Hellraiser as a franchise that has been in decline for years. While the screenplays for the first two movies had the benefit of the participation of Clive Barker–writer of The Hellbound Heart, which the movie was based as well as director and story writer on the second–the third movie, Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth, was the first that, while it continued to use his characters, Barker had no actual participation in.

Though that’s not to diminish the input of people like Peter Adkins (who wrote the screenplay for Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 with Barker while writing the third independently) or Tony Randel–who directed Hellraiser 2 and helped write the screenplay for Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth–they too fell by the wayside as Hellraiser movies began to be produced not because there was necessarily anything the filmmakers wanted to say more than the studio releasing the movies, Miramax, wanted to keep the rights to the franchise.

Which is why when The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Hellraiser was being rebooted I was particularly skeptical. never mind that David Goyer was penning the story, which certainly doesn’t help.