This was a really fun experience taking the franchise into more confident scripting and direction.
In this take, the Cenobites answer the call of their puzzle box, but every time the box is solved, a blade emerges to confirm the victim by taking the blood of the solver. Whoever is marked by the configuration will be claimed by the Cenobites, but if it is not the solver, they proceed to witness the next configuration. Six cube faces, six configurations, and six lives claimed for the original solver will grant them an audience with the Leviathan god where they may take one of the six boons offered, represented by each configuration. Here, the "Lament configuration" is the box form which is the first of the six stages.
With this, struggling addict Riley comes across the box on a heist with her boyfriend. Not cut by the box, her brother is instead marked and taken, and the Cenobites haunt Riley. She wrestles with losing more lives for her to get her wish for her brother restored— keeping the human sacrifice element of older films as a part of the Cenobites' game instead of a process to defy them. The ritual process and pursuit of the gift is framed as a dangerous addiction to parallel Riley's struggles, and the story shows the collateral damage and warped morality of addiction well with the ritual game being alluring but wrong.
The film is visually strong. The puzzle box's solving processes are depicted more intuitively, while its transformations are able to be more elaborate. The Cenobites are beautifully grotesque, trading leather for bare flesh and muscle. Jamie Clayton is magnetic as the Priest/Pinhead, and the Cenobites are rightly staged as uncanny and holy in their menace. They feel inhuman and worthy of awe, even if the film doesn't frame their eroticism quite as much.
The drama is mixed. No one seems to like each other even as they express care, so it's hard to latch on, and the slasher formula is a little odd but wears okay due to it landing on Riley. There are later twists that seem to exist purely for her moral absolution, and a lot collides in the ending, but the film still succeeds with the idea of Riley wearing her responsibility, standing for her owning the damage she caused even before. Under the addiction lens, it's fair that there's something greater to blame. I also respected the movie for interrogating its own rules in a scenario where a loophole is prodded successfully to the heroes' advantage. It was a smart moment that felt satisfying. I liked these new Cenobites as gift-givers with painful requirements and a different sense of reward. It worked for their sense of menace and the hero's victory. I also liked the mansion with Artemis Fowl-esque preparation for them. This is good ritual horror.
I had a good time with this film. It felt like unfolding a mystery even to those who know this franchise, and the wait for the Cenobites wasn't dull, even though they remain a highlight.
Hellraiser, exquisitely distilled.
This was a really fun experience taking the franchise into more confident scripting and direction.
In this take, the Cenobites answer the call of their puzzle box, but every time the box is solved, a blade emerges to confirm the victim by taking the blood of the solver. Whoever is marked by the configuration will be claimed by the Cenobites, but if it is not the solver, they proceed to witness the next configuration. Six cube faces, six configurations, and six lives claimed for the original solver will grant them an audience with the Leviathan god where they may take one of the six boons offered, represented by each configuration. Here, the "Lament configuration" is the box form which is the first of the six stages.
With this, struggling addict Riley comes across the box on a heist with her boyfriend. Not cut by the box, her brother is instead marked and taken, and the Cenobites haunt Riley. She wrestles with losing more lives for her to get her wish for her brother restored— keeping the human sacrifice element of older films as a part of the Cenobites' game instead of a process to defy them. The ritual process and pursuit of the gift is framed as a dangerous addiction to parallel Riley's struggles, and the story shows the collateral damage and warped morality of addiction well with the ritual game being alluring but wrong.
The film is visually strong. The puzzle box's solving processes are depicted more intuitively, while its transformations are able to be more elaborate. The Cenobites are beautifully grotesque, trading leather for bare flesh and muscle. Jamie Clayton is magnetic as the Priest/Pinhead, and the Cenobites are rightly staged as uncanny and holy in their menace. They feel inhuman and worthy of awe, even if the film doesn't frame their eroticism quite as much.
The drama is mixed. No one seems to like each other even as they express care, so it's hard to latch on, and the slasher formula is a little odd but wears okay due to it landing on Riley. There are later twists that seem to exist purely for her moral absolution, and a lot collides in the ending, but the film still succeeds with the idea of Riley wearing her responsibility, standing for her owning the damage she caused even before. Under the addiction lens, it's fair that there's something greater to blame. I also respected the movie for interrogating its own rules in a scenario where a loophole is prodded successfully to the heroes' advantage. It was a smart moment that felt satisfying. I liked these new Cenobites as gift-givers with painful requirements and a different sense of reward. It worked for their sense of menace and the hero's victory. I also liked the mansion with Artemis Fowl-esque preparation for them. This is good ritual horror.
I had a good time with this film. It felt like unfolding a mystery even to those who know this franchise, and the wait for the Cenobites wasn't dull, even though they remain a highlight.