It's Pinhead time! Our favorite masochistic hell spawn will be back in action in 2022. I know the first movie is like super freaking old, but I think the concept of the puzzle box, the Cenobites and twisted pleasures is just timeless. Granted, we are all tired of reboots and remakes, but this franchise just really needs another good adaptation.
This spooky season sure kicks off with a bang! First we get the fantastic Dahmer series, and now we get a promising looking remake of the classic horror franchise Hellraiser.
Hellraiser started out as a novella, until the release of the first movie in 1987, which quickly reached cult status among horror fans, like myself.
Hellraiser: A Quick Recap
So in short, Hellraiser is about a puzzle box that if you solve it, summons sadomasochistic BDSM demons that will either turn you into one of them, if you're worthy, or condemn you to eternal torture. Lovely fellers, am I right?
Let's see, if the new Hellraiser movie can compare to this baby right here:
In the new movie we will get, pretty much, that. Odessa A'zion plays a drug addict struggling with recovery that gets into possession of a strange puzzle box, solving its first stage in a haze. That was a big mistake, though, as the emerging Cenobites claim her brother, who cut himself on the box. The plot then revolves around her trying to solve the box's mystery and find her brother.
This inadvertently brings her into more contact with the Cenobites, which is scary.
Hellraiser: What to Expect
Well, if you expect a happy movie, with likeable characters, you haven't been paying attention. The characters are struggling people, that are not really meant to be all that likeable. The Hellraiser franchise is well known for having broken characters come into contact with the puzzle box, just to suffer at the hands of the Cenobites, making their psychological wounds physical. Glad I'm not a character in the Hellraiser universe!
The Cenobites themselves, as I said often so far, are quite the pain connoisseurs, both when it comes to dealing the pain, or receiving it. The reason the Cenobites are, in my opinion, fascinating antagonists is because you can't really classify them as evil. I mean yeah what they do is definitely evil, I mean they torture people, that's a bad thing to do, but to them pain is also pleasure. So they might think of themselves as bringers of joy? Weirdos.
They look pretty menacing in the movie, with mutilated flesh and cut-up skin, that is formed into their clothing. Just the usual stuff, you know?
For more menacing movies, here are our recommendations on Amazon Prime:
In the new movie, Pinhead, the iconic leader of the Cenobites, is actually played by Jaime Clayton, who looks fantastic. Her combination of sensuality and menace promises to be great in highlighting the alien disdain the Cenobites carry for differentiating between pain and pleasure.
All in all, I think this definitely is one of the best Hellraiser entries we've seen so far. As a Horror fan, you should definitely check it out this Spooktober. You can watch it on Hulu and Disney, starting October 7th. If you enjoy it, that would kinda make you a Cenobite as well though, enjoying watching the pain of others and all..