| “ | There is so much more the body can be made to feel. And you'll feel it all, before we're through. | „ |
| ― The Priest |
Hellraiser is a 2022 American supernatural horror film directed by David Bruckner, with a screenplay by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, from a screen story they co-wrote with David S. Goyer. A second adaptation of the 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, which served as the basis for his 1987 film Hellraiser, it is a reboot of the titular franchise and the eleventh installment overall. A co-production between Spyglass Media Group and Phantom Four Films, the film stars Odessa A'zion, Jamie Clayton, Brandon Flynn, Goran Višnjić, Drew Starkey, Adam Faison, Aoife Hinds, Selina Lo and Hiam Abbass.
Plans for a Hellraiser remake commenced in October 2007, with Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury confirmed they would be directing the project, with Barker producing and Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton would write the script. After Maury and Bustillo left the project, Dimension Films announced that Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier would be taking on this project, with production slated for the new year ahead of a late 2011, early 2012 release. However, following the release of Hellraiser: Revelations to secure continuing rights, Farmer confirmed that he and Lussier are no longer involved. By 2018, after the critical and commercial success of Halloween, Miramax Films had confirmed plans for new Hellraiser installments, including a prequel and a reboot. The film was green-lit in early 2019, with Bruckner directing it from a script written by Collins and Piotrowski that will adhere more closely to the source material than the original film. Filming took place from September to October 2021.
Hellraiser had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 28, 2022, and was released by Disney Platform Distribution via streaming exclusively on Hulu as a Hulu original film on October 7, 2022.
Plot[]
During a party at hedonistic millionaire Roland Voight's mansion in Massachusetts, sex-worker Joey comes across a mechanical puzzle box, which Voight insists he solve. Joey solves the configuration and is stabbed in the hand by a blade hidden inside the box. A portal opens, from which chains fly out and rip Joey apart, as Voight demands an audience with Leviathan.
Six years later, Riley McKendry, a recovering addict, is living with her brother Matt, his boyfriend Colin, and their roommate Nora. Riley's boyfriend, Trevor, convinces her to help break into an abandoned storage warehouse, where they discover the puzzle box. Returning home late, Riley gets into an argument with Matt, who assumes she is relapsing. Upset, Riley goes to an empty park. There, she solves the box but avoids being cut by the blade. The Cenobites, a group of deformed humanoids, appear and demand she choose another to pass the box on to.
Feeling guilty about their argument, Matt heads to the playground where he finds Riley blacked out. As he tries to wake her up, Matt inadvertently cuts himself on the box and goes to a nearby restroom to clean his wound. Soon after, Matt screams and vanishes.
Believing the box caused Matt's disappearance, Riley and Trevor track down Serena Menaker, Voight's former lawyer, who had hidden it in the warehouse. Menaker realizes that Riley solved the box and tries to take it from her, but is cut by the blade. After Riley and Trevor leave, Menaker is taken by the Cenobites. Riley visits Voight's mansion, finding his journals about the box and learning that it has multiple configurations, each of which requires a victim to be "marked" by the box's blade so the Cenobites can claim them. On completion, the box allows its holder to receive a "gift" from Leviathan, the entity that rules over Hell. Riley sees an apparition of Matt, but is horrified to discover he has been flayed.
Trevor, Colin, and Nora arrive to take Riley home. While Riley explains to Colin what she had found, the still-living but mutilated Voight, who is hiding inside the walls of the mansion, stabs Nora with the box. The group attempt to escape the mansion in a van, but Nora is taken by the Cenobites. Their leader Pinhead taunts Nora, then flays her.
Trevor and Colin crash their van after Riley sees a reflection of Nora's torture in the van's rear-view mirror. Leaving the wreck, Riley encounters Pinhead, who commands Riley to finish the last two configurations of the puzzle, and either sacrifice herself or two others. Trevor is injured by one of the Cenobites, Chatterer, but Riley solves the next configuration and stabs it, marking it as the next victim.
The group make it back to the mansion, realizing that there are steel doors designed to lock the Cenobites out. As Riley and Colin leave Trevor in a room to rest, Voight sneaks in to talk to Trevor. It is revealed that Trevor had been working for Voight, and intended to have Riley sacrificed. Riley and Colin try to lure another Cenobite inside to become the last sacrifice, but Voight appears and stabs Colin with the box. Voight reveals that he sought new pleasurable sensations after completing all of his sacrifices, and his "reward" was a contraption attached to him to twist his nerve endings, leaving him in constant pain. His aim now is to be free of this "gift". He completes the final configuration and traps the Cenobites inside the mansion, separate from himself and the others.
Riley retrieves the box, and unlocks the steel doors, inadvertently letting one of the Cenobites, the Gasp, corner Colin. The Gasp tortures Colin until Riley demands they stop. Riley stabs Trevor with the box, marking him as the new final sacrifice. The Gasp wraps Trevor in wires that cut into his flesh before he is dragged to Hell. Voight convinces Pinhead to grant him a different reward; Pinhead tells Voight he will be given "power". Voight is released from his contraption and momentarily healed, before a large chain impales him, taking him to Hell.
Riley approaches the Cenobites with the box. Tempted by Pinhead into resurrecting Matt, Riley refuses upon realizing the Cenobite's rewards are always twisted. Pinhead tells her that she will instead live with the guilt of her actions. The box reverts to its original state and the Cenobites disappear. As Riley and Colin leave the mansion, Colin asks her if she made the right choice; Riley remains silent. Meanwhile, in Hell, Voight undergoes a brutal transformation into a new Cenobite.
Cast[]
- Odessa A'zion as Riley McKendry, a young woman struggling with a severe drug addiction.
- Jamie Clayton as the Priest, leader of the Cenobites.
- Adam Faison as Colin, Matt's boyfriend.
- Drew Starkey as Trevor, Riley's boyfriend who met her in a twelve-step program.
- Brandon Flynn as Matt McKendry, Riley's estranged brother.
- Aoife Hinds as Nora, Matt and Colin's roommate.
- Jason Liles as the Chatterer, the Cenobite who chases Riley, Trevor, and Colin.
- Yinka Olorunnife as the Weeper, a Cenobite.
- Zachary Hing as the Asphyx, a Cenobite.
- Selina Lo as the Gasp, a Cenobite.
- Kit Clarke as Joey Coscuna, a sex worker and one of Voight's victims.
- Vukasin Jovanovic as the Masque, a Cenobite.
- Goran Višnjić as Roland Voight, a charismatic businessman.
- Hiam Abbass as Serena Menaker, Voight's lawyer.
Production[]
Development[]
In October 2006, Clive Barker announced through his official website that he would be writing the script to a forthcoming remake of the original Hellraiser film, to be produced by Dimension Films. In October 2007, Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo were eyed to direct. By January 2008, the project, then titled Clive Barker Presents: Hellraiser, was delayed to an unspecified date in 2009 following the studio's dissatisfaction with Maury and Bustillo's script. In February 2008, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton were tapped for a page-one rewrite, and production was gearing up to begin that spring. By June 2008, the directing pair had dropped the project to work on Halloween II. That October, French director Pascal Laugier was set to direct. Laugier told Dread Central in March 2009 that work on the film had begun with a co-writer he could not publicly name. However, Laugier wanted a very serious take whereas the producers wanted a more commercial film that would appeal to a teen audience, and he left the project in June 2009.
Throughout 2010, further pitches were given by Christian E. Christiansen, Cory Goodman, and from writing duo Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger. In October 2010, Christiansen was reported to be in the running for director while Amber Heard was considered for the lead role. Mere days later, it was officially announced that Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer were to direct and write, respectively, a reboot of the Hellraiser franchise. The story would have differed from the original film, as Lussier and Farmer did not want to retell the original story out of respect for Barker's work, instead focusing on the world and function of the puzzle box. However, in 2011, Farmer confirmed that both he and Lussier were dropped from the project.
In October 2013, Barker announced that he would be directing and writing the film, and Doug Bradley was to return in his role as Pinhead. A year later, Barker stated that a second draft of the script was completed and described the film as a "very loose" remake of the original film, but said that he may not direct the film. In March 2017, Barker said that the film's "script was written and delivered to Dimension years ago. That was the last anyone heard until news of a sequel surfaced". After the successful release of the 2018 horror sequel Halloween, Miramax Films confirmed that it was considering beginning production on new installments to the Hellraiser franchise. Lussier and Farmer had worked out numerous ideas whilst working on the project; one being a prequel starring William Fichtner as Pinhead, while another pitch had Pinhead portrayed by a woman.
In May 2019, Gary Barber announced that Spyglass Media Group would be developing a new remake of Hellraiser to be written and co-produced by David S. Goyer. In April 2020, David Bruckner was reported to direct the remake, with Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski writing the script after having previously collaborated with Bruckner on The Night House (2020), which Goyer also produced. In December 2020, following a legal dispute, Barker officially regained the rights to the property in the United States.
Trivia[]
- This is the first Hellraiser film to feature a female Pinhead.
- The film was first talked about in October 2006.