, overall horror is lost entirely. They completely changed anything that made Hellraiser what it was, the lore has been completely changed. Gender swapping Pinhead is also pointless, Doug Bradley will and is the only Pinhead. To be honest this is no surprise given Disney/Hollywood can't reboot/imagine anything new and only ruin franchises now. Waste of time don't bother.

It's a shame that studio executives completely disregard fans and the original source material, when ever considering to remake, or reboot a title. It's not shocking either to see Disney is going doing a terrible rabbithole in ruining classic titles. At this stage it's best to simply watch the first two Hellraisers, Hellraise 3 and 4 are moderately decent sequels. Anything beyond this point was a simple cash-grab or purposefully made to retain the title by the studio so it wouldn't expire.

Keep away. 0 / 10.

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?

My latest watch, I actually watched twice because I wanted to give it a fair shake. In a nutshell, the 2022 'Hellraiser' reboot just does not have enough spark to reignite the fire in the franchise. While I won't say Jamie Clayton did a bad job, her pinhead was more quiet and reserved which really made miss Bradley's deep voice and imposing figure. There was a genuine lack of sex and grit and the majority of the time the cenobites were on screen it was dark to the point of annoyance. This is NOT a movie inspired by grungy BDSM clubs in NYC. The story was okay with a bit of a cliche ending, and it could have used more editing to cut down on the runtime. All and all 'Hellraiser' was basically like digging up a beloved friend, reanimating their corpse, and then sending them back to their job at Wawa. Personally I would never bring someone back from the dead merely for the promise of mediocrity.

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.

They turned Hellraiser into a vanilla Freddy Krueger inspired slasher, which makes for a very watchable if unmemorable experience.

Some of the ideas, even if borrowed, were convincing : the mansion, the dumb rules, the drug allegory. And some true Hellraiser concepts and visuals like the Leviathan moment were particularly well done but no spoilers here.

The most disappointing was probably the Cenobites design way too elegant and Alien like, not gruesome or surreal enough. Plus the characters deaths felt like generic gory horror à la SAW or Escape Room. It was missing a sense of spectacle and boldness despite having clearly a decent budget.

Still an enjoyable movie.