Thoughts on Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival, and a preview of a spooky musical

Hi there! Today, I've got a bit of a spooky double feature, with two different games that both technically fall under the horror category, though I'll admit that's doing one of them an injustice.

First up, a preview of There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, a "Musical, Lovecraftian, Renovator" title that's set to launch in early access fairly soon.

Then, I've got a review of Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival, a survival-horror game that pushes almost every boundary possible, while striving for faithfulness to the titular author's original source material.

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People keep singing that there are no ghosts

First revealed last year, U.K. developer Friday Sundae is getting ready to make its debut with There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, which is something of a cross between a horror game and a decorating sim, with several musical numbers thrown in, all of which the team notes is proudly made without generative AI.

I attended a preview recently that showed off a new chunk of the story, as well as diving into what players expect when the game launches.

There Are No Ghosts at the Grand puts players in the shoes of Chris, who is voiced by Alex Brightman (Hazbin Hotel). Chris has inherited an old hotel, the Grand, in a small English village, and he's eager to fix it up and turn a profit. Less enthused are the residents of said village, many of whom would like to see the hotel entrusted to the people that actually live nearby, and tell him so. Loudly and repeatedly, with song.

To renovate and clean up the Grand Chris is given some handy, special power tools his father left behind, which are given voice by Billy Boyd (The Lord of the Rings). These help him to blast away junk, move heavy furniture, and paint the walls with ease.

Chris is concealing some dark secrets, including from the player, with director Anil Glendinning noting that it's a conscious choice to often obscure Chris' exact actions or thoughts on a subject to keep players on their toes.

Oh, and also, strange creatures are emerging from the sea at night, making Chris run and fight for his life, despite how often everyone insists that there are no ghosts at the Grand.

As mentioned before, music is a huge part of the vibe, and Glendinning says that Brightman, Boyd, and other members of the cast — including Ben Starr (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33) and Elsie Lovelock (Iron Lung, Borderlands 4) — were explicitly chosen for their abilities to sing.

Chris oftens makes choices through these songs, picking verses to sing in response to try and win the village inhabitants over to his side, usually with mixed results.

For anyone intrigued by this unusual mix of genres, There Are No Ghosts at the Grand has a Steam Next Fest demo, which will be available from October 19 through October 26 and includes three missions.

As for the full game's launch, it'll be rolling out in sections, with early access bringing Chapter 1 to players on PC in December. This Chapter consists of 20 episodes, and the developers expect it'll take around eight hours to finish.

Chapter 2 is slated to launch in the second quarter of 2027, and will bring a launch on Xbox Series consoles, with Chapter 3 concluding the story when it arrives in the second half of 2027.

I'm looking forward to diving into this eclectic miss of genres in the Steam Next Fest demo, and I'll be checking out the early access at the close of the year.

Into hell and back

Developed by Boss Team Games and Saber Interactive, Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival is a fascinating game that contains multitudes, not unlike the intertwining of pain and pleasure touted so strongly in its source material.

If you missed my Summer Game Fest preview, I'll set the scene. Adrenaline junkies Aidan Lynch and Sunny are having sex when use of a curious little puzzle box called the Genesis Configuration summons the otherworldly Cenobites. Sunny gleefully accepts their offers of reaching new heights of sensation, and is torn apart, her soul taken to the Labyrinth.

Aidan, naturally, is left despondent, and isn't even given time to begin grieving before he's abducted by a BDSM-focused cult that worships the Cenobites and is fixated on unlocking the secrets of the box.

What follows is grisly first-person survival-horror experience that directly challenged me in a way no other game has before: making it quite difficult to find screenshots I could share that still represented the game well enough. There is a truly profound amount of nudity and extreme gore here that reaches, captures and exceeds the tone of the original film.

From a raunchy nightclub to the pits of the cult's darkest inner workings, raw sexuality and brutality abound. Importantly, I never got the sense of any condemnation for BDSM and sex by themselves; the cult is using a means to a perverted, corrupted end, and the Cenobites are beyond human comprehension, both of which feel important for a work that bears Clive Barker's name directly in its title.

As Aidan desperately fights and bargains to return Sunny to life, he's stymied at every turn by cultists and nightmarish creatures, with some imaginative designs for boss fights that wouldn't be out of place in The Evil Within, even though the standard enemies are a bit more repetitive. The audio design is also strong, with some unnerving moments I can only describe as evil ASMR.

Combat is fine, borrowing heavily from other survival-horror games, with limited inventory space that has to be managed carefully for guns, melee weapons, traps, and ammo. Crafting recipes and weapon upgrades can be found or purchased — there's a fairly amusing justification for an everpresent shopkeeper — but Aidan also has one other trick up his sleeve with the aforementioned Genesis Configuration.

Using this box, Aidan gains special, BioShock-esque abilities, ripping blades and nails out of the wall to hurl into opponents' skulls, absorbing and redirecting bursts of flame, and even summoning hooked chains from the Labyrinth to tear foes apart.

Naturally, the iconic Pinhead (again voiced by Doug Bradley) completely steals the show, dominating every frame he's present in and instantly commanding attention. The other actors here aren't bad, but Bradley makes it abundantly clear within a handful of lines why, once again, it is Pinhead on the cover art here.

Pain points pop up in regards to the pacing, which drags out a few things that could easily have been streamlined, especially in final third of the roughly nine hours I spent on my playthrough.

I also found some of the chase sequences annoying more than scary — similar to Outlast 2, it simply isn't enjoyable trying to guess which way you're supposed to go and being punished for guessing wrong — and some of the final fights verge on tedious rather than terrifying.

With Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival, the developers have absolutely stayed true to the original novella, as well as the first two films in the series. This is a fascinating, oft-frustrating, always-unnerving game.

Saying I enjoyed playing it feels far too simple, saying I disliked it would be dishonest. I am deeply uncomfortable for having played it, and I'm deeply happy it exists.