Hulu's new "Hellraiser" tells a gruesome tale, one that ends in carnage, gore,
and explorations of the true nature of desire. It has such sights to show you.
The best stories in the "Hellraiser" universe are always exploring how far a particular person
will go to get what they want. In the case of the 2022 film, that question extends to
two different people: Riley and Mr. Voight. They both come to the legendary puzzle box
through entirely different circumstances, desiring entirely different things, and reaching entirely
different conclusions, but for most of the film, it's Riley's journey that takes center stage.
Riley finds the box amid a struggle with addiction and directionless living,
hoping that the potential riches the object might bring will turn her life around in some
way or another. What she finds instead is pain and untold horror, as she loses her brother and
finds herself at the center of a vast, terrifying secret from which she may never be able to escape.
"Our gifts are boundless."
"I don't want them."
'Yes you do."
By the end of the film, with the secrets of the box and the Cenobites it unleashes laid bare,
she has learned that this journey offers no easy answers and no magical solutions. All she can do,
the box teaches her, is surrender to its power or carve a path forward by herself.
She chooses the latter, to the Cenobites' dismay, and in the process grows as a person,
realizing that she must face her pain rather than attempt to circumvent or transform it. It's a
difficult choice, but it's the one that seemingly leaves Riley free to live life on her terms.
As Riley discovers when she stumbles upon Voight's research, the puzzle box,
called the Lament Configuration in the previous entries in the franchise, has a long,
strange history. Much like the box from the original "Hellraiser," it has a mythology built
up behind it based on decades of people seeking its wonders, but unlike that box, it has extra
layers to its various configurations. There are six in total, yielding different gifts based on
the solution. By delivering blood and souls to this version of the box, the user can reach new
levels of experience and even choose their fate when reaching the Cenobites' god, Leviathan.
This adds a certain depth to the story of the box, which is particularly clear when Riley
discovers that Voight survived his encounter with the artifact, though he was transformed
into a being in constant pain by the Cenobites. This suggests that more than one person has,
in some form, lived to tell the tale of the box and their adventures with it. And if
the right person picks up that trail, they just might find a trove of new information.
Riley leaves the box behind, suggesting she's not the person to keep investigating its secrets,
but that doesn't mean the box will be abandoned forever. If we've learned
anything from this franchise so far, someone else is bound to grow curious, activate the box,
and search for new truths about its history. What they find, and how it changes them,
seems like perfect fodder for a sequel. Because Voight survived his encounter with
Leviathan at the end of his first journey with the puzzle box, he can impart certain
information about what the Cenobites are and what they want. As he explains to Riley,
every choice the beings present to the user of the box is a "trick," a doorway to some
untold pain that varies based on the user but nevertheless always comes back to suffering.
"I sought pleasure, but all they have to give is pain."
In his quest to give back his gift, the Liminal Configuration,
which pushes his nerve endings to maximum pain at every opportunity,
Voight puts more and more people in harm's way, only to be told at the end by the Hell Priest
that there is "no retreat once a threshold has been crossed." All he can do is make an exchange.
At the Hell Priest's behest, he chooses the Leviathan Configuration, granting him the power
that his true nature was always seeking. What he doesn't know, and what the last scene reveals,
is that this means he will become a Cenobite in service to the constant pursuit of "anguish." The
film leaves us without a clear picture of Voight's Cenobite future, but it seems quite possible that
a sequel would see him standing side-by-side with the Hell Priest, working the dark magic
of the Cenobites on others. What this means for his human form, his memories, and other aspects
of the man he was, remains to be seen. As with the original "Hellraiser," we're
introduced to the lead Cenobite, popularly known as "Pinhead."
"We have such sights to show you."
In the new movie, they're known in this film as the Hell Priest. The
monster exists to fulfill their role as a servant of the puzzle box. We never learn
much about the Hell Priest's backstory. Most of what we know about the character
is from their role in the story, not how Hell Priest came to be or why.
But that doesn't mean the Hell Priest is without personality. At least twice in
the film, we see the creature react with surprise, amusement, or both,
as their order is challenged by both Voight and Riley in different ways. This suggests that
the Hell Priest, like their predecessor, is not immune to bargains, compromises,
or simply intriguing new configurations of the order they've established.
With any luck, future films could grant us some more personal, detailed look at
who and what the Hell Priest is — much as "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" does — and what
led them to choose the Leviathan Configuration and ultimately become a Cenobite. In the process,
we might learn what continues to drive this character and what, if anything,
they hope to gain from continuing to fulfill the role for all eternity.
As "Hellraiser" goes on, we get more and more insights into Voight and his years-long search
for the furthest reaches of human experience, which included turning his mansion into not
just a museum, but an elaborate puzzle box of sorts in and of itself. It's a
home filled with secret rooms, artifacts, and automated features, including a complex metal
cage that wraps around the entire structure with the flick of a few switches. Eventually,
it's revealed that the cage was designed by Voight specifically to trap the Cenobites in place,
allowing him to demand they remove his "Liminal" gift and free him from his life of constant pain.
Of course, the outside world doesn't know this, or at least they don't know it yet. Riley may
tell her story to an interested party. Perhaps the authorities will get wind of the place and
investigate. Regardless, it's likely that someone is going to make their way out to
Voight's mansion again, and they're going to find a chamber of horrors that includes the puzzle box,
still on the floor where Riley left it. What that means for the future of the box
isn't clear, but it's likely someone, somewhere, knows exactly what it is,
and what to do with it. If we've learned anything from "Hellraiser" films, it's that these sorts of
hidden places never stay hidden long, because the human pursuit of desires never ceases.
Almost everyone connected to the saga of the puzzle box in David Bruckner's "Hellraiser" dies,
one way or another, but Riley's not the only survivor of this particular story. Colin,
the devoted partner to Riley's dead brother and devoted friend to Riley herself,
also manages to survive. This is thanks to Riley's last-second decision to leave
Trevor to the Cenobites rather than let Colin die. Colin's not a major decision-maker in this story,
at least not in terms of the major moves regarding the box and the Cenobites. But
he does have a crucial role to play. Now, like Riley, he has to get on with his life.
But what does that life look like now that Colin has seen these horrors? He's clearly not intrigued
by them in the same way other characters are, but they will remain imprinted on his brain
nevertheless. It seems likely, based on the end of the film, that he'll stay at least somewhat
close to Riley, but as she attempts to live a regular life with her difficult history, what
does that mean for Colin? Will he be able to find love again? Does he have the horrible distinction,
like Voight's former associate, of being cursed by the contact he had with the box? It's not clear,
but the road forward for a guy who's been through this much won't be easy.
Though it delves into the secret of the puzzle box more than any other single previous "Hellraiser"
installment, the new "Hellraiser" film still leaves numerous questions about the box and
its magical properties unanswered. We know what it does and how it works, but there are so many other
wrinkles that future films could explore, so many dark angles within its various configurations.
The film shows us that there are loopholes within the rules of the box. For instance,
there is the revelation that Cenobites can be sacrificed as victims as users of the box
move through the various configurations. Does that mean there are other ways to summon and manipulate
Cenobites? Voight found a way to restrain them in his research, which suggests there are other
stimuli and phenomena they respond to. And there's the more straightforward question of how someone
gets such an artifact in the first place. Are there dealers out there who specifically
traffic in such things? That's a question that seems ripe for a sequel all its own.
As with "Hellbound: Hellraiser II," the new "Hellraiser" film establishes the existence
of Leviathan, a god figure the Cenobites serve, but there are a few tweaks to the
mythology this time. Leviathan, in this film, retains the look and feel that it
had in "Hellbound" but has the added power to grant wishes. These wishes exist because
now the user of the box is not automatically dragged off to hell by the Cenobites. Instead,
they're given one of a handful of choices to make as the box changes configurations.
Though the film doesn't spend all that much time exploring the depths and meaning of Leviathan,
the very existence of this being is both fascinating and ripe for deeper exploration in
potential sequels. What else does Leviathan do? Is it just as powerful as the Biblical God? Are
there other ways to summon it? How many Cenobites does it command, and where do they reside? The
ending of the film, which transforms Voight into a new Cenobite, suggests a sequel might give us
a more thorough look at this story's version of hell, and that would be a welcome journey
in this newly reinvigorated franchise. Unlike the puzzle box in previous films,
the box in the new "Hellraiser" offers more than one pathway to new experiences. As Riley
learns by going through Voight's research, the box goes through six different configurations,
and when its wielders reach the end of the puzzle, they're able to choose one of six different paths.
"Then you choose your ultimate desire. Life, knowledge, love. Sensation, power, resurrection."
We see how three of these play out in the film,
as Riley chooses Lament and Voight chooses first Liminal and then Leviathan. But as
Voight warns Riley before he makes his second choice, the consequence of every
decision is a trick by the Cenobites. All they have to offer, he cautions, is pain.
This of course begs the question: What do the other three configurations do? Riley considers
choosing Lazarus to bring her brother back from the dead but stops when she realizes
it's likely a trap. What about the other two? How far do they go in transforming a human body
into something horrific? Would their gift of knowledge transform you into a living brain
without a moment's peace? Does the gift of love shroud you in such devotion that you can never
escape the one who loves you, nor they you? These are excellent little tidbits of the
mythos and would make wonderful sequel fodder. At the end of the film, when Riley could choose
the Lazarus Configuration to potentially bring her brother back, she instead chooses to "live."
"I know my brother's gone. I don't want anything from you."
This is the "Lament Configuration." It represents a willingness to endure
the "bitter and brief" realm of human life unaugmented. It's a life that the
Cenobites believe is full of regret and mundane suffering. It seems like
the right choice at the moment, and it even makes the Cenobites return to their realm,
but in the car with Colin at the end of the film, Riley doesn't look so sure.
Colin asks her if her choice was "the right one," and she doesn't have an immediate
answer. It suggests that her addictive personality wonders what might happen
if goes back and picks up the box again. It would be so easy to take it with her,
just in case, just to see if she might like to try a different configuration one day. It might
even be worth it to get her brother back, even if he's different than he was before.
Whether she changes her mind or not, it's clear Riley will be haunted by her choice
for a very long time, and that haunting might be worth exploring in future films.