Pinhead Is Even More Ruthless Than Before In Hulu's Hellraiser Reboot

Contains spoilers for "Hellraiser" 2022.

Not a nice person, that mean old Pinhead. In pretty much any iteration of Clive Barker's legendary, leather-clad  "Hellraiser." franchise, the villain that would never pass a metal detector has spent decades unsettling audiences by tearing souls and skin apart. However, the updated version of the classic villain seems to have reached new levels of cruelty even Doug Bradley's original iteration might not be able to match. The game has officially changed, and Jamie Clayton deserves all of the credit.

In David Bruckner's reconfiguration of the beloved "Hellraiser" franchise, Clayton's Pinhead is after a recovering drug user named Riley (Odessa A'zion) who plays around with the wrong puzzle box, much to her friends' displeasure. Sound familiar? However, there's something about Clayton's Pinhead that puts her ahead of Bradley's brutal original interpretation. Both are undoubtedly no-nonsense, nefarious antagonists, but in the end, it's a matter of business and deals with the devil that leaves the new Pinhead looking far more polished than her predecessor. If we had to choose which head of the Cenobites is most set on splitting limbs, we'd probably choose the new iteration — especially considering she doesn't even seem to care about her own crew.

In the original "Hellraiser," the protagonist and puzzle-cracking heroine, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), gets her bacon saved by outsmarting the alter-dimensional nightmare, the Cenobites. Pinhead makes a beeline for the young girl, only to be offered a deal to reclaim another soul that escaped them rather than Kirsty's. Crisis averted, chains, hooks, and pins redirected to a cenobite escapee. For anyone crossing the new version, though, it's a very different story.

In this new take on "Hellraiser," the Pinhead (credited in the film as "The Priest") out for Riley isn't one for negotiations or obstructions, even if it's her own kind. After the newly polished Chatterer gets caught between Riley and her hellish hunter, Pinhead wastes no time tearing the mouthy monster to pieces to get closer to her target. It's great to see a familiar frightening face return before getting ripped apart, but it also makes it clear that this newer version of Pinhead isn't messing around. Clayton's take really will stop at nothing to get who she's after. Should she and the Cenobites return in a sequel, at least we'll know in advance that talking it over is a waste of time — just like tears are a waste of good suffering.