The 2022 Hellraiser reboot brings back the series' signature puzzle box and provides a new take on its six configurations. As the film progresses, protagonist Riley (Odessa A'zion) finds herself forced to move through the box's six configurations, each offering its own seductive promise. Hellraiser 2022 goes into explicit detail when it comes to how the puzzle box works, providing some clarity to the more mystical ideas of Clive Barker's original film.
The puzzle box originally appeared in the 1987 Hellraiser, where solving the box undoes the barriers between dimensions and summons the Cenobites from Hell, where they can be bargained with. Other books and films in the Hellraiser universe further detail the origin of the puzzle box, revealing that the first boxes were created by 18th-century French occultist Philip LeMarchand. The boxes in both the 2022 Hellraiser reboot and the original 1987 movie are based on LeMarchand's original "Lament Configuration" or "Box of Sorrows" design. In the 2022 movie, the box changes configurations each time its blade sacrifices someone to the Cenobites. The holder of the box can gain their wish by delivering the Cenobites enough victims to reach the sixth configuration, Leviathan. However, such wishes can be very dangerous. Here are the six configurations showcased in the 2022 Hellraiser.
Lament (Life)
The Lament Configuration is the Hellraiser puzzle box's original cubic state and hence is often used as the name of this design. Lament signifies "life," and choosing this configuration appears to be the only way to escape from the Cenobites' clutches with one's sanity intact. Riley chooses this configuration at the end of Hellraiser when she asks for nothing from the Cenobites and is told by Jamie Clayton's "Priest" Pinhead that she'll be granted her wish to leave. 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 the thought of what she could have done with her power — hence "lament."
Lore (Knowledge)
The Lore configuration is the second to appear in Hellraiser and is associated with knowledge, presumably of the strange cosmology that is only hinted at by the existence of the Cenobites. The 2022 Hellraiser movie doesn't reveal much about the Lore configuration — which takes the shape of an eight-sided diamond superimposed onto a cube, creating a chaotic angular shape — or its consequences.
Laudarant (Love)
The Laudarant configuration is another mysterious form of the Hellraiser puzzle box and is only identified with the desire for love. In this configuration, the box takes the form of two pyramids merging, symbolizing a pair of lovers. Hellraiser creator Clive Barker (who also created Nightbreed, Candyman, and a number of acclaimed books) has always mixed his horror stories with the erotic, so the Laudarant configuration could suggest some of the preoccupations of the series' origins. However, the 2022 Hellraiser doesn't show us directly what this configuration could do.
Liminal (Sensation)
Furthering Hellraiser's ties to the dark side of eroticism, the Liminal configuration is dedicated to hedonistic sensation and takes the form of two intersecting trapezoid-like shapes. Roland Voight (Goran Višnjić) used this configuration the first time searching for a sensation beyond that which could be found on Earth, but he was not prepared for the Cenobites' sadistic sense of pleasure and ended up with a metallic contraption resembling the shape of the box embedded in his chest, creating endless agony.
Lazarus (Resurrection)
The Lazarus configuration, resembling a sloping rectangular prism, is named after the Biblical Lazarus. This plays a role in Hulu's Hellraiser reboot when Riley initially plans to use this configuration to revive her brother, who falls victim to the puzzle box attempting to save her from what he believes is a drug relapse. However, Riley ultimately decides against using the box this way, and it's unknown what drawbacks this power would have had.
Leviathan (Power)
The Leviathan configuration takes the form of an eight-sided diamond with sharp points and represents the final form of Hellraiser's puzzle box. Upon completing this formation, the holder of the box can gain the gift associated with any of the six configurations. Using his second chance to choose Power, Roland Voight is transformed into a Cenobite. In previous versions of Hellraiser, Leviathan refers to the ruler of Hell who commands the Cenobites, which is depicted in Hellraiser II: Hellbound as a giant rhombus. This may still be the entity that is granting wishes and creating Cenobites in the Hellraiser reboot, hence the name of the Leviathan configuration.
How Hellraiser 2022’s Puzzle Box Compares To The Original Movie
In comparison to the puzzle box featured in the 1987 Hellraiser movie, the one at the center of Hulu's 2022 reboot is much more complex. The earlier puzzle box only has one configuration, which summons the Cenobites once solved. The 1987 box is solved by both Frank and original Hellraiser heroine Kirsty Cotton and seems to have some sort of compulsion that seduces people into solving it. The Cenobites can also be banished back to their realm by reversing the box's solution. The powers of the Cenobites are not particularly tied to any configuration of the box in the original Hellraiser, and the requirement of killing other people is also new to the 2022 reboot.
These differences show how much more complex Hellraiser's lore and universe have become over 11 movies and associated books and comics. In Clive Barker's original story, the Cenobites and puzzle box are more of a metaphor for the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure at all costs. The 2022 Hellraiser adaptation, on the other hand, provides a much more specific and complex account of what the Cenobites can do to and for those who summon them. If the Hellraiser reboot is popular enough and leads to further stories in the same vein, they could further explore what all six configurations mean, the depths of the Cenobites' realm, or potentially the rules governing other puzzle boxes in the Hellraiser universe. Which version is more compelling is all up to the viewer's taste.