Hellraiser (2022) – Review

Belgrade, Serbia: A darkly clothed woman named Serena Menaker walks through the worn graffitied streets, and exchanges a case for a small wooden box, which a gentleman tells her that “it’s not to be taken lightly.” This woman is purchasing something for her rich employer, Roland Voight (Visnjic), and opens to check it. She pauses as she sees what is inside.

Berkshire, Massachusetts: A sex party in a mansion proves to be an exciting place for Joey, who meets Serena. She tells Joey to go through some double doors in 10 minutes, and maybe he will even be lucky enough to meet the host of the party, the mysterious Voight. Joey eventually does as told, and looks for Serena, finding a strange and meticulous room through the double doors, as if a museum of pieces.

Here, Joey spies a strange puzzle box looking device. He is drawn to it, and touches it almost immediately, picking it up and playing with it. GENIUS level stuff here. Voight comes down to greet him, and an awkward conversation is had. Joey asks what the strange device is, and Voight replies it’s a puzzle, and the only one of its kind. Forgotten, until now, and it’s almost finished. Keep going!

Joey clicks a few more pieces into place to “solve” it, and gets his prize. Or maybe Voight gets it. Does anyone really win in these movies? As first blood is drawn early, this Hellraiser remake, reboot, re-whatever sets its tone, or attempts to. Nothing that really hits in this opening is a surprise, and I guess that’s the trouble with the overall movie, which is serviceable but doesn’t do too much new or interesting. Despite that, due to the quality of most all of the sequels in this long-running franchise, Hellraiser remains a decent entry and one worth checking out if you like the original.

As a full group of new characters is introduced to a situation of puzzle box gore and pinhead murders, the cast and crew do their best with the script. The actors are just fine, and the directing is sleek, but an average horror story keeps this one in a basic place. It’s hard to fully connect with the semi-thin characters who make questionable choices, and as it progresses it feels a bit by the numbers. I wanted to like this more, but it comes up a bit short compared to the original.