Spoiler Alert: This article contains SPOILERS for the new Hellraiser remake.Hellraiser is the latest film to be remade or rebooted in this new age of Hollywood. Released on Hulu for October, the film focuses on Riley, played by Odessa A’zion, a recovering addict who encounters a puzzle that should not be solved. However, upon solving this puzzle, new configurations appear, followed by the deaths of those around her. In addition, she and her friends encounter the cenobites, who are the gatekeepers between this world and the next.

The 1987 Hellraiser is one of the greatest horror films of all time and has amassed a cult following. Nine sequels later, director David Bruckner has brought us a new version of Clive Barker’s original masterpiece. Bruckner, who helmed critically acclaimed films such as The Night House and The Ritual, is no stranger to horror; he was also one of the directors behind the terrifying found footage film V/H/S, which has also brought on a cult following. Bruckner’s Hellraiser is not a cut-and-paste remake of the original. In fact, it takes certain elements of Barker’s film and reworks it to tell a more modern story.

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Remaking Hellraiser

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The new Hellraiser film honors Clive Barker’s original masterpiece by not attempting to copy it as a shot-for-shot remake. Audiences have seen this formula done with films like Psycho starring Vince Vaughn, and it’s not generally successful. So fortunately, Bruckner and screenwriters Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski took the risk to make something new.

They kept the central totem consistent with the puzzle box, whose configurations conjure the cenobites and horrific acts of torture. All of this is led by the group of demonic entities known as the cenobites, led notoriously by Pinhead or The Priest, played by Jaime Clayton. While maintaining the iconography of the original, the new Hellraiser has fun altering some of the designs.

Pinhead in Hellraiser

There is no Hellraiser without the lead cenobite. Pinhead has become a staple of the horror genre and fans were anxious to see the reimagining to the character and how Jaime Clayton’s interpretation with honor or differ from Doug Bradley, who famously portrayed Pinhead for most of the original franchise. In an interview with Jake’s Takes, David Bruckner speaks of the interactions he and Clayton had with Bradley in the film’s developmental stages.

Contrary to the original film, where Pinhead is more of an ominous presence rather than a full-on antagonist, the 2022 remake features Pinhead for most of the film’s second and third act. She is the overarching nemesis to Riley and is very prevalent in the film. However, she is never overused, and the performance proves that Jamie Clayton was perfectly cast. The care and dedication to this role, where the make-up was noted to be intense, was quite obvious by Clayton who honored Doug Bradley’s legacy and made a brand-new character.

Bruckner: “We reached out to Doug, and we really wanted to have him cameo in some way in the movie but, in the middle of a pandemic, I don’t know I also think he respectively wanted to leave his legacy with the character, and you can’t argue with that.”

Clayton: “He was asked at one of the conventions where he was doing an appearance and somebody asked him about [the remake] and he’s actually a fan of a show I did called Sense8 and gave me his blessing […] that was really fun for me, that was really sweet.”

Troubled Characters in Hulu’s Horror Remake

In addition, the new Hellraiser focuses on traumatized characters who struggle with more modernized problems. Relationships, drugs, malaise, and alcohol plague these characters in a way modern audiences can relate to. However, the original film did also focus on human relationships. Where one relationship is the main focus in the original, each character in the remake is dealing with some kind of adversity. It stretches out beyond the four walls of a house and infiltrates other locations.

The remake expands upon the lore of the puzzle and establishes a connection between the expository sequences and Riley’s involvement. When she gets her hands on the puzzle, she is forced to confront her own demons when she sees the first image of the cenobites while high on drugs. This is a brilliant way to introduce the already terrifying and real characters while our lead character is in an inebriated state. Is what she is seeing real? Or is it a fragment of her imagination? We are along for the ride until there is an assurance that drugs have no part of the horrors these characters are experiencing.

Gruesome Practical Effects

In addition to the bells made so famous in the original film upon the arrival of the cenobites, the remake also contains amazing practical effects and cinematic sequences of violence and mind-bending imagery. The make-up for the cenobites are as real as they can be, with just a slight assistance of CGI for the demonic entities. The interactions with the cenobites and the human characters are authentic and the intimidated look in their eyes plays very well to the audience.

There are many more new cenobites who appear in this film than in the first, which is great because we get to see new character designs as well as those like The Chatterer who are honored from the original film. The character designs and locations are unique to this remake and are almost like a maze the audience is forced to go down, one where we do not expect what’s around the corner.

Jesus Wept

The Hellraiser franchise is bound in religious themes. The original film ended with one of the most famous lines in not just the New Testament but in all horror cinema. “Jesus Wept” is so connected to the Hellraiser franchise that fans were awaiting a continuation of that line or some variation of it. While we did get the line spoken, we actually got to see it as a metaphor.

The puppet master of the entire plot, Voight (played by Goran Visnjic) is taken by the cenobites to the world beyond our own. He is transformed into a cenobite while attached to a structure which looks similar to a cross. He cries in pain as his body is mutilated to acquire what he truly wants, real power, which always comes at a price. He must suffer to enter his idea of salvation. We see him on the cross, transforming into the version of himself that will last until the end of time.

Hellraiser is Something New for Horror Fans

As a result of the aforementioned differences and honorable moments between Bruckner’s film and Clive Barker’s original masterpiece, the new Hellraiser can stand on its own away from the franchise. Audiences can watch this film side-by-side with the original and have two different experiences. A remake does its job by setting the new material away from the source material, where the central theme is explored in a new modernized way.

David Bruckner and the entire cast and crew created one of the better horror remakes of the last few decades. There is no confirmation of a sequel to this new imagining, but the film’s success would open up the gates to the idea of another. Bruckner’s admiration of the franchise and the character of Pinhead could continue to excite audiences as to where the franchise goes next.