# Hellraiser

Canonical: https://planetofthecapes.co.uk/movie/hellraiser/
Entity type: review
Last modified: 2026-09-30T18:07:52+00:00

## Description

Hellraiser has never really been a franchise that needed protecting from new ideas. Clive Barker's original creation was strange, sexual, grotesque and deliberately difficult to pin down, then the films spent decades stretching that mythology in all sorts of directions. Some worked wonderfully. Some wandered so far from Barker that you wondered whether somebody had found Pinhead wandering around another script and quickly stapled him into it. That history is partly why Hellraiser 2022 works so well for me. I don't see David Bruckner's film as an attempt to replace Barker's original, Doug Bradley or the mythology built around those earlier films. It feels like somebody has opened another door into the same horrible universe. There are new rules, different interpretations and an entirely new group of people unfortunate enough to start fiddling with a box they really should have left alone. Yet it still feels comfortably like Hellraiser. Our way into this version is Riley, played by Odessa A'zion, a young woman struggling with addiction whose involvement in the theft of an unusual puzzle box rapidly turns into something considerably worse than a bad decision made for quick money. The box begins changing configuration, people start disappearing and Riley discovers there are beings waiting on the other side who take an extremely literal approach to the idea of reward and suffering. A'zion gives the film exactly the sort of lead it needs. Riley isn't Kirsty Cotton rebuilt for a new generation and she doesn't need to be. She's messy, frequently frustrating and capable of making decisions that have consequences for everyone around her. That gives this Hellraiser its own human story rather than spending two hours rearranging furniture from the 1987 film. It also makes the film remarkably easy to enter cold. You don't need to know who Elliott Spencer was. You don't need a working knowledge of Leviathan, the Labyrinth or whatever increasingly creative reason one of the later sequels found for getting Pinhead involved. If Hellraiser 2022 is the first time you've ever seen that box, the film gives you everything required to understand why opening it is generally a poor lifestyle choice. For existing fans, however, there is considerably more going on. The Hell Priest changes, and that is absolutely fine Doug Bradley's Pinhead is an icon. There isn't much point pretending otherwise. The voice, the stillness, the immaculate delivery and that astonishing original design became so closely associated with Hellraiser that for a long time the character essentially became the franchise mascot. Trying to recreate Bradley would therefore have been the worst possible move. Jamie Clayton doesn't. Her Hell Priest has a different presence altogether. Clayton is quieter, almost graceful, and carries the strange composure of something that isn't particularly angry with you because anger would imply this was personal. There is curiosity there, ritual and a horrible certainty about how all this works. When the Priest explains something, you get the feeling the rules were written a very long time ago and arguing the small print probably isn't going to help. I particularly like this because of how easily it fits my interpretation of Hellraiser mythology. I have never had a problem with the idea that Pinhead, or preferably the Hell Priest, can be treated as a position rather than one permanently fixed individual. Elliott Spencer occupied that role. Now another entity does. That doesn't diminish Bradley's version. If anything, it gives the mythology room to breathe. Once you stop requiring every Hellraiser story to eventually circle back to the same man with the same pins, there is an enormous amount of territory available. Different Priests. Different Cenobites. Different interpretations of sensation, punishment, desire and whatever passes for administration in the Labyrinth. Clayton makes that idea work because her performance has its own identity. She isn't wearing somebody else's costume. The wider Cenobite redesign is e

## Image

https://planetofthecapes.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/f9ZAIUxTTk23vo1BC9Ur1Rx5c2E.webp

## Short Description

Young Riley, struggling with addiction, comes into possession of a very bad little puzzle box and discovers that every new configuration brings her closer to the Cenobites. David Bruckner’s Hellraiser opens Barker’s door again with new rules, new flesh and a formidable new Hell Priest.

## Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUlgwJNdu2I