The The Hellbound Heart. With 25 years separating the first film from director David Bruncker's new take on the story, premiering October 7 on Hulu, fans will be fascinated by what changes as well as what still contains echoes of the past.
The Hellraiser reboot brings back the iconic villain Pinhead and her otherworldly, pleasure-seeking Cenobite crew, but it primarily centers on a young woman named Riley (played by Odessa A'zion). A recovering (or relapsing, depending on your perspective) addict, Riley lives with her brother Matt (Brandon Flynn) and frustrates him as much as can be expected. But after a shocking turn of events involving an ancient puzzle box, it's up to her to save her family—and beat back the Cenobites.
Screen Rant spoke to A'zion and Flynn about their onscreen sibling bond, the romance and friendships at the heart of the horror tale, and which Cenobite frightened them most.
Odessa & Bryan On Hellraiser
Screen Rant: The sibling dynamic at the center of the story is so beautiful and bittersweet to watch. From your perspective, Odessa, how do you view Riley and the way she interacts with her brother?
Odessa A’zion: It's kind of like me and my siblings in real life. We argue and we fight, but we'd still do anything for each other. That's kind of what happens with them: even though their last interaction is this argument, Riley's still going to look for her brother and search for him to the ends of the earth. Literally, literally, the ends of the world. Because again, that is true family love and a true bond there.
Brandon, not only does Matt have that sibling dynamic with Riley, but also there's this whole found family feeling in that household. Can you talk about his other relationships outside of his sister?
Brandon Flynn: Yeah, Matt has his boyfriend, played by Adam [Faison], and his roommate, played by Aoife Hinds. The house is this made-up family, which we discussed a lot in pre-production around what that means in of the bigger thematics of addiction.
But also in the queer vernacular, [which] in the modern world we've coined as found family, and how that really adds up to this vision that I think Clive Barker was leaning into in the writing of the novella. And it illuminates this for the first time in the Hellraiser lexicon.
There’s a strong connection between Riley's own struggles with addiction and the Cenobite mission of pleasure at the expense of others. What do you think Riley learns over the course of Hellraiser?
Odessa A’zion: I think that she learns, “Be careful what you wish for in the hands of Cenobites.” I honestly don't know if she really learns anything, but just treat people with kindness. I know that's not really part of the whole Cenobite part of everything, but…
They certainly don't do that, so you learn what not to do by example. Speaking of the Cenobites, we get some really cool and terrifying new ones in addition to ones we've always had. Was there any that was most terrifying or exciting to see on set?
Brandon Flynn: What was Jason [Lyles’] called? He was The Chatterer. That one, to me. Jason's, like, six-foot-seven or something like that. It's so intense to see this massive, slender figure. It's so perfect for horror.
About Hellraiser
A reinvention of Clive Barker’s 1987 horror classic from director David Bruckner in which a young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.
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Hellraiser premieres October 7 on Hulu.
