Sami’s Review: Hellraiser 2022

I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Clive Barker. The blood and gore focus of horror. But just because its not my cup of tea in terror doesn’t mean I don’t respect what he brings. Since I have gotten into horror movies, his name always pops up for the recognition he’s done for books and movies. I do have to respect that he does bring something new to horror. It’s not just blood and guts flying everywhere it really is a sought out story.

Hell raiser was the movie that I stayed away from for the longest time because it looked like untreated territory, the image alone was alarming. I gotta give credit that there’s an immediate discomfort in the original but what does that mean for the remake, will that still offer the same discomfort from just the image?

On a scale of one to 10, I would say it’s an 11 all around.

The direction

With David Bruckner at the helm of the film he does do a good addition of a classic story. I have to admit I found myself paying attention to something that I put on for background noise.

The direction of the film does heighten your senses. I was impressed how all of the horrific moments I didn’t just flinch with the pain but I also felt the pain for how graphic it was without having to be overdone or drawn out.

Having a camera angles from an extreme high point does give this feeling of isolation. It adds more to the dread that they are alone but we know that they’re really not with what’s lurking out there because of the puzzle box.

Because the original movie was an hour and 47 minutes, the pacing had to be built up to shocking audience about the introduction to Pinhead.

In this remake, it was refreshing to have the female pinhead introduced earlier in this movie but she was sprinkled into some of the scenes this movie. It’s still left enough time for the eerie ambience to settle in before we finally get to see her.

The cinematography, the choice for the cast, and the female pinhead was a fresh new take on a classic.

The Cast and Tone Change

At first I was a little bit hesitant about the film because of the media approach it’s a girl who has addiction issues and it made me immediately think of the remake of the evil dead remake.

That almost made the film feel predictable. “Oh no here we go again here is a character of suffering from addiction and because of their habits in the past it’ll make them hard to believe like the boy who cried wolf.”

As much as I don’t like that cliché, surprisingly that actually fits for this movie and doesn’t feel clichéd.

This is a movie about suffering after all, and addiction is suffering. And other times that we’ve seen characters deal with addictions and movies it’s either to make us feel sympathetic to a character for how they’re going to fight off the addictions to maintain sobriety.

The cast for the new edition brought something that wasn’t in the original hellraiser. Emotion.

The original plot to hellraiser is a woman’s drive to keep the man she was having an affair with. The new plot is a woman wanting her brother back because of her actions. The accountability is the change. Something I would not think would work in a Hellraiser movie but it does. Emotions in horror films can be tricky for how it works for the plot and the drive of the characters. was so powerful that I could see these characters and other horror movies or if they were to continue on with a new series of Hellraiser movies. Everyone was completely fleshed out. (No pun intended).

But I have to admit all of that concern faded once I saw the performances of all the actors I have to admit as well that they did a better job than the original actors from the classic.

Usually performances of some new actors are subpar, but the level these actors gave was extremely professional, I didn’t expect much emotional moments from a series that doesn’t dive into a lot of emotion and concentrated on the gore and terror.

But the film still holds true to its same blueprint while also making a refreshing twist on that blueprint.

As a movie buff I did my digging into seeing who they shopped for to cast in this film. I was very surprised the majority of the cast is from TV. The actor character Trevor is from the Love, Simon films. The actor who plays Voight is from ER (Taking in the amount of gore and violence in his film, you can imagine the jokes wrote themselves about that).

There’s something to be said about the sensation that is felt during a Clive Barker story he makes you feel what those characters are feeling with the sharp objects that penetrate their skin. Those actors really did bring that to life.

The Female Pinhead

I had heard the news before the remake was released that Pinhead was going to change. Surprisingly a lot of people were OK with the character being female. This is also an achievement because not only is this the first gender change for a iconic horror character, but the actor that played the female pinhead (The Priest) is a transgender woman.

I have to say, the actress knocked it out of the park, she still brought the same enigmatic presence as Doug Bradley did.

Everything about the new pinhead is everything that we still want for the character of pinhead. A presence that is powerful, haunting, and intimidating.

Not only was the depiction and performance of the actress amazing as pinhead, but the other cenobites gave an amazing performance as well. They’re acting matched perfectly with the way that they were designed as if these cenobites were real something that needed to happen for this remake. These monsters needed to feel real and they did.

If this actress ever does any other horror movies, I’m on board.

I don’t know what the future holds for anymore Hellraiser movies but I wouldn’t mind seeing David Bruckner come back and remake any other Clive Barker stories.