- "I am a penitent of the great Leviathan. Grant me this audience. Grant me this boon."
- — Roland Voight while Joey is getting sacrificed to Leviathan.
Roland Voight is the secondary antagonist in the Hellraiser reboot. He was an Italian-born American investor, art collector and socialite. He was known for his hedonistic and secretive lifestyle, which made him search for new sensations. He is the reboot counterpart of Frank Cotton.
Biography[]
The millionaire had carefully documented the mysterious puzzle box in his possession and sacrificed many lives for its completion. At the last configuration, he finally asked Leviathan for what he wanted, without realizing what he meant. He ended up hating the "gift" he had received and started the new cycle of death and suffering which Riley and her loved ones must go through, to give it back.
Hellraiser (2022)[]
He is the reason why Serena Menaker, his lawyer, arrives in Serbia to procure an artifact from the enigmatic Lorenz. This is when the puzzle box gets in his hands and, after this event, there is a time jump in the movie to the last sacrifice necessary for the completion of it.
The last victim is Joey Coscuna, a sex-worker, who is invited to a lavish orgy at Voight's mansion in the Berkshires. After a quick flirt with Menaker, he is instructed to wait in another room and come across the artifact (now in the Lazarus "Resurrection" Configuration) and the millionaire himself, who insists that he solves it to claim a "prize". After Joey is stabbed in the hand by a blade triggered by solving the configuration, the box opens a portal to Hell where chains fly out and hook into this body, suspending him in midair as Voight demands an audience with Leviathan. After this event, he disappeared. Presumed dead, even.
After Riley realizes there is a connection between him and what's happening to her, she sneaks into his home. She finds his journals about the box, its six configurations, each of which requires a victim to be "marked" by the box's blade, and how the Cenobites can claim them. On completion, the box allows its holder to receive an audience with, and a boon from, Leviathan. When Riley and her friends reunite, she explains to Colin everything; meanwhile, Trevor and Nora remain in the area. Nora activates a switch that opens a secret tunnel and inadvertently shuts the entrance, trapping herself in the tunnel. Someone, who is later revealed to be the still-living-but-mutilated Voight, appears and stabs Nora with the box. The artifact he has stolen previously from Riley and now is stuck on Nora's back.
After the group escapes from the hands of the Cenobites, they lock themselves in the mansion, realizing that the intricate structure around the house is designed to lock them out (or lock them in), and let a wounded Trevor rest on the sofa. Meanwhile, as Riley and Colin decide what to do, Roland has a meeting with Trevor, who is revealed to be his lackey and was planning to sacrifice Riley, and tells him to finish the job, because he has no more patience. Making it clear by pressing on Trevor's wound, causing him to scream out in pain.
Here is the first time where Voight's "gift" is clearly visible. Voight sought new, pleasurable sensations after completing all of his sacrifices, and his "reward" was a contraption attached to him to twist his nerve endings at random times, leaving him in constant pain.
After Colin and Riley are successfully able to trap one of the Cenobites, the Asphyx, so they can stab it with the box, they don't find the artifact anymore; Riley dropped it while luring the Cenobite into the mansion and tells Colin where it should be. It isn't there because Voight took it again in the chaos. He stabs Colin with it and then reveals to Riley everything: Trevor's role in all of this, what he got from choosing pleasure and how, whatever the Cenobites promise you, the answer is always pain.
Then, he, while the box reconfigures into its last configuration, orders Trevor to open the gates, letting the Cenobites inside, and keeping an eye on Colin in danger. Leviathan shows himself once again and Voight locks his disciples inside the mansion, separated from himself and the others.
He is finally face-to-face with a caged Hell Priestess and demands to being set free from his "gift". However, Riley escapes, retrieves the box, and unlocks the steel doors. Ronald isn't cocky anymore; he starts pleading to Pinhead, asking her to take the gift back, just letting him die. Anything is better than this and he is on his knees, but the priestess is inflexible; gifts cannot be ungiven. Only exchanges can be made. That said, she admits that they were wrong about him. That he never sought sensation, but his pleasures lie in power, and she offers him the exchange.
Voight is finally free from his contraption and momentarily healed of his wound as a result of the impalement, before a large chain, coming from Leviathan, crashes through the ceiling and impales him, taking him slowly to his new home. In Hell, Voight awakens, nude and hairless, save for the hair on his eyelids, held in place on an altar of sorts, where he undergoes a brutal transformation into a new Cenobite, receiving his true desire.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- The victims of the puzzle box's first-through-third completion, other than Joey Coscuna, are: Jennifer Cauldwell, Tyler Ferguson and Jeremy Keller.
- Considering that you need five sacrifices for the completion, there is a missing one that isn't referenced anywhere in the movie, except for the "and there were probably ones that nobody even knew about" line by Riley.
- From the article about him, we know that he finances the opening of several galleries in New York, London, Milan and Buenos Aires.
- We also know that his exhibitions are focused almost exclusively on works of the early modern era.
- The article tells us also about Voight's fascination with the occult and his collection of artifacts.
- In 2016, he closed most of the last of his galleries in Europe, like the Terminus Gallery in London, and South America.
- The 15th of June, 2016, is when Ronald Voight completes the puzzle box for the first time. Thanks to Riley, we also know that the "same exact shit" is happening six years later (in 2022).
- His transformation into a Cenobite is similar to Dr. Channard's transformation from Hellbound: Hellraiser II.
- According to Serena Menaker in the beginning of the film, Roland Voight never does anything he can get someone else to do for him.
- This is proven to be true when it is revealed that Riley's boyfriend, Trevor, was hired by Voight to manipulate her into solving the box and sacrifice herself.
- Based on what he said in the film to Pinhead, it would seem that Voight, after receiving the Liminal Configuration gift from Leviathan, was unable to die. However, this is purely speculation.