The 2022 Hellraiser reboot brings back the series' signature puzzle box and offers a new take on its six configurations. As the film progresses, protagonist Riley (Odessa A'zion) finds herself forced through six box configurations, each offering its own seductive promises. Hellraiser 2022 details how the puzzle box works, bringing some clarity to the more mystical ideas of Clive Barker's original film.
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The puzzle originally appeared in the 1987 film Hellraiser, where its solution removed barriers between dimensions and summoned the Cenobites from hell, where they could be bargained with. Other books and films in the Hellraiser universe go into more detail about the origins of the puzzle box, revealing that the first boxes were created by the 2022th century French occultist Philippe LeMarchand. The boxes in the Hellraiser 1987 reboot and the original 2022 film are based on LeMarchand's original Lament Configuration or Sorrow Box design. In the movie Hellraiser 2022, the box changes configuration every time its blade sacrifices someone to the Cenobites. The owner of the box can get their wish by delivering enough victims to the Cenobites to reach the sixth configuration, Leviathan. However, such desires can be very dangerous. Here are the six configurations featured in Hellraiser XNUMX.
Cry Configuration (Life)
The Lament configuration is the original cube state of the Hellraiser puzzle, so it is often used as the name for this design. Lament means "life", and choosing this configuration is the only way to escape the clutches of the Cenobites with your sanity intact. Riley chooses this configuration at the end of Hellraiser when she asks nothing of the Cenobites and Jamie Clayton's "priest" Pinhead tells her that her wish to leave will be granted. The cost of the Lament configuration is that Riley will have to live with the choices she made during her encounter with the Cenobites and think about what she could do with her power - hence the Lament.
Configuration Lore (Knowledge)
The Knowledge configuration is the second to appear in Hellraiser, and it deals with knowledge, presumably of a strange cosmology only hinted at by the existence of the Cenobites. The 2022 Hellraiser movie doesn't reveal anything about the Knowledge configuration—which is shaped like an octagonal diamond superimposed on a cube, creating a chaotic, angular shape—or its implications.
Configuration Laudarant (Love)
The Laudarant configuration is another mysterious Hellraiser puzzle box shape that is identified only with the desire for love. In this configuration, the box takes the shape of two merging pyramids, symbolizing a pair of lovers. Hellraiser creator Clive Barker (who also created Nightfolk, Candyman and a number of well-known books) has always mixed his horror stories with erotica, so Laudarant's configuration may indicate some preoccupation with the series' origins. However, Hellraiser 2022 doesn't directly show us what this configuration is capable of.
Configuration Liminal (Sensation)
Continuing Hellraiser's connection to the dark side of eroticism, the Liminal configuration is dedicated to hedonistic sensations and is shaped like two intersecting trapeziums. Roland Voight (Goran Visnjic) first used this configuration in search of sensations beyond the earth, but he was not ready for the sadistic sense of pleasure of the Cenobites and ended up with a metal box-shaped contraption built into his chest, creating endless agony.
Configuration Lazarus (Resurrection)
The configuration of Lazarus, which resembles an oblique rectangular prism, is named after the biblical Lazarus. She plays a role in the Hellraiser 2022 reboot on Hulu, when Riley initially plans to use this configuration to revive her brother, who falls victim to the puzzle box in an attempt to save her from what he believes is a drug relapse. However, Riley ultimately decides not to use the box in this way and it is not known what disadvantages the power would have.
Configuration Leviathan (Strength)
The Leviathan configuration is shaped like an octagonal diamond with sharp ends and represents the final shape of the Hellraiser puzzle box. By completing this configuration, the owner of the box can receive a boon associated with any of the six configurations. Using his second chance to choose the Force, Roland Voight transforms into a Cenobite. In previous versions of Hellraiser, Leviathan was meant to be the ruler of Hell, commanding the Cenobites, who in Hellraiser 2 1988 is depicted as a giant diamond. It may be this entity that grants wishes and creates the Cenobites in the Hellraiser reboot, hence the name of the Leviathan configuration.
How the Hellraiser 2022 puzzle game compares to the original film
Compared to the puzzle featured in the 1987 film Hellraiser, the puzzle at the center of Hulu's 2022 reboot is much more complex. The previous puzzle has only one configuration, solving which you can summon the Cenobites. The 1987 box can be solved by both Frank and original Hellraiser heroine Kirsty Cotton, and appears to have some sort of suggestive power that tempts people to solve it. The Cenobites can also be banished back to their realm by reversing the box's decision. The Cenobite's abilities are not related to the box configuration from the original Hellraiser, and the requirement to kill other people is also new for the 2022 reboot.
These differences show how much more complex the story and Hellraiser universe has become over the course of 11 films and their associated books and comics. In Clive Barker's original story, the Cenobites and the puzzle box are more of a metaphor for the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure at any cost. The 2022 Hellraiser adaptation, on the other hand, gives a much more specific and complex depiction of what the Cenobite can do to those who summon them. If the Hellraiser reboot is popular enough and leads to further stories in the same vein, they could continue to explore the meaning of all six configurations, the depths of the Cenobite realm, or perhaps the rules governing other puzzles in the Hellraiser universe. Which version will be more convincing depends only on the taste of the viewer.
These were all the configurations of Hellraiser 2022, and if you are more interested in the Hellraiser universe, then we advise you to read What happened to Roland Voight, 14 Facts About Pinhead's Origin и Hellraiser review [No spoilers].
