‘If We’d Made His Genitals Visible, It Would Have Eliminated the Game From Sale’ – How Hellraiser: Revival Embraces Clive Barker’s Sexually Twisted Lore - IGN

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Hellraiser: Revival. The first five minutes of Hellraiser: Revival will make your eyebrows high-five the ceiling. It opens with a BDSM-flavored sex scene complete with piercing and blood and a veritable buffet of sex toys scattered around the room, then evolves into a gory example of what hooks and chains can do to flesh. If you're sweet and innocent you might want to clutch some pearls, but to Clive Barker fans like me it's a signal that Revival is committing to the spirit of the author and director’s sexy subversion rather than watering it down. And I'm not an easy woman to please. The original Hellraiser movie rewired my brain when I saw it as a teenager (yes, I have a therapist), and Barker's Books of Blood volumes are in my top five reads of all time. I was bracing for disappointment, but that opening proved that Revival wasn't going to shy away from the body horror or sex that runs through Barker's work. The Hellraiser world is one of horrible and hedonistic extremes, so trying to avoid either would be like trying to swap Beyond Meat patties for prime rib.

Marvel Studios’ release of Avengers: Endgame: Encore was a shrewd gambit for a few reasons: It put the studio’s most successful film back in conversation right after the juggernaut success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day; it tided die-hards over with new footage ahead of December’s Avengers: Doomsday; and, perhaps most importantly, it raked in an additional $138 million for the film, reinstating its position as the worldwide box office champion over James Cameron’s Avatar. Cameron, who certainly doesn’t spend his precious time fretting about such matters as lifetime financial grosses and being the best in the world at stuff, recently expressed his congratulations to Marvel for once again overtaking his 2009 sci-fi film. “You are one of the people,” the director wrote (per The Wrap) in a composite image from Avatar, with Iron Man at the center of a welcoming Na’vi tribe. “Congratulations to Marvel and the #1 Avengers: Endgame: Encore for bringing moviegoers to the cinemas! – Jim Cameron.”