A journalist seeking insight into the events at the Channard Institute (covered in the movie, Hellraiser II) is more than he seems to be. And his efforts to feel pleasure by causing pain will result in dire consequences…

This is a reasonable start to a new series of one-shots from BOOM!, timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Clive Barker’s novella, The Hellbound Heart, and just a few months before the same anniversary arrives for Barker’s movie based on that novella, Hellraiser.

It’s a little scattershot in places, however. It begins with a sequence in Brazil, hinting at Nazis getting their hands on the infamous puzzle box. This thread seems to be all but dropped immediately as we head to London for the main story, accompanied by some art which feels amateurish in places.

It also doesn’t help that the accent of one character has a Chris Claremont-style overegging of their phonetic speech, and it’s truly grating. It’s also embarrassing that “roight” (as in “right”, with a coarse London accent) is constantly misspelled as “rioght”. Why bother with this at all, when you can suggest the accent in a far less irritating and overbearing way?

Anyway, that bugbear and the other issues aside, there are some decent moments of truly dark horror here, and the underlying themes of pain and pleasure intertwined do reflect Barker’s fascination with, and frequent use of, those elements in Hellraiser.

It’s also interesting to see someone, perhaps something, summoned from the underworld which may not be expected; I am hoping that the abandoned threads here are capitalised on when BOOM! launch their new Hellraiser series after all five Resurrections one-shots are released.

Despite a shaky start, I’m cautiously optimistic about the rest of the Resurrections titles; I’m looking forward to seeing what other creative teams bring to the blood-soaked table.

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