Whispers surrounding a remake of gruesome 1987 franchise-starter Hellraiser have been haunting Hollywood now for 15 years, indicative not just of how generally onerous these things can be to get off the ground but also of a certain tone that feels so other in today’s horror landscape. The original, based on Clive Barker’s novella The Hellbound Heart, was a nasty little nightmare steeped in hokey lore yet taken with stone-faced seriousness, a tale of sadomasochistic monsters using a puzzle box to torture curious minds and bodies. While the genre might be more prolific and profitable now than it was back then or arguably ever has been, it’s also deceptively restrictive, audiences rushing out only to see a limited set of boogeymen do a limited set of horrible things.
Something like Hellraiser has become the kind of hard R-rated horror that’s been relegated to the outer limits, the niche genre-only streaming services that put fandom first and everyone else last. It’s curious then to see the reimagining pop up on Disney-owned Hulu with a robust budget and glossy sheen, and even curiouser to find that it’s just as gory and just as committed to its unhinged world-building as the films that have come before. It doesn’t always work, and at times it really really doesn’t, but it feels confident and unfettered in a way that so many horror films don’t these days.
