Hellraiser (2022)

Hellraiser (2022) feels like a franchise exhale: a slick, ominous revival that treats its mythology like a curse you can’t stop touching, building dread with patience and real craft. David Bruckner wraps the story in a cold, elegant atmosphere where the puzzle box isn’t just a MacGuffin but a temptation, and Odessa A’zion grounds the horror with a raw, human performance that makes the danger feel personal. When the Cenobites arrive, the film delivers on the promise of the title with striking creature design, vivid visuals, and gore that’s purposeful rather than gratuitous, crowned by Jamie Clayton’s Priest—commanding, eerie, and strangely mesmerizing. Fair warning: it’s intense, sexually charged, and unapologetically body-horror, but if you want a modern horror-thriller that’s nasty in all the right ways and genuinely well-made, this one earns your attention.

Hellraiser (2022) is clearly trying to modernize the franchise by mixing addiction-fueled desperation with slick, lore-heavy supernatural horror, and it does deliver some striking Cenobite design and nasty body-horror set pieces. The problem is it often feels like a competent reboot on autopilot: the characters are thin, the plotting is pretty conventional, and the runtime makes the middle stretch drag while it explains rules instead of building dread. If you’re hoping for the original’s transgressive, skin-crawling perversity, this one can come off more polished than truly disturbing. Worth your time if you want stylish gore and a cleaner mythology update; skip it if you need sharp character work, tight pacing, or something that feels genuinely taboo.