The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy

by Kane, Paul

  Naturally, when everybody saw that two icons of horror cinema could be pitted against each other and make quite a lot of money in the process, Helloween suddenly became a distinct possibility. Doug Bradley told the Brownsville Herald in late 2003: “At this point, in fact, Dimension Films are planning a Hellraiser/Halloween crossover... They are hoping to have it out by Halloween next year. That would be pretty fast, but that’s their plan.” This came not long after an “official” poll was taken on the Halloween Movies site to gauge fan reaction to the idea. Rumors started flying not long afterwards, but it appeared that Clive Barker would be writing the film and the original Halloween director, John Carpenter, would be at the helm.

  Sadly, as we know, the movie didn’t make it to theaters in 2004. Bradley, speaking to Mike Hodge in the summer of that year, said, “It looked like a fascinating, mouth-watering prospect. And then it stopped dead in its tracks.... As far as I know, that’s where it stays. Fans at Horrorfind were showing me a recent USA Today which said Dimension were currently developing the movie—but that, or suggestions that it may be an animated film, is news to me.”3 It certainly would have been an interesting film, one which would have delved into the mythos of both franchises. There’s always the possibility with any idea that it might still be made and so all we, as students of Hellraiser lore, can do is watch and wait. At time of writing, though, plans for a ninth film in the Halloween series are going ahead, possibly with the title of The Bloodline of Michael Myers.4

  Tortured Souls

  Another movie that has stalled but could still come out in the future is Tortured Souls, based on a toy range that Barker developed for the ever-popular McFarlane line. While not specifically Hellraiser related the figures did bear an uncanny resemblance to their Cenobite cousins, but would came with their own fully fledged mythology. Launched in 2001 at the New York Toy Fair, these were then sent out to studios by Barker with a pitch for a film he would write and direct, his first feature since Lord of Illusions. In November The Hollywood Reporter and Variety both conveyed that Universal had bought the rights with the intentions of creating a franchise based on the toys.

  Clive Barker then worked on the script for the next couple of years, which would once again see a female lead venturing into a demon-dwelling land, this time called Primordium, a place of horror, darkness and monsters. He told Fangoria.com in January 2004, “I’m turning in the script in four weeks, and if Universal likes it, they’re prepared to go into production right away. I’ve taken the Tortured Souls toys and really expanded their universe, so it’ll be different than what fans are expecting.”5 There it stayed for the rest of 2004, until Universal let the lease lapse and it passed over to a sub-company of theirs called Rogue. As Barker was so busy producing movies for other directors, doing the paintings for his Abarat books, putting together material for his new art book, Visions of Heaven and Hell (2005), and writing The Scarlet Gospels (which we will come to in a moment) he didn’t really have time to commit to directing the feature now anyway. Again, this is one project that might well come about, but it could be some time before it does.

  Hellevision

  In December 2004, Variety reported that Hellraiser was bound for television screens as an hour-long weekly series. The people behind the proposed project were Panacea Entertainment, Park Avenue Entertainment and Blueprint Entertainment. While Dimension still owned the rights to the filmic versions of Hellraiser, the executive producer on the show, Eric Gardner, had represented the property since Larry Kuppin reacquired the New World film library from Ronald Perelman in 1991. Kuppin was also slated to be involved as an executive producer on the series, which would apparently revolve around a tabloid journalist stumbling upon a plot hatched between Pinhead and a rich software magnate.

  Doug Bradley was to be approached and a pilot was about to be written, seemingly putting paid to rumors that UK TV station Channel Four would be doing a Hellraiser anthology series. “The mythology of the character and the series has been worked out slowly over the years,” Kuppin said. “Pinhead is one of the most branded characters in the horror genre. There are all kinds of psychological angles to be explored, along with a good scare.”6 If any franchise was ripe for transference to the small screen it must surely be the Hellraiser saga, as the comic book incarnation had shown. Its flexibility would allow tales to be told without any possibility of running out of locations, characters or ideas. At the time of writing Doug Bradley had not heard any further news about this venture,7 but the promise of a Hellraiser television series—if done properly—is definitely something to look forward to.

  Scarlet Gospels

  Finally, we ourselves come full circle, as does the series’ creator himself, Clive Barker. While Barker does not retain the cinematic rights to Hellraiser or the characters, he does still own the literary rights following the publication of The Hellbound Heart. He has long been promising his readers a return to his horror roots with another collection of fiction to match the Books of Blood. And as part of this collection, he has been working on a novella which features two of his most famous creations, Pinhead and Harry D’Amour. Little is known about the plot yet, although by the time this book is published The Scarlet Gospels should be out and wowing readers everywhere. But one thing we do know is the outcome of the battle between Barker’s detective and the Crown Prince of Hell. “I want to finish the story and finish it on my terms, rather than the movies’ terms,” he told SFX on his return to British shores to publicize the second Abarat book. “People don’t have much of a clue as to the mythology of the Lament Configuration. How the box works. Who the hell the guy with pins in his face is! But more important than just filling in mythological detail, for me, is to bring an end to Pinhead’s life that is not arbitrary and feels consistent with what I tried to do in the earlier movies.”8

  The Future

  At this moment in time, Hellraiser’s popularity is again high. The company NECA acquired the coveted rights to produce a dedicated line of reproduction toys, figures and other items, which they started to do in 2003 (for full details of their range visit http://www.hellraiserthemovie.com) under the guidance of the director of product development, Randy Falk. This would include seven-inch figures of all the characters, from Pinhead to Skinless Julia, plus terrific eighteen-inch motion activated Pinheads and Chatterers, replica puzzle boxes and even Pinhead busts.

  Places like the Prop Store of London (http://www.propstore.com) run by Stephen Lane are still selling original memorabilia from the films, with a one of a kind Giant Hero Puzzle box from Hellbound fetching up to $9,429. Though obviously they sell much more affordable items, this just goes to show the collectability of material from the movies. And this can also be seen in the items The Haunted Studios have on offer (http://www.hauntedstudios.com), from rare photos, to props, to lifemasks based on stars from the films. While the Pyramid Gallery (http://www.pyramid-gallery.com) have an entire range of exquisitely rendered puzzle boxes for sale “based on the lost designs of Lemarchand,” Cleverwood (www.cleverwood.com) and the Puzzle Box Shop (www.HellraiserPuzzleBox.com) offer replica boxes, some of which open up, a particular request of Hellraiser supporters.

  Box of Pleasures by Steelgohst (courtesy Steelgohst).

  Fan sites like the Hellbound Web (http://www.cenobite.com) offer not only a wealth of material on the subject, but also a place for like-minded damned souls to congregate on message boards; it even offers a showcase for artwork like some of the digital work of Eric Gross. In addition, Anchor Bay released their Puzzle Box set of the first three movies on DVD with lots of extras just in time for Christmas 2004, prompting a rather unusual ad campaign which featured Pinhead as Santa’s Little Helper. With the twentieth anniversary of the original film fast approaching the popularity of Hellraiser can only increase.

  As for the future of the cinematic interpretations, DVD Exclusive reported that, after splitting with Disney and Miramax, Bob and Harvey Weinstein and Dimension have retained the rights to this line of fi
lms. “Hellraiser boasts a particularly flexible story structure that makes for endless sequel possibilities,” said Dimension vice president Nick Phillips.9 Whether any of these will be a movie of Barker’s novella still remains to be seen, but when asked in that same SFX interview about the possibility that someone, somewhere might turn his “Pinhead vs. D’Amour” story into a motion picture, Barker laughed: “Yeah, that had occurred to me.”10

  A recent sketch of Pinhead by Clive Barker (courtesy Clive Barker).

  But we’ll finish this book with his thoughts about the original. “I can imagine that at some point, somebody will decide to remake the first Hellraiser picture, as they have with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There would arguably be some cool things about that, but I won’t have anything to do with it.... The mythology has been kind to me and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, which is another reason why I want to bring it to a respectful end.”11

  And it is here that we must end our own journey. I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip through Hell, as much as I’ve enjoyed being your guide. The pleasure, I can assure you, was all mine. But no tears please. It’s a waste of good suffering.

  CHAPTER NOTES

  Preface

  1. Stephen Kings Maximum Overdrive was unpopular with both critics and audiences. Variety claimed: King, making his directorial debut from his own script, fails to create a convincing enough environment to make the kind of nonsense hes offering here believable or fun. Speaking to Gary Wood in Cinefantastique, February 1991, the author admitted himself: I didnt do a very good job of directing it.... What some guys take six years to learn, I learned in about ten weeks. The result was a picture that was just terrible.

  2. Hellraiser made it to number sixteen in Total Films 25 Scariest Movies Ever list, beating The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th and Night of the Living Dead (December 1999, no. 35, p. 56). It reached number 28 in Shivers magazines Top 50 Horror Film Awards (September 1996, no. 33, p. 13) and was listed as one of the Greatest Horror Movies Ever in Empires Special Collectors Edition Definitive Guide.

  3. Kim Newman, ed., The BFI Companion to Horror (London: Cassell, 1996), 31.

  4. Steve Chibnall and Julian Petley, British Horror Cinema (London: Rutledge, 2002), 4.

  5. The term auteur dates back to the 1920s, when French film theorists used it to describe a director who wrote his own scripts, as opposed to those who made scenario-led movies where the scripts were commissioned. In the 1950s, critics from the film magazine Cahiers du Cinmaincluding Andr Bazinrelated the auteur theory to a directors style, mis en scene or filmic signature, so it could encompass both filmmakers who wrote their own scripts and those who worked within a more Hollywood studio-based structure. Clive Barker could be considered an auteur not only because he wrote the script for Hellraiser but because the film bears his artistic stamp.

  6. Bob Keen speaking in the documentary featurette Hellraiser: Resurrection (Seraphim Films, 2000) U.S. DVD.

  Chapter 1

  1. Douglas E. Winter, The Dark Fantastic (London: HarperCollins, 2001), 10.

  2. Nigel Floyd, Slime Time, Time Out (September 29, 1987). Published as Hellraiser in Clive Barkers Shadows in Eden, edited by Stephen Jones (Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Underwood-Miller, 1991), 313.

  3. South Bank Show: Clive Barker (London Weekend Television, 1994).

  4. Clive Barker, Incarnations: Three Plays (London: HarperCollins, 1996), 281.

  5. Clive Barkers Books of Blood, Vol. 1 (London: Sphere, 1984), 26.

  6. Michael A. Morrison, Monsters, Miracles and Revelations: Clive Barkers Tales of Transformation, in Clive Barkers Shadows in Eden, edited by Stephen Jones, 175.

  7. Clive Barkers Books of Blood, Vol. 4 (London: Sphere, 1985), 48.

  8. The Dark Fantastic, 147.

  9. Douglas E. Winter, Give Me B-Movies or Give Me Death! Published in Faces of Fear (1985) and reprinted in Clive Barkers Shadows in Eden, edited by Stephen Jones, 28.

  10. Stanley Waiter, Catching Up with Clive Barker, in Anthony Timpone, ed., Fangoria: Masters of the Dark (New York: Harper Prism, 1997), 124. Waiters interview with Barker was originally featured in Fangoria magazine (May 1986).

  11. Philip Nutman, Gangsters vs. Mutants, published in Fangoria (1991) and reprinted in Clive Barkers Shadows in Eden, edited by Stephen Jones, 271.

  12. Alan Jones, Rawhead Rex, Cinefantastique 7, no. 5 (December 1987).

  13. Ibid.

  14. In his review for Starburst magazine (no. 103, March 1987) Alan Jones described Rex as looking suspiciously like a freaked-out member of Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

  15. Stanley Waiter, Catching up with Clive Barker, in Anthony Timpone, ed., Fangoria: Masters of the Dark, 126.Waiters interview with Barker was originally featured in Fangoria magazine (May 1986).

  16. Bradley would finally get to play the derelict later in the series, for Hellraiser: Hellseeker (Rick Bota, 2002).

  17. Hellraiser Boxed Set, released by Anchor Bay, 2004. Supplementary Disc: The Forbidden Interviews.

  18. George R.R. Martin, ed., Night Visions (London: Arrow, 1987), 202.

  19. Ibid., 205.

  20. Ibid., 280.

  21. Ibid., 205.

  22. Barker quoted from the In the Picture section of Sight and Sound 56, no. 4 (Autumn 1987), 234.

  23. George R. R. Martin, ed., Night Visions, 291.

  24. Ibid., 236.

  25. Ibid., 209.

  26. Ibid., 234.

  27. Phil Nutman, Hammering Our Hellraiser, in Anthony Timpone, ed., Fangoria: Masters of the Dark, 136. Nutmans article was originally featured in Fangoria magazine (March 1987).

  28. The documentary featurette Hellraiser: Resurrection, U.S. DVD.

  29. Audio Commentary for U.S. Hellraiser Laserdisc.

  30. U.S. Hellraiser Laserdisc.

  31. Simon Bamford, interview by Nick Vince in Pandemonium: Further Explorations into the Worlds of Clive Barker, edited by Michael Brown (New York: Eclipse Books, 1991), 88.

  32. Nick Vince, interview by Diane Keating, 1991.

  33. Doug Bradley, Behind the Mask of the Horror Actor (London: Titan Books, 1996/2004), 209.

  34. The documentary featurette Hellraiser: Resurrection. U.S. DVD.

  35. There were concerns at one point that the title Hellraiser wouldnt prove palatable to some in the American South. One of the other suggested titles came from a production coordinator called Claire St. John, who thought What a Woman Would Do for a Good Fuck best summed up the story.

  36. The Hellraiser Chronicles, ed. Stephen Jones (London: Titan, 1992), 7.

  37. Douglas E. Winter, The Heights and Depths of Hellraiser, in Anthony Timpone, ed., Fangoria: Masters of the Dark, 146.

  38. Films and Filming, no. 389 (February 1987), 23.

  39. Hellraiser Boxed Set: Anchor Bay, 2004. Supplementary Disc: The Forbidden Interviews.

  40. U.S. Hellraiser Laserdisc, commentary by Clive Barker.

  41. In the Picture, Sight and Sound 56, no. 4 (Autumn 1987), 234.

  42. U.S. Hellraiser Laserdisc, commentary by Clive Barker.

  Chapter 2

  1. Clive Barker, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, in Horror: 100 Best Books, eds. Stephen Jones and Kim Newman (New York: Carroll & Graff, 1988/2000).

  2. Hellraiser screenplay, 21.

  3. Brigid Cherry, Brian Robb and Andrew Wilson, Weaveworld, in Nexus, no. 4 (November-December, 1987).

  4. Hellraiser, screenplay, 34.

  5. George R.R. Martin, ed., Night Visions (London: Arrow, 1987), 202.

  6. Audio Commentary for U.S. Hellraiser DVD.

  7. Most recently in Under the Skin, Hellraiser DVD Extra. Henrik Ibsen (18281906), born in Skien, Norway, was noted for social problem plays like A Dolls House (1879).

  8. Gary Hoppenstand, The Secret Self, in Pandemonium, ed. Michael Brown (New York: Eclipse Books, 1991), 945.

  9. Edgar Allan Poe, The Selected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Mundus, 2002), 486.

  10. Hellraiser Boxed Set, Supplem
entary Disc: Salom Interviews.

  11. Iconography is the collective term for visual motifs and style in a film. This includes dress codes and conventions (such as pin-stripe suits for gangster movies). Because it is a visual medium, color also plays a role in signification, and historical examples include the traditional black slinky dress for the femme fatale of film noir, and the lighter colors of the lawman hero in westerns.

  12. Carol Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws (London: BFI, 1992),39. See also Vera Dikas informative essay, The Stalker Film, from American Horrors, edited by Gregory A. Waller (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1988).

  13. Hellraiser, script, 54C (amended 3 November 1986).

  14. Martin, ed., Night Visions, 213.

  15. Under the Skin: Doug Bradley on Hellraiser. Hellraiser Boxed Set.

  Chapter 3

  1. Clive Barker Speaking at UCLA, February 25, 1987.