You know the drill: "The box. You opened it, we came!" says sadistic priest of pleasure Pinhead in Clive Barker's 1987 Hellraiser movie. Except, in this case, "the box" must refer to your sticky PC, because Space Marine 2 developer Saber Interactive confirms it's adapting Hellraiser into a single-player survival horror game.
"Working on the first true Hellraiser game has been a venture deep into the recesses of my darkest imaginings," franchise creator Clive Barker – who's also the brain of cult-y, 2001 horror FPS Undying and 2007 shooter Jericho – says in a press release. He thinks the developers behind the game, titled Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival, have truly "immersed themselves," in "the seductive pull of suffering," the juxtaposition that makes the Hellraiser series' bleeding backbone.
The first film, based on Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, is a panting meditation on wanting pleasure more than anything else, even self-preservation. Searching for the maximum dose of hedonism, Frank solves the Lament Configuration puzzle box and immediately gets ripped into sinewy pieces by the supernatural beings it holds, the Cenobites. He rebuilds himself from scratch, by draining gallons of blood from virile men, and ruins his niece's life in the process.
So, anyway. Saber naturally packs the brief announcement trailer for Revival with images of handcuffs on a bedroom floor, damp hands digging into bed sheets, and a couple – the woman's makeup is sweating off – who makes the ultimately dangerous decision to tease open a puzzle box.
Doug Bradley reprises his legendary role as Pinhead for the first time since 2005's bizarre Hellraiser: Hellworld sequel (though he voiced the porcupine-headed dom for a 2016 Dead by Daylight chapter). In Revival, he speaks with as much vocal cord-cutting venom as he always has when he declares, "We have such sights to show you," and dips a hooked chain into the woman's mouth to drag her to Hell.
"Discover the tale of Aidan," Saber Interactive writes in its press release, "who must unlock the dark powers of the Genesis Configuration, a mysterious puzzle box, to help his girlfriend from a hellish abyss. As Aidan, you'll harness the box's infernal abilities to survive your pact with the sinister Pinhead and battle against the twisted cult that worships him and the Cenobites."
The first-person gameplay showcased in Revival's reveal trailer show Aidan stopping by what looks like a cocktail lounge for bondage monsters before sticking his hand into a shredded corpse, running away from series villains like the Chatterer, and using the Genesis Configuration to turn devils' skulls into crushed grapes. "Inflict bone-breaking, flesh-searing pain (or pleasure?) upon your enemies," recommends Saber's press release.
Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival does not yet have a release date; it'll arrive on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
"We look forward to opening up the gates of hell," says Saber CEO and co-founder Matthew Karch.
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