Hellraiser - new reimagining

[Hitcher]

Yeah, it was alright but nothing special.

[yakumo]

I found it disappointing. Maybe it's because I'm an old school purist, but I much prefer the old Cenobites. Doug Bradley's Pinhead was such a badass character. By comparison the new Pinhead is so understated, kind of cool looking, but in no way a commanding presence. There was also very little menace or mystery about the Cenobites. The way they were lit was so high-key. The film wasn't terrible, it was watchable, but the was so much advance hype I couldn't help but be underwhelmed.

[cassidy]

Yeah that wasn't a bad effort. 

 

Enjoyed it overall. 

[Hanzo the Razor]

On 20/09/2022 at 23:31, Kryptonian said:

 

I'd decided to watch the rest from 4 onwards only to fall at the first hurdle as 4 isn't available on the services I have (netflix, amazon, disney, paramount, sky) and I aren't buying the others when I suspect they are likely to be in the 'not great' category.

 

Gah

 

I have a soft spot for Hellraiser 4. It's mess but there's something about it that I was always drawn to.

[Kryptonian]

12 minutes ago, Hanzo the Razor said:

 

I have a soft spot for Hellraiser 4. It's mess but there's something about it that I was always drawn to.

Still can’t track it down but 1, 2 & 3 have been on the horror channel and I watched them all this week  

[Stig]

I was really disaapointed in this. The story was pretty by the numbers and amounted to nothing more than a slasher type film with a bunch of Gen Zs running away from the boogeymen whilst the lead spent the whole film crying. Hellraiser can offer you up the chance to do so much more, be really creative and interesting but they took the most boring and least interesting route with it, a story centred around a troubled young adult with addiction problems whose friends get taken out 1 by 1. It's just dull, lazy and overused.

 

I did appreciate that it tried to do something a little different towards the end with the lore, but the lead up to it just wasn't that good or inventive. It doesn't trust itself (and in turn doesn’t trust a modern audience) to have the outright sleaze, depravity, transgressiveness or truly horrific edge of the originals. I think they bothered more about what the Cenobites looked like than anything else.

 

The Cenobites do look great in their own way, the make-up effects are spectacular but they also look a little too clean, plastic and tidy around the edges, not nearly as dirty or gnarly as I'd like them to be. They're also badly lit, all look very similar and not very distinctive at all.

 

I was so routing for Jamie Claytons Pinhead too, but hers just doesn't just come off as menacing or threatening as Doug Bradleys at all. I don't want to compare but it's hard not too when someone it taking on the mantle of a horror icon, but this version of Pinhead just blends in with all the other Cenobites rather than being a commanding central performance. I'm all for different interpretations but this one just wasn't that memorable unfortunately.

 

Overall, it's a real shame, because this series was ripe for a retelling, but what they've done with it is pretty much what mainstream Hollywood does with all 70s/80s horror and made a modern day watered down run of the mill horror, that's also too long. Even the deaths aren't that inventive or gruesome, they're just dull.

[Anne Summers]

Out of boredom and morbid curiosity I found myself watching a livestream by Baked Alaska - a US far-right/conspiracy streamer of the same ilk as Milo Yiannapolis or Alex Jones. He was gibbering about having watched this and how it had fucked him up. The movie is evil and satanic and he was scared he'd endangered his soul by watching it ... Turns out he's a fundamentalist Christian and actually believes it's all real

[yakumo]

17 minutes ago, Anne Summers said:

Out of boredom and morbid curiosity I found myself watching a livestream by Baked Alaska - a US far-right/conspiracy streamer of the same ilk as Milo Yiannapolis or Alex Jones. He was gibbering about having watched this and how it had fucked him up. The movie is evil and satanic and he was scared he'd endangered his soul by watching it ... Turns out he's a fundamentalist Christian and actually believes it's all real

Like this dumb idiot

 

Texas mother warns parents not to let their children watch Hocus Pocus 2 over fears movie could cast spells on children and even open the gates of HELL into family homes

 

 

[Stig]

5 minutes ago, yakumo said:

Like this dumb idiot

 

Texas mother warns parents not to let their children watch Hocus Pocus 2 over fears movie could cast spells on children and even open the gates of HELL into family homes

 

 

 

Ooooooh that explains the firey sink hole in my kitchen

[Monkeyboy]

On 09/10/2022 at 01:14, Stigweard said:

I was really disaapointed in this. The story was pretty by the numbers and amounted to nothing more than a slasher type film with a bunch of Gen Zs running away from the boogeymen whilst the lead spent the whole film crying. Hellraiser can offer you up the chance to do so much more, be really creative and interesting but they took the most boring and least interesting route with it, a story centred around a troubled young adult with addiction problems whose friends get taken out 1 by 1. It's just dull, lazy and overused.

 

I did appreciate that it tried to do something a little different towards the end with the lore, but the lead up to it just wasn't that good or inventive. It doesn't trust itself (and in turn doesn’t trust a modern audience) to have the outright sleaze, depravity, transgressiveness or truly horrific edge of the originals. I think they bothered more about what the Cenobites looked like than anything else.

 

The Cenobites do look great in their own way, the make-up effects are spectacular but they also look a little too clean, plastic and tidy around the edges, not nearly as dirty or gnarly as I'd like them to be. They're also badly lit, all look very similar and not very distinctive at all.

 

I was so routing for Jamie Claytons Pinhead too, but hers just doesn't just come off as menacing or threatening as Doug Bradleys at all. I don't want to compare but it's hard not too when someone it taking on the mantle of a horror icon, but this version of Pinhead just blends in with all the other Cenobites rather than being a commanding central performance. I'm all for different interpretations but this one just wasn't that memorable unfortunately.

 

Overall, it's a real shame, because this series was ripe for a retelling, but what they've done with it is pretty much what mainstream Hollywood does with all 70s/80s horror and made a modern day watered down run of the mill horror, that's also too long. Even the deaths aren't that inventive or gruesome, they're just dull.

Agree with all of this. Considering it came from the director of The Night House added even further to my disappointment. I expected a lot better. And you’re right, the Cenobites looked far too clean and plastic. They don’t seem icky enough. I do think the film got better in the last fifteen or so minutes, but up until then the plot seemed very thin and stretched to breaking point.

 

The director didn’t really get the tone right. For example, people screaming off camera was sometimes unintentionally funny. And overall, the film was lacking in scares and atmosphere.

[sofasurfer]

15 hours ago, Stigweard said:

 

Ooooooh that explains the firey sink hole in my kitchen

Are you sure Truss' fracking has started already??

 

 

[Stig]

1 hour ago, sofasurfer said:

Are you sure Truss' fracking has started already??

 

 

Nah, I'm pretty sure this might be the hole she crawled out from.

[Harsin]

Cenobites being able to get their head stuck in a door like a dog really takes away from their menace I feel.

[DarhkFox]

Watched this tonight - it was not too bad, but pretty forgettable.

 

I do miss the general feel of the original movie but i wasn't really expecting anything like that.

[Jonnysaxc]

I started watching this but became extremely bored and stopped about halfway through. It didn’t feel like it had anything to say and was created with the same energy you would apply to something you have to do rather than want to do.

I think the original film worked because Frank(?) wanted to push the boundaries of experience “it’s never enough “ . When he is ripped apart he is at the nexus of extreme  pleasure and pain and there is an intimate relationship between the torturer(s) and their victim. They are both getting something.
then after this the films basically become stock serial killer with hooks.

Film 3 is pinhead killing first a young woman who has nothing to do with the box etc and later a whole nightclub of random people. I think this misses the entire concept of the cenobites or at least my concept of why they work. 

 

[Stevie]

A pity it turned out to be rubbish, but I'm not surprised. A reboot is rarely a labour of love, its usually just a way for a studio to spend a few pennies on a well known brand with a dedicated fanbase with the hopes of making a quick buck. The costume design/make up in Hellraiser 2021 is worse than Hellraiser 1987, and that is an impressive achievement. 

 

 

[yakumo]

On 08/11/2022 at 16:00, Stevie said:

A pity it turned out to be rubbish, but I'm not surprised. A reboot is rarely a labour of love, its usually just a way for a studio to spend a few pennies on a well known brand with a dedicated fanbase with the hopes of making a quick buck. The costume design/make up in Hellraiser 2021 is worse than Hellraiser 1987, and that is an impressive achievement. 

 

 

Feel like you're being tad harsh, the idea of the skins being the costume is great but it wasn't executed well. Everything just looked too clean for me.

[Stevie]

1 hour ago, yakumo said:

Feel like you're being tad harsh

 

If I'm harsh its because I'm biased  I love the originals since they were part of my teenage years. 

 

Spoiler

If it hadn't been, I'm sure I would prefer Hellraiser 2022.

 

Quote

the idea of the skins being the costume is great but it wasn't executed well. Everything just looked too clean for me.

 

It doesn't even resemble skin. It looks like plastic. Of course it cant be real skin(or could it?), but it must looks like real skin in order for it to have the desired effect. If not, its just pointless. The cenobites in the original has outfits that makes me think of deadly sadomasochism, while the cenobites in the reboot looks like something that could easily have been implemented in a sci-fi videogame. It wouldn't seem out of place. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also think the originals have a major advantage, and that's Doug Bradley (total man crush)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[yakumo]

Dude you're preaching to the converted, but the idea is there but just badly done but feels more Giger especially in that screenshot of her. Again totally agree that the Pinhead isn't as menacing as Doug Bradley, it's one of my issues and also...

 

Spoiler

One of the cenobites think chatter dying after being stabbed with the box, that doesn't make sense at all.