At the end of 2022's Hellraiser, Riley chooses the Lament Configuration over the Lazarus Configuration, but whether she makes the right decision is left open to interpretation. The Lazarus Configuration would have brought back Riley's brother, whom she inadvertently killed, but there would be a catch, and judging by the Cenobites’ other “rewards,” the drawback was probably a doozy. The Lament Configuration, on the other hand, dooms Riley to "a life of regret, bitter and brief.” As she and her roommate, Colin, flee the final scene of the movie, he asks her if she thinks she made the right choice. Riley doesn't answer.
Despite her silence at the end of the new Hellraiser, it’s clear Riley has indeed made the right choice with the Lament Configuration. Like the original 1987 version, the Hellraiser reboot features a puzzle box, this time with six configurations. Progressing to the next configuration requires a sacrifice, carried out by sadistic interdimensional beings called Cenobites, and whoever holds the box by the sixth configuration gets the prize. When Riley’s brother, Mike, becomes the first sacrifice, Riley sets out to win the Lazarus Configuration prize to bring him back. As she comes to learn, though, the Cenobites have a pretty backward idea of what constitutes a reward. So, while she spends much of the movie working toward the Lazarus Configuration, at the end of Hellraiser 2022, she makes the right choice: the Lament Configuration.
How Riley’s Lament Configuration Choice Was an Act of Redemption
The Hellraiser franchise is largely about the pursuit of extreme sensation and its consequences. Where the original 1987 Hellraiser movie focuses on sadomasochistic sex, however, the reboot centers on substance abuse. Through the character of Riley, a recovering addict, Hellraiser 2022 cleverly repurposes the franchise’s sacrifice-for-reward conceit to show how addiction often hurts those around the user as much as, or more than, the user themselves. It’s Riley’s substance abuse that leads her to Trevor and the puzzle box, but it’s her family and friends who pay the highest price. However, in choosing the Lament Configuration and living with regret over the Lazarus Configuration, which would resurrect her brother, Riley not only gets a satisfying selfish-to-selfless character arc, but she also redeems herself by refusing to run away from the consequences of her actions.
Why Riley Was Right Not to Resurrect Matt in Hellraiser 2022
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Hellraiser 2022's Cenobites might best be described as anti-angels. To them, pain is pleasure, flesh divine. So while the Lazarus Configuration might have sounded good in theory, in practice it would have been a nightmare. In the best-case scenario, it would have brought Matt back in the flesh and in the flesh only, leaving Riley with an uncanny husk of the brother she knew and loved. More likely, it would have doomed him to an eternity of pain. Pinhead says Matt’s “end was exquisite,” meaning, in Cenobite terms, he probably suffered a great deal. Had Riley chosen the Lazarus Configuration, the Cenobites would probably have brought him back in whatever state of suffering he was in when he died and considered it generosity.
Riley may never know for certain whether she made the right choice at the end of Hellraiser 2022. That, however, is part of the deal. The Lament Configuration not only condemns her to a life of regret for her brother’s death, but it also leaves her forever wondering whether she could have done more and whether in turning down the Lazarus Configuration, she wasn't turning down a huge opportunity. It's her cross to bear, at least. Matt's troubles are over. For Riley, who’s spent her whole life as other people’s cross, that’s a big deal.