The lurid environments of Hellraiser: Revival, a horror survival game continuing the sadomasochistic legacy of Clive Barker’s Hellbound Heart, might not be the best place to say “wow, deja vu!” Nonetheless, while combing the sticky floors of an in-game sex club for crafting supplies and coins, I suddenly remembered the rolled-up cocaine fiver I found in one of KitKatClub’s washroom stalls. Which I used on beer. The more continuous flashbacks I experienced were to Resident Evil Village, a similarly structured, over-the-top barrage of guns, goo, and ghouls. In seeking absolution in its earthly form as a video game, Hellraiser suffers some. It bleeds. You will, too. But oh, it has such sights to show you.

Few horror classics have benefited from distance to their respective eras quite like Hellraiser. Waves of critical reappraisal have sweetened the interior qualities of Halloween and Texas Chain Saw, but the rich, bespoke appeal of Hellraiser was always undercut by its own immediate success. Adapted from his own short story, Barker rendered a modern castle gothic for the big screen, chronicling a woman in peril from her evil stepmother and nasty uncle. The standout characters were the Cenobites, divine facilitators of pleasures beyond what flesh can provide. It was a nuanced interruption to ’80s slasher fare, but Miramax wanted a Freddy. And so, through increasingly diminishing sequels, Pinhead’s campaign of thanatos and eros was swapped for more boilerplate evil.

With Clive Barker’s name reattached, Revival wants to reestablish the distinct pleasures of the flesh to maximalist degrees.

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