Hellraiser: A Tale of Two Movies
I finally caught the 2022 Hellraiser on Hulu. The first thing you notice is the Cenobite leader. In the original, Doug Bradley gave us that gravelly voice and unmistakable silhouette. The remake presents the lead Cenobite as female, which might seem like a departure until you remember that in Clive Barker's original novella, "The Hellbound Heart," the character was gender-neutral with a feminine voice. Hulu isn't rewriting anything. They're going back to the source.
The 1987 script was tight. Barker wrote dialogue that stuck with you, and the setting had this grimy, claustrophobic quality that made everything feel dangerous. The remake feels looser, more interested in spectacle than tension. They kept some of the original lines ("We have such sights to show you") but the new material doesn't land the same way.
The characters are where the remake really loses me. In the original, you had Frank's greed, Julia's obsession, Kirsty's desperate survival instinct. Flawed people making terrible choices. The remake's characters are harder to care about because we never really get to know them. Horror works better when you're invested in who might die.
One thing the new film does well is expand the puzzle box mythology. Six configurations, each representing a different outcome: Lament, Lore, Lauderant, Liminal, Lazarus, and Leviathan. It gives the box more weight than just being a creepy prop.
Christopher Young's score
Christopher Young had already scored "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2" before Hellraiser, but this was the one that defined his career in horror. The music isn't just atmosphere. It's doing actual work, carrying emotional weight that the visuals alone couldn't.
The original score blends gothic orchestration with something almost romantic. The main theme sounds like a lullaby from somewhere you shouldn't go. The strings don't just create tension; they seem to mourn. It's a score that understands the Cenobites aren't simply monsters. They're offering something. The music captures that seduction.
The remake wisely incorporates Young's themes rather than starting from scratch. Those melodies return, connecting the films in a way the script doesn't quite manage. It's the right call. You don't improve on that score; you just try not to ruin it.
The mythology
This is where the remake frustrated me most. The Cenobites aren't generic demons. In Barker's mythology, they're former humans, transformed by their own desires into something that exists where pain and pleasure blur together. They don't hunt people. They answer summons. The box calls to certain kinds of seekers, and the Cenobites are bound to respond.
Each Cenobite was once a person who solved the puzzle and made a choice. That's what makes them interesting. They're not evil for its own sake. They're the logical conclusion of a certain kind of hunger.
The Lament Configuration itself has a backstory. A toymaker named Lemarchand built it, supposedly under demonic influence, as a bridge between worlds. In the original film, the box is mysterious. We don't know exactly what it is or where it came from, and that uncertainty is part of the horror. You're afraid of what you don't understand.
The remake had a chance to explore this mythology. Instead, it mostly uses the Cenobites as elaborate slashers. They look great. The production design is impressive. But they've lost some of the philosophical weight that made the originals disturbing rather than just gross.
The original Hellraiser is scary because of what the Cenobites represent: the consequences of wanting too much, of seeking experience beyond what you can handle. The remake is scary because things with pins in their heads show up and kill people. That's a meaningful difference.
The 2022 version has its moments. The expanded puzzle box mythology is genuinely interesting. The production values are high. But it feels polished where the original felt dangerous. The 1987 film had this low-budget grime that made everything seem real and wrong. The remake is slick. Slick isn't what Hellraiser should be.
