Summary
Horror master Clive Barker left an indelible mark on the genre. Hellraiser is his best, for my money. With a setting and lore that evokes imagery so strong that it links horror and kink forever, the film series also gave rise to one of the genre’s most iconic villains. Pinhead can be mistaken for nothing else but true terror and is the main reason why the films continue to be made as recently as 2022.
The biggest vote of horror confidence might be that Pinhead is also a playable villain inDead by Daylight. That’smostlyimpressive company–AMC’s The Walking Dead is the latest addition to the game.
I’m not a big horror guy, but the combination of blood, fetish, unique afterlife lore, and captivating monster designs has always made loving Hellraiser easy for me. Much like how the film’s victims discover something dark and hidden within themselves, so too do I feel its themes touch on something hungrier and darker within myself. It’s the same reason whyextreme horror novels are all the rage on TikTok: a way to experience something fully outside our norms.
Still, therecent announcement and reveal of Hellraiser: Revival– a single-player, first-person narrative descent into Barker’s dark world of sharp objects and moaning – seems way too good to be true. The announcement came as a shock, as did the fact that developer Saber Interactive is shirking all the tried-and-true genre methods of a live-service or multiplayer experience.
A solo, story-driven adventure where I’ll take on Pinhead? What’s the catch? If Hellraiser has taught me anything, it’s that no pleasures come for free.
Hellraiser: Revival And The Horror Problem
Games based on horror IPs are awful, more often than not. Even Dead By Daylight, for all its success, really only works because it’s taken that Fortnite approach to smushing known entities into its game. Other titles starring horror icons have never fared well. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Blair Witch Project, Evil Dead, Friday The 13th, SAW, and more have all dipped their bloody toes into gaming waters.
In fairness, those games are all scary… Scary bad – to me at least. Chainsaw and the now-defunct Friday the 13th all reviewed well but weren’t my cup of tea. I still think about the Friday The 13th NES game sometimes and shudder. What makes Saber Interactive think that Hellraiser: Revival will fare better?
The approach is new and one of the aspects of this game that looks like a positive sign. The team working with Clive Barker himself is also a major check in the ‘pro’ column.
I’ll admit, the premise and setup for the game are alluring. You’ll play Aiden, your typical horror film protagonist who gets a little too frisky with girlfriend Sunny and a spooky puzzle box we all know and love. Suddenly, Cenobites appear and Pinhead whisks Aiden’s girlfriend away into the bargain they unknowingly took upon. And if you saw the Redband trailer, then you know to expect a lot of blood. And nudity.
I’m not a prude, but it was somewhat shocking to be presented with a digital naked woman, mid-coitus, in a video game trailer.
You’ll venture deep into the depths of Leviathan with a puzzle box in hand, a new configuration in the series called Genesis that acts as a weapon and source of power. All of that makes for a fantastic elevator pitch for a video game.
What about in practice?
Horror Isn’t Always Fun
I’m weary of games that lead to nudity and gore as a first impression. WillHellraiser: Revivalbe more than just titillation? Plenty of games in this genre have attempted to make their way with expansive gameplay and a terrifying atmosphere. The 2022 survival horror game Scorn featured a fantastic world inspired by the works ofH.R. Giger, but ultimately it wasn’t enough of a game for me to want to finish the journey.
Like most games of this type, frustration tends to remove any and all aspects of horror. You’re then left with something that frustrates more than appetizes. For all that I respect and admireP.T., the proto-Silent Hill demo byHideo Kojimasuffers from a similar problem. The experience made a fantastic first impression. But by the time you’ve circled those halls for the 40th time because you don’t know how to trigger the ending?
Far less scary.
Likewise, going too far into the action end of the pool removes all the agency of the player existing in a horror setting. I don’t want Aiden to slowly turn into a heroic, ass-kicking slayer of cenobites. What makes Hellraiser fascinating as a series is the perseverance and weakness of the human condition. Pinhead has power, not because he’s strong, but because humans are weak.
If that power exchange gets thrown out the door just so I can shoot lasers out of the Genesis Configuration, then Hellraiser: Revival will stop being the thing I signed up for in the first place.
Perhaps the biggest worry I have about this game is the simplest (and most likely) road bump: the story might just end up bad. As much as I’ve talked up the Hellraiser series so far, it has far more misses than hits in its 40-year history. The last thing even remotely Hellraiser-centric that I loved was theoften forgotten and potentially-not-canon 2011 Hellraiser comic from publisher Boom. Using canon from past films, this long-running story arc shows what happens when Pinhead gets replaced as the head priest of hell by his first major victim, Kristy Cotton. I cannot recommend this comic enough, but it’s one of the only recent successes for Hellraiser as a series.
Can Hellraiser: Revival overcome the odds and create a satisfying yet accurate experience? The trailer piqued my interest, but only getting my hands on the final product would allow me to test my own mettle.
But I want to believe. I yearn for the puzzle box to click together once more, open the door, and show me the sights I so dearly crave yet never speak aloud.
