So, I just finished watching the new Hellraiser movie and it was okay at best. The best thing about it, by far, is the design of the Cenobites. The story is passable but really nothing to praise. There's a lot of time spent on character development, which bogs down the first half of the movie. Also, for all the fuss that was made about having a brand new Pinhead, the character really wasn't that prevalent, which might rub a few fans the wrong way. Indeed, another Cenobite (The Gasp) spends at least as much, if not more, time in the limelight than Pinhead. There are also a few odd character choices towards the end of the movie that really seemed to be choices of the script writer rather than the characters. By that I mean that the writer wanted certain events to happen, and so the characters overlook easy answers to their problems, thus we end up with the characters making rather silly choices or overlooking obvious things that they could do. I can't go in to much further details without spoilers, but it is extremely noticeable that there is an ending that could have happened and was completely ignored because the writer wanted certain outcomes for certain characters. Also, the motivation of one of the characters is extremely flimsy given the circumstances of what's going on in the movie. Another letdown is the fact that there really isn't much horror in the movie despite it being a reboot of an iconic horror franchise. A lot of stuff happens off screen and, while we obviously can't see everything, a reboot of a gory horror franchise, that almost refuses to show you several death scenes, is a little weird to say the least. As a matter of fact, I would hesitate to label this as a horror movie. It's almost a drama with some supernatural/spooky stuff going on. With that being said, it is much better than several of the Hellraiser sequels that were more than a little disappointing in the past. I'm not sure I'll watch it again, but I can say that if you're a fan of the franchise it does deserve a watch. Just make sure you temper your expectations, because the movie leaves a bit to be desired in several ways.

As far as wokeness goes, it's not terrible, although there are a few moments in the beginning where they have to shove it in your face that the main character's brother is gay. That being said, you can really tell that this is a change made to the original script most likely because, despite his boyfriend being a prominent character, it's never really brought up again or mentioned. I feel like he was a character that was in the script who was a friend of the protagonist and was just kind of rewritten to be her brother's boyfriend. Otherwise I really didn't notice any wokeness in the movie, surprisingly enough. I'd say if you're a fan of the franchise or if you're vaguely curious about how this one is, go ahead and give it a watch. It's not worth subscribing to Hulu for, but if you already have it it's okay if you are looking for a way to waste 2 hours during the spooky month. Also, surprisingly enough, the main character, despite being a female, is shown to be an extremely flawed person who makes a lot of mistakes and is pretty far from being a Mary Sue.

Final Grade: C+