To return to Hellrasier is simultaneously a daunting and easy proposition. Afterall this is not a case where a whole series of quality films is what you’re gong up against, but on the other the daunting element appears due to the act that the initial film may very well be one of the towering achievements of its genre. David Bruckner who up until this point has elevated and directed with great quality a series of average to bad screen plays is at the head of this latest endeavour into the world of leviathon, the lament configuration and cenobites, and it is with great glee almost that I can declare that Bruckner is here with this 2022 reboot not elevating a sub-par script, but finally working with great material and still bringing his immense quality to the table. Hellraiser is fresh, surprisingly original and an exciting new beginning in this horrifying to this day world of extreme horror and sensation.
Working from a script with three credited writers it’s hard to find the line of who to credit with this films success on the written page. David S. Goyer is credited with story, with Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski both credited with screenplay (and a story credit too). With of course still the original influence of Barker fuelling the piece once more. What makes the screenplay work as well as it does is a rejection, beyond a few knowing re-deliveries of iconic lines, of the iconography of the Hellraiser universe. Here our cenobites are re-designed to be a whole new fashion of incredible practical and visual effects to make a tangible and startlingly horrid new interpretation that succeeds incredibly to be just as original and shocking as the original designs despite being mostly different. This is perhaps the best way to describe all elements of success with this feature. Things are designed differently, things are fresh, but the film is fuelled by Barker at its core, rather than wearing the skin of previous efforts not unlike Frank donning Larry’s shedding in the original 1987 film. This film relishes in its new creations, whether it be extensions of the lore or indeed with the whole new set of terrifying cenobites. Bruckner overall manages to make the film scary and suspenseful, whilst never lacking on the human drama that occupied so much of the run time of the original film. Here the drama and character are all different but manage to have a whole new angle of relevance to the world of the cenobites, again rather than re-hashing or just slyly ending up a remake. Bruckner has a deft hand here as he always has, but now here with this film, even with it being a piece of intellectual property, has a chance to solidify good material rather than elevate bad.
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The
heart of this human drama is that of Odessa A’Zion as recovering addict Riley,
paired with her troubled dysfunctional relationship with her brother Matt,
played by Brandon Flyn, as the sibling attempting the best he can to help Riley
out of her current pained abyss. Both Azion and Flyn manage to make these
initial scenes and all those after incredibly human and believable, and once the more horror based absurdist and fantastical elements begin to reveal
themselves, manage to make this humanity infuse with the terrifying fantasy.
This is a film that is believable at its core no matter what perverted pleasure
demons arrive from another realm. Leading these pleasure seekers in fact is
Jamie Clayton as a new fashion of lead cenobite, here named The Priest. Clayton
in her physical performance is daringly still, but in her augmented vocal performance
manages to convey all sorts of cunning and haunting charisma, this is less so
the impartial pinhead of the previous films and more so someone who we can hear relish in each word as it drips with terror in the pleasure that these haunting
ghouls seek and attempt to deliver upon. In design every one of these cenobites
and every kill and every vision of ‘pleasure’ is inconceivably grotesque and
ingeniously conceived. Bruckner delivers a film that overflows with ideas and
yet remains wonderfully slick and simple, not unlike the original 1987 film. Of
course what came after that was 1988’s Hellbound, which took everything
to new extremes and delivered a bounty of even larger sequences and creations.
I would love nothing more than to see where this goes next, if these actors are
involved, if this production is involved, if Bruckner is involved, I can’t wait
to go wherever they wish to take us. And if we only get this film, that too will be more
satisfying than the past thirty years of Hellraiser fodder and more
satisfying than a litany of reboots we have received of recent too.
A stellar 8/10 visceral and fresh reimagining of the Barker world of Hellraiser that revitalises a long dormant series with a new, exciting and frequently original outing that makes for not only an entertaining, frightening and compelling entry into the Hellraiser cannon, but also a stellar piece of horror cinema in its own right. Quibbles are mainly with the focus that the film takes its time to build, without much of the major quality the first film succeeds with the same arc. However once this film reaches its mid-way and the experience becomes a wholly different one, Bruckner manages to succeed in creating a horror feature that is just as brutal and unsettling as it is daringly entertaining. Bruckner has succeeded in a way that no one has since the original Barker and that films wonderful first sequel.
P.S. Again this feels like such a fresh and visceral reimagining pseudo-sequel reboot that I would be more than happy to see more of this world and see more Bruckner’s vision. Now of course you will all no doubt recall me having similar feeling regarding the release of a certain Halloween from 2018, only for us to receive what we received with Halloween Kills. Again, I remain stupidly, foolishly, blissfully hopefully despite all evidence track record wise pointing somewhere to the latter.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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