Sex, bloody torture, gore, cosmic terror, and whole lot of BDSM demons. The iconic Hellraiser franchise, known for its queer subtext and dark fantasy-terror, is fucking back…but maybe not the way you might expect. Saber Interactive, the company behind Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has unleashed the iconic franchise into the video game world with one terrifying trailer. This is Hellraiser: Revival.

The official blurb of the game introduces the story. Protagonist Aidan, who’s Girlfriend is taken into Hell after the Genesis Configuration (a puzzle box seemingly quite similar to the iconic Lament Configuration). He must use and unlock the secrets of the configuration to battle countless demons, Pinhead worshippers, and the Cenobites themselves to save her.

That’s not all for the story, though. Living legend Clive Barker, creator of The Hellbound Heart, and Director of the original film, reportedly helped on the story of the game, returning to the iconic franchise he created decades ago. He is quoted as saying, “Working on the first true Hellraiser game has been a venture deep into the recesses of my darkest imaginings.” With this in mind, one can it expect it to stay true to the roots of the series.

Graphic both in sex and violence, the trailer promises the look and feel of the classic film. It filled to the brim with cenobites, horrendous torture methods, and some deviously designed demons. The color palette is drenched in dark shadows and a menacing Hellscape.

SOURCES:  IGN, Wesley Yin-Poole, The Suitably Horrific and Creepy Debut Trailer for Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival Video Game Reveals ‘The Seductive Pull of Suffering’

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 1 was a homerun for Don’t Nod Montréal. In the most recent episode of the Horror Press Podcast, I ranted about Y2K and my discontent with ‘90s nostalgia bait and that I almost dislike it more than ‘80s nostalgia bait. What I appreciated about Tape 1 is how it creates its own version of the ‘90s while remaining a referential timepiece. The ending of Tape 1 left me wanting more, and now that I’ve played through Tape 2 twice, and somehow got the same ending both times, I’m ready to talk about it.

Tape 2 picks up where Tape 1 left off. Present-day Swann Holloway (Olivia Lepore), Autumn Lockheart (Andrea Carter), and Nora Malakian (Amelia Sargisson) are at the Blue Spruce Bar in Velvet Cove. They’re reeling in their shared revelation of the night of the concert they put on 27 years ago in this very parking lot. The mystery box still sits in the center of the table as a beacon of what once was and what will be. We jump back and forth between the present and a post-concert 1995 and the fallout on the revelation of Kat Mikaelsen’s (Natalie Liconti) leukemia. But how the game ends, my dear players, is in your hands.

Before we get into it, I want to make sure I discuss two things I didn’t talk about in my coverage of Tape 1. First, we have an incredibly direct reference to a film that fits perfectly and has been confirmed as an easter egg. Swann’s license plate reads, “STV GLW”. This has been confirmed as a direct reference to Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, which I thought was an incredibly sweet reference. We also get another great reference in a form that pays homage to another film that inspired this game (it seems), and that is Nora’s lighter, which is white and says, “Fire Walk With Me” on it—loved seeing that!

I’m not sure why I didn’t cover it previously, but the other aspect of both tapes that makes the experience ethereal is the soundtrack. Much of the composed music for the game creates a hallucinogenic, dream-like atmosphere that sets the soundtrack miles apart from others. But the songs that resonate the hardest are those from duo Milk & Bone (Laurence Lafond-Beaulne and Camille Poliquin) and Ruth Radelet. Without the whimsical ambiance they created, this game would not be what it is. And then we have See You In Hell by Nora Kelly, which I’ve been humming to myself over and over since I finished the game.

Tape 2 ups the ante from Tape 1 in a way I wasn’t sure they could pull off. Even though the game is rated M, Tape 1 felt a little safe. Tape 2 takes the training wheels off and lets you know fairly early that we’re not here to mess around. Each second feels like an eternity; each decision is heavier than before. The writers (Desiree Cifre, Nina Freeman, and Jean-Luc Cano) crafted four wonderfully complex teenage characters, and seeing how what happened (in your playthrough) forms the clay of their present-day selves is a feat that many choose your own adventure games fail to pull off. I have never felt so deeply about a set of characters in a video game until now. (Even though my playthrough made me dislike Autumn quite a bit.)