I was actually looking forward to this. There was some buzz around a bright, new Hellraiser reboot. The early critical reactions shed light on the painfully-disappointing reboot.
I have to agree with the critical sentiment. Hellraiser‘s a dull, lazy, clichéd, watered-down version of what we saw with the original film.
I appreciate certain modern approaches the writers took with the characters and storytelling. I have no issue whatsoever with a transgender actress playing the protagonist Pinhead or the fact that there were openly gay characters around the central story.
These additions are a welcomed inclusion.
I wish there’s an effort to actually write interesting characters around this approach that allow the audience to connect with them. I could not care less about any of these characters. They were boring and flat.
So many aspects around characterization were clichéd and reflective of things I’ve seen a million times in the horror genre. Even the exploration of Pinhead and the Cenobites was really lazy. The subpar writing translated perfectly to relatively lackluster acting.
The original 1987 Hellraiser was more than a horror film. The darkly romantic undertones elevated it to unique heights making it a classic in the genre.
The industry today is able to get lazy because modern audiences are satisfied by simplicity. That’s what I kept feeling as I watched this film. This is easily one of the biggest disappointments I’ve experienced in 2022.
At a running timer of 2 hours, Hellraiser is much longer than it needed to be. They could’ve easily told the story in 90 minutes. Would this help the film? Not necessarily. But it would’ve made the disappointing experience go by just a bit faster.
Quite frankly, the original 1987 film is a classic that should have remained untouched. Doug Bradley, the original Pinhead, turned down the chance to have a cameo in the reboot. I can see why he refused the cameo now.
Bradley stated that there was no need to reboot this. I feel he looked at the script and realized how lazy and subpar it all really was.
Evan when the film has a chance to show what happens to characters who’ve unlocked the lament configuration, Hellraiser disappoints viewers with more lazy, watered-down retellings of the events seen in previous films.
The only problem here’s that the production forgot this was a chance to retell the story in a new light. They had a realistic opportunity to revamp the franchise, and failed miserably. Hellraiser is easily one of the most disappointing films of 2022.
