‘Hellraiser: Revival’ Hides a Heavy Metal Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy
By Dread Central
3 min readThere’s a little love letter to Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy hiding in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, and somehow I missed […]
There’s a little love letter to Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy hiding in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, and somehow I missed […]
The connection goes beyond the imagery. Osbourne and Kilmister co-wrote “Hellraiser” with Zakk Wylde, with the song first appearing on Osbourne’s 1991 album No More Tears. Motörhead recorded their own version for 1992’s March ör Die, and that recording became part of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth. The music video even had Lemmy playing cards with Pinhead.
Osbourne’s official website revisited that history when the two recordings were combined into a duet in 2021. Seeing them remembered together inside a Hellraiser game is a really fun continuation of that relationship.
Horror and heavy music went hand in hand in the ’80s. Alice Cooper gave Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask).” Dokken had “Dream Warriors” for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, and Fastway supplied the soundtrack to Trick or Treat. Horror had that punk-rock, rogue, renegade energy, so bringing those audiences together made complete sense.
And it kept going. Look at the unbelievable run of soundtracks we got through the ’90s and early 2000s: The Crow, Spawn, Queen of the Damned, Resident Evil, Freddy vs. Jason. Metal, industrial, alternative rock- these albums were part of the experience, helping sell the movies before we even got to the theater.
That history makes this little discovery especially cool. Amid all the depravity, somebody made room to remember the guys who helped give horror its soundtrack.
As for Revival itself, I’m still having a blast. I’ve already written about why its depiction of the Scarlet Church worked so well for me, although that piece gets into spoilers.
The reviews haven’t all agreed. IGN was critical of the storytelling, repeated chases, and boss encounters. I’m coming at it from a different place: I don’t need a Grand Theft Auto-sized production or a game that reinvents every mechanic. I wanted a fun, honest, authentic trip into Clive Barker’s universe that I could actually walk through and get lost in. That’s what this has given me.
Our own Christian McKnight scored it 4 out of 5 in his review, writing, “But I had a damn good time playing it. And it felt like Hellraiser.” He also flagged frustrating chases and combat limitations, but came away impressed with its understanding of the source material. His playthrough took roughly 13 hours.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. You can find purchase options on the official website.
Don’t let a review score make the decision for you. If this looks like your kind of nightmare, go play it. I think it’s fucking awesome.
