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While she might not approve of me telling people this, my mom was a 1980s horror fiend. My dad tells stories of all-night cinema screenings where she’d watch a couple of movies before dozing off, and then there’s that one time she freaked out in that interactive, Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights-esque walking experience. These are the stories that defined my childhood: ones that still make me laugh, and ones that she often still denies ever happened. Sorry mom, the internet knows now.
Showing her the trailer for Hellraiser: Revival made perfect sense to me, then. Clive Barker’s debut horror film (based on his 1986 novella, The Hellbound Heart) came out in 1987, right when Lauren’s mom was in her horror-watching prime. These days she’s not as keen on horror films, but still, it felt like a blast from the past. What followed was a lot of little frowns and the odd gasp. “Shocking,” she responded, shaking her head. You should have seen her face when I told her that those were the YouTube-friendly trailers.
Boss Team Games has been pretty clear that Hellraiser Revival isn’t for the faint of heart. Having played the demo at Gamescom, all of the relevant themes that you’d expect in a Hellraiser game are very much present – sex, vice, and extreme violence. As such, it’s garnered quite the reputation. “Did you read the notes in the liminal space sequence?” I asked my Gamescom colleagues. They all nodded, and agreed that it’s pretty heavy stuff – stuff my mom definitely wouldn’t approve of.
During my interview with Big Boss, which delved into the creation of Hellraiser: Revival and the balancing of its often triggering themes, I informed Game Director Emil Esov and Narrative Director Antony de Fault that my mother reacted to the trailers with an appalled “shocking,” prompting a few laughs. “What would you say to her?” I asked, jokingly. “What would I say to a shocked mom?” de Fault says to himself. There’s a pause for philosophical thought.
“There was a colleague of ours that actually posed the same question during development,” Esov says. “If I was to talk to the shocked moms about [Hellraiser: Revival], I would try to make it less shocking, as it serves as a metaphor for many things.”
Putting my shocked mom aside for a moment, I ask the duo if it’s secretly thrilling that the game has developed such a fearsome reputation, and if the fact that its uncut trailers can’t be displayed on mainstream streaming platforms brings a certain level of pride. “Yeah, I like that,” Esov says.
“When you’re trying to showcase the game to the general public, and you get denied in some cases to showcase at some events because it’s too out there; that to me means that it’s too Hellraiser, which means it’s just right.”
“We want to be nobly provocative,” de Fault says, and I compliment how well that comment encapsulates what Big Boss is doing. “It’s not provocation for the sake of being edgy; it’s provocation with a purpose because we want people to actually think about these things and think about their own behaviors. Certainly we had to do a lot of self-reflection about how we pursue our own voids personally. Art is the school of morals or whatever.
“So yes, it does give us some joy when there’s evidence that we have stepped ever so slightly out of bounds. A lot of our trailers have been live for up to 24 hours on a number of channels on YouTube, and then they get shadowbanned or whatever it may be.”
“I maybe shouldn’t say this, but when we were making the game early on, we kind of always talked about the fact that we wanted to get banned in at least one country or one platform or something,” de Fault continues. “We failed on the platforms: nobody’s banned us there. And we haven’t actually been banned in any countries. But there are a few countries that have declined to give us a rating, which means that certain platforms might not sell us without a rating in there. But it’s not outright banned.”
Just a few days ago, rumors have swirled that the German Steam store had removed Hellraiser: Revival, and a quick peek with a VPN does, indeed, turn up an error message that reads “this item is currently unavailable in your region.” This appears to be a result of the game not having a rating from the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) – typing several variations of Hellraiser: Revival yields no results on its website. This is a prime example of what de Fault says: no rating equals no sale.
Yes, this still isn’t a ban, but it’s a notch in Big Boss’ belt either way – one I’m pretty sure they’re happy with, even if it shocks my mom. And apparently Germany as a whole.
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