Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for the new Hellraiser on Hulu. Proceed at your own risk.

When a new Hellraiser film was first announced, fans were justifiably skeptical. The franchise is notorious for its absolutely abominable sequels, and with announcements that the latest entry was going direct to Hulu and that original Pinhead Doug Bradley wouldn’t be involved, it only made the sense of dread worse. There was hope, however, in the choice for the film’s director. David Bruckner was coming off back-to-back horror hits with 2017’s The Ritual and 2020’s The Night House. If anyone could get the franchise back on track, he seemed to be the man for the job.

In many ways, Bruckner’s final product delivers. Much of 2022’s Hellraiser works by recognizing the impact and the nostalgia of the original without leaning into it. This isn’t a remake but an original concept with its own ideas. The casting of a woman, Jamie Clayton, as the new Pinhead was of course met with some criticism by those who hate any type of change, but the gamble worked out. Clayton looks scary as Pinhead and plays the role with a sense of fear-inducing confidence. The design of the other Cenobites is disgusting in the best way possible. The score is on point, the cinematography is strong. There is only one big flaw holding the film back: the protagonists are despicable.

hellraiser
Image via Hulu

The best horror films work not by falling into the usual tropes, or relying on more gore and jump scares, but by their ability to make you invest in and care about its characters. Look at classics like Halloween or Scream for example. Sure, they both fall into the final girl trope, but their heroines are likable. You root for them and want them to live. It’s why decades later, Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode and Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott are so well-loved.

That doesn’t mean every character in a horror film has to be wholesome. Laurie and Sidney both had friends with more edge. They could be selfish and mean, but we still loved them because, while they were more well-rounded depictions of how real people can be, they were still good people who cared about the others in their lives. We didn’t want to see Annie (Nancy Loomis) attacked by Michael Myers in her car. We didn’t want to see Tatum (Rose McGowan) be brutally murdered in the garage by Ghostface. With the new Hellraiser, every character, from the lead to the supporting cast, is awful.

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The original Hellraiser had a lot of awful characters that you wanted to see die, but intentionally so. The protagonists, mainly Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton, were both complex and likable. You witness the events through her eyes. You’re pulled into her life and you root for her to make it. That’s not the case in the new iteration. That flaw hurts what is otherwise a fine film, for a villain is only scary if we care about the protagonists. Otherwise, it’s just a brainless slasher flick. Look at the Friday the 13th films of the 80s. Most of the characters were flat cartoon characters, cut and pasted from each movie. Outside of the final girl, we rooted for Jason, fascinated to see what inventive way he might dispatch of some stupid teenager next. While that made Jason Voorhees fun, it didn’t make him scary.

Jamie Clayton's Pinhead
Image via Hulu

There’s a lot more going on here than a cookie cutter Friday the 13th film, but still it falls into the same trap. The main protagonist in 2022’s Hellraiser is Riley, played by Odessa A’zion. The actress gives a good performance. Her acting is not at all to blame for any failures. The problem is that she gave a good performance of an unlikable character. We’re first introduced to her in a sex scene (a usual no-no for introducing your horror heroine). We quickly discover that Riley is a recovering drug addict. Her new boyfriend Trevor (Drew Starkey) is supposedly a recovering one, but he isn’t, and Riley does nothing to try to stop him from using.

The audience is then shown that Riley is living with her brother, Matt (Brandon Flynn). He is a good brother. He cares about his sister, giving her a place to live, while also denouncing her choice in men and demanding that she do better. He’s not mean about it though. Matt is constantly checking in on Riley, asking if she’s okay.

Having Riley be a down-and-out drug addict isn’t necessarily the issue. Audiences are too smart for the played out virginal good girl routine by now. Jane Levy’s character of Mia in the successful 2013 remake of Evil Dead is a heroin addict, but we feel for her and want her to get better because we’re shown the good person that she is underneath. We don’t get that with Riley. She bickers with her brother, taking advantage of his generosity and failing to try to be a better person, until he finally snaps and kicks her out. On top of that, she’s a thief. Trevor persuades her to break into a warehouse and steal what turns out to be the infamous puzzle box. We know what’s going to happen, but we don’t feel sorry for her or Trevor. They’re drug-addled thieves with no conscience. They did it to themselves. At this point, we’re just waiting for Pinhead to show up.

hellraiser
Image via Hulu

There are two other cast mates that get a lot of screen time in this film. We have Matt’s boyfriend, Colin (Adam Faison) and their roommate, Nora (Aoife Hinds). Neither are as annoying and frustrating to watch as Riley and Trevor, but their characters are paper thin. Colin is shown to be supportive of Matt, and good for him, but that’s about it. Nora only seems there to be another wheel and later victim. When you put the four together they have zero chemistry or camaraderie. All they do is bicker and complain until you just want them to shut up and die already.

What brings the four together is another flaw. Early on in the film, Riley of course opens the box, but it’s not her that is taken by the Cenobites, rather her brother Matt. While this may have been done because it’s the catalyst needed to make Riley grow, it also comes by sacrificing the film’s only likable character. Hellraiser would have been better off somehow having Riley and Matt fight together. When Matt dies, and we see who we’re left with, it’s hard to not just check out, looking down at our phones until Pinhead arrives.

David Bruckner is a very smart filmmaker. Odds are that he purposely made the protagonists different from what we’re used to in horror films. That’s a commendable decision, but what is forgotten is that you still have to have something, anything, to cling on to that makes you cheer for the supposed heroes. Hellraiser fails at that. Sure, in the end we’re left with the effective theme of regret and how sometimes the only choice is to live with the mistakes we’ve made, but still, that message needs to be made with characters that have a redeeming value. If we’re not invested in what happens to them, then we’re just waiting around to watch them be ripped apart while we cheer for the gory way in which they died.

In the end, a horror villain is only as strong as its heroes. We shouldn’t want to cheer for the villain when they appear. It should be a moment of dread when Pinhead shows up on the scene, rather than one of excitement. Despite the best of intentions though, that’s what Hellraiser gives us.