If you've seen movies like Don't Breathe and The Collector then you're familiar with the trope of thieves getting more than they bargained for, and so the setup here will come as no surprise. Hellraiser opens in an abandoned Serbian city, where a woman clandestinely meets with a man to turn over the obligatory briefcase full of money for a mystery box. Most of us born before 1990 will know just what's contained in this box before it is revealed some minutes later. The woman (Hiam Abbass of Succession) is charged with bringing said box back to her employer, a reclusive billionaire who resides in an unrealistically large and gothic mansion that has taken a page or two out of the 13 Ghosts playbook. Slightly similar to the original 1989 version, the discontent billiionaire has seen and done it all, and so he calls upon the puzzle box to sate his thirst for supernaturally heightened pleasure. The film doesn't immediately show us the results of his quest for fulfillment, but quickly turns to the heroine of the story.
This film stars Odessa A'zion as Riley, a small girl with a street-urchin type scrappiness that lets the audience know when the time comes there's no way she's going down without a fight. Riley has a troubled history, and her older brother won't let her forget it. Her struggles make her sympathetic and her spunk makes it easy for the audience to root for her right away. So when Riley comes to acquire the puzzle box through the "thieves got more than they bargained for" setup the audience is already rooting for her to win.
At a 2 hr runtime this film is on the longer side, and for the first 50 minutes or so you feel it. It doesn't start to pick up full steam until around the 1:00 hour mark. It's worth the wait however for the Cenobites to make their first full-fledged appearance. They've gotten a bit of a revamp from the 80's black leather, but are no less imposing. The costume and makeup design lend them an alien-type air but it absolutely works. Pinhead is played by a female actor this time around. And while she does have a male voiceover, she is just as visually captivating as the original Pinhead played by Doug Bradley. There is an ethereal quality to the androgyny of the character that may even make it more menacing than the original.
Riley spends the better part of the 2 hours attempting to save a person who I won't spoil here, and must unwrap the mystery of the puzzle box in the process. The ensuing action can only be described as simply entertaining. The film is just fun, it's creative where it needs to be, it offers up some great kill scenes (which, let's face it, is what we're here for isn't it?), and maintains the spirit of the 1987 film. The ending scene actually has implications that are larger than the 2 hours of story that preceded it, and could make for another film on it's own. Anyway it's probably nostalgia that prevents me from rating this higher than the 1987 version, so I will just wrap this by saying that I was in no way disappointed. It's not a classic but it achieves what it set out to do in a way that will meet the expectations of fans of the franchise.
This film stars Odessa A'zion as Riley, a small girl with a street-urchin type scrappiness that lets the audience know when the time comes there's no way she's going down without a fight. Riley has a troubled history, and her older brother won't let her forget it. Her struggles make her sympathetic and her spunk makes it easy for the audience to root for her right away. So when Riley comes to acquire the puzzle box through the "thieves got more than they bargained for" setup the audience is already rooting for her to win.
At a 2 hr runtime this film is on the longer side, and for the first 50 minutes or so you feel it. It doesn't start to pick up full steam until around the 1:00 hour mark. It's worth the wait however for the Cenobites to make their first full-fledged appearance. They've gotten a bit of a revamp from the 80's black leather, but are no less imposing. The costume and makeup design lend them an alien-type air but it absolutely works. Pinhead is played by a female actor this time around. And while she does have a male voiceover, she is just as visually captivating as the original Pinhead played by Doug Bradley. There is an ethereal quality to the androgyny of the character that may even make it more menacing than the original.
Riley spends the better part of the 2 hours attempting to save a person who I won't spoil here, and must unwrap the mystery of the puzzle box in the process. The ensuing action can only be described as simply entertaining. The film is just fun, it's creative where it needs to be, it offers up some great kill scenes (which, let's face it, is what we're here for isn't it?), and maintains the spirit of the 1987 film. The ending scene actually has implications that are larger than the 2 hours of story that preceded it, and could make for another film on it's own. Anyway it's probably nostalgia that prevents me from rating this higher than the 1987 version, so I will just wrap this by saying that I was in no way disappointed. It's not a classic but it achieves what it set out to do in a way that will meet the expectations of fans of the franchise.
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