In the intro some lady buys the puzzle box from someone in Serbia for a rich guy named Voight. Some time later back in the US, a kid is a at degenerate party at Voight's. He runs into the lady who tells him he can meet Voight elsewhere in the mansion. The kid goes and finds the puzzle box, which now is in a very different configuration that the one's we're used to. Voight shows up and encourages the kid to solve the puzzle. He points out that if the kid solves it he (Voight) will get a prize. The box releases a blade and punctures the kid's hand and the blood summons chains. Of course that means the end of the kid.
We meet our lead, Riley, who's a reluctant recovering addict, her boyfriend, her brother, his lover, some girl. She lives with the brother who's tired of taking care of her. The boyfriend proposes a job. They can break into an abandoned warehouse and steal whatever is there. They go and find a container inside the warehouse. Inside the container is a safe, which they have no problem opening. Inside the safe is a box, inside the box is the puzzle box, which they take, thinking it should have some value.
Riley eventually gets kicked out by her brother and she ends up taking drugs and starts messing around with the puzzle box. She starts seeing cenobites. Her brother finds her to apologize and starts messing with the box, gets cut, cenobites show up and he vanishes.
Riley makes it her mission to find her brother. She tracks down the lady from the intro who is dying in a convalescent home. She warns her of Voight and the box but ends up cutting herself with it so she gets a face to face with Pinhead. Riley joins forces with her boyfriend and the two other kids to break into Voight's mansion. Inside the mansion are secret hallways, a fancy hall with some strange roof that opens and changes shapes. It doesn't take long for the cenobites to show up but they don't want Riley, they want someone else and are welling to trade her life for a couple of others'. She also finds Voight's writings that spell out what the box is for and how it works. One of it's configurations is "resurrection" so she has hopes for her brother. The kids eventually do meet poor Voight in the hall, who indeed did get his prize. It just wasn't what he had imagined. And that's a lesson for Riley who has to figure out a way to solve the puzzle of getting out of this situation. Voight, too, gets a second chance as they all meet in the hall with the cenobites.
It's good finally see a Hellraiser movie that was made on a decent budget. The story is rich and complex as we learn new things about the power of the box. We meet new and old cenobites clad in flesh alone without leather. There's plenty of sex and gore as there should be in a Hellraiser movie. At 2 hours this movie is a bit longer than it needs to be. I'm not sure Riley makes a particularly good lead. They could have done a lot more with the Voight character, especially in the beginning, there was a lot more story there that should have been told. As to the new Pinhead...I'm not as thrilled as others pretend to be. Her voice is unremarkable and so is the character as a whole. The overly stiff delivery of her lines is a letdown, even more so of one of the signature Pinhead lines. The actress is trying too hard to impersonate the irreplaceable Bradley but without the voice acting chops. She should have instead tried to do something of her own with the character. They should really think about an evolved Pinhead character instead of a bad copy.
Overall, I'm thrilled to finally see a relatively good Hellraiser movie. Still would like to see a re-envisioned remake written and directed by Pascal Laugier though.
We meet our lead, Riley, who's a reluctant recovering addict, her boyfriend, her brother, his lover, some girl. She lives with the brother who's tired of taking care of her. The boyfriend proposes a job. They can break into an abandoned warehouse and steal whatever is there. They go and find a container inside the warehouse. Inside the container is a safe, which they have no problem opening. Inside the safe is a box, inside the box is the puzzle box, which they take, thinking it should have some value.
Riley eventually gets kicked out by her brother and she ends up taking drugs and starts messing around with the puzzle box. She starts seeing cenobites. Her brother finds her to apologize and starts messing with the box, gets cut, cenobites show up and he vanishes.
Riley makes it her mission to find her brother. She tracks down the lady from the intro who is dying in a convalescent home. She warns her of Voight and the box but ends up cutting herself with it so she gets a face to face with Pinhead. Riley joins forces with her boyfriend and the two other kids to break into Voight's mansion. Inside the mansion are secret hallways, a fancy hall with some strange roof that opens and changes shapes. It doesn't take long for the cenobites to show up but they don't want Riley, they want someone else and are welling to trade her life for a couple of others'. She also finds Voight's writings that spell out what the box is for and how it works. One of it's configurations is "resurrection" so she has hopes for her brother. The kids eventually do meet poor Voight in the hall, who indeed did get his prize. It just wasn't what he had imagined. And that's a lesson for Riley who has to figure out a way to solve the puzzle of getting out of this situation. Voight, too, gets a second chance as they all meet in the hall with the cenobites.
It's good finally see a Hellraiser movie that was made on a decent budget. The story is rich and complex as we learn new things about the power of the box. We meet new and old cenobites clad in flesh alone without leather. There's plenty of sex and gore as there should be in a Hellraiser movie. At 2 hours this movie is a bit longer than it needs to be. I'm not sure Riley makes a particularly good lead. They could have done a lot more with the Voight character, especially in the beginning, there was a lot more story there that should have been told. As to the new Pinhead...I'm not as thrilled as others pretend to be. Her voice is unremarkable and so is the character as a whole. The overly stiff delivery of her lines is a letdown, even more so of one of the signature Pinhead lines. The actress is trying too hard to impersonate the irreplaceable Bradley but without the voice acting chops. She should have instead tried to do something of her own with the character. They should really think about an evolved Pinhead character instead of a bad copy.
Overall, I'm thrilled to finally see a relatively good Hellraiser movie. Still would like to see a re-envisioned remake written and directed by Pascal Laugier though.