The Hellraiser series is one of those horror series that went completely downhill after the first two movies and never regained the quality it once had…until now. Hellraiser (2022) is the eleventh film of the franchise it serves as a reboot and when I mean reboot I mean a HARD reboot. It changes quite a lot from the original it keeps a lot of the main idea of the series but changes it into a more slasher like film (sure it can be argued that the series is a slasher series but this one there’s no denying it is) which the film completely nails. First off Odessa A’zion is absolutely fantastic here, she gives such a strong and hard hitting performance that really builds her character quite well, Jamie Clayton gives a hauntingly beautiful performance as Pinhead, she takes the character and makes it her own while keeping the haunting atmosphere that Doug Bradley’s version of the character had, she truly steps up the series and brings back the atmosphere of the character that’s been missing in the last several movies. David Bruckner does a wonderful job in the director’s chair the same techniques he used to make The Night House so haunting as well as beautiful are applied here, he truly knows how to create an atmosphere that’s both haunting and beautiful, while making the characters matter a lot more. It’s a night and day difference between the characters in this film and the ones from the last several movies. The ones in this movie have development and are actually very well written (outside of Nora), they have goals and character arcs as well. The characters in the last several movies are just there to be killed off or aren’t very interesting at all. Riley (Odessa A’zion) is such a well written character that there are a handful of scenes that are genuinely touching. The cinematography although at times is a bit too dark, is for the most part very well done and again captures the atmosphere of the original film. Overall Hellraiser (2022) is not only the best film of the franchise since the first two movies, it’s a genuinely really strong film that I do hope we see a follow up soon!

Hellraiser is available on Hulu.

9/10 A