By Ryan Schreiber
Staff Writer
When “Hellraiser” came out Oct. 7 and was uploaded to Hulu, I came in with high expectations but left disappointed.
“Hellraiser” acts as a reboot in the 11-film franchise. The main character is Riley McKendry (Odessa A’zion) who is a recovering drug addict but relapses. Other characters use her addiction to belittle her.
The cast includes Trevor (Drew Starkey) who is Riley's boyfriend and is also having problems with drug addiction, and Matt McKendry (Brandon Flynn) who is Riley’s brother.
The film starts off with a woman luring a man into a room that has artifacts sealed in glass boxes placed in a circle. In the middle of that circle is the infamous puzzle box. The man is then encouraged to solve the puzzle and so he does.
A small knife pops out when the puzzle is solved, resulting in a ghastly stab wound to his hand.
The box then drinks his blood and chaos ensues. The walls open with the sound of rattling chains, signifying that we are about to witness one of the best killing methods. The chains fly out, pierce the man's body, and string him up. Then boom - off-screen kill.
The kills as well as the number of them are one of the movie's problems. Two out of the four kills - not enough for me - happen off-screen.
The movie gave me none of what I anticipated. The kill that I thought was moving in the right direction swerved badly. I was expecting the character to be skinned from head to toes but nope, only a small portion of their arm was skinned. With three terrible kills, we were gifted with a single good one.
Another thing that I disliked about this movie was the main character. I hate horror movies that have dumb main characters. How are you going to see this box take a life and then go back and still solve the puzzle? It makes no sense.
Everything that occurred in this movie is because of Riley. I did not feel bad for her when she was balling her eyes out. It’s all her fault. I felt bad for the characters that had to deal with her. She's the true villain.
Beside the horrible final survivor and lackluster kills, there are few good things to say about this movie. One of the amazing things about this film was the designs of the Cenobites. Cenobites are extra dimensional beings who rock great looks. One of the cenobites has chattering teeth, one has stitches that go through their eyelids and chains that are connected on many parts of their body, and another one has pins in the face.
Who’s the one with pins in their face? Well, that’s Pinhead, the villain in this movie. This time the character is played by Jamie Clayton, who does an amazing job playing Pinhead. She is also the first woman to play the character in the franchise.
The second and last thing I liked about this movie was the design of the box. Each time the box is solved it changes into a new configuration. After you solve the box it drinks your blood and the Cenobites come to kill you.
The movie was disappointing after eagerly waiting months to see it.
C-. A Hulu horror let down