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The new Hellraiser is okay.

I watched the new Hellraiser movie. As the title of this post suggests, it is… okay.

The first two Hellraiser movies are great. The first one is is a stone cold classic while the second makes up for some uneven storytelling and plotting by being just straight-up bonkers from beginning to end. I don’t mind the third movie (although the Cenobite who shoots compact disks out of his body is rather silly), and I even have a soft spot in my heart for the Alan Smithee joint that is Hellraiser: Bloodline; it is not good, but I can appreciate what they were aiming for.

After that, the series takes a hard turn into forgettable garbage that is not even worth talking about.

This new one is mostly fine. The people involved clearly seem to give a shit. The story skips around a bit, but the performances are good and the film makers have invested time and money at a level that has been missing from the last bunch of movies.

Mostly, it feels like just any other horror movie. The first two movies were like pretty much nothing else that had been made at the time. Sure—there’s the gore, but I think an under-appreciated aspect of the early installments—especially the first movie—is how grimy and filthy they are. Everyone is sweaty and dirty throughout the film, and it is shot in a way that makes it seem like there is a permanent layer of caked-on slime covering the lens. You come away from it feeling disgusting and dirty.

Anyway, this new one okay and I have no major complaints about it. If you’re into horror, it’s not a waste of time.

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