The Movie Wasn't Even Originally a Hellraiser Story
Here's where things get even stranger.
Hellworld reportedly began life as a story that wasn't originally intended to be a Hellraiser movie. The screenplay was based on a story by Joel Soisson and was subsequently reworked into the Hellraiser universe.
And suddenly a lot of things make sense.
Because Hellworld doesn't exactly feel like a traditional Hellraiser story.
Instead of focusing heavily on the mythology established by Clive Barker's original films, it takes the franchise into the wonderfully bizarre world of:
"What if Pinhead had a fan club?"
The characters are obsessed with a fictional online game based on the Cenobites.
That's an absolutely ridiculous premise.
And yet, in 2005, it was probably a pretty clever way to connect Hellraiser with the rapidly expanding world of online gaming.
Today, we wouldn't blink at the idea.
Back then, however, the idea of an online Hellraiser game felt like something you'd discover on a shady website after clicking on approximately fourteen pop-up advertisements.
