#hellraiser remake

Me (knowing Pinhead was a female in the original tale):

Kirsty should be black. 

Larry should be white, Julia should be white, and Kirsty’s real mom should be a black woman. 

No really. Kirsty being black fits with her entire character arc and the isolation and disconnect she feels from her father and Julia. It also would expand the themes surrounding Julia and Kirsty’s dynamic: Julia’s “”“empowerment”””  comes at the expense and abuse of another woman. Which would have significant value as a narrative when that other woman is a black woman. Imagine a black Kirsty sicking demons on creepy white men.  Imagine Hellraiser 2, where Elliot Spencer gallantly sacrifices himself for Kirsty - but she’s a black girl. 

Also we could have that good good heroine/villain romantic tension, but this time let a black woman enjoy it. 

In the early 1980’s, movie goers were introduced to a new kind of horror. Most well known for his remake of “The Fly”, David Cronenberg brought us the genre known as body-horror. While not unheard of at the time, movies like “Videodrome” and “The Thing” (directed by horror mastermind John Carpenter) were known for their gore factors and the nauseating way they twisted and deformed the human body. However, in 1987 horror fans were introduced to a new staple of the body horror genre. This staple goes by the name of Pinhead, and he will tare your soul apart.

The initial release of Clive Barkers “Hellraiser”, which is based on a novella he wrote called “The Hellbound Heart” (See my post on “The Hellbound Heart” to know more) was a huge success in not only his career, but in pushing body horror into the forefront of the horror genre. It’s demonic themes caused controversy and it was praised by critics for being “unhinged and unapologetic in it’s content”. However, the first film gave way to many disappointing squeals (the second being the best of them).

The last film of franchise was released through Dimension Extreme, a sub category of Dimension Studios. “Hellraiser: Revelations” took us on an unthriling ride of unnecessary gore, story lines, plots holes, and horrid makeup. With Doug Bradley taking a break from the iconic character that, arguably, made his career; we were met with an annoying, bratty Pinhead that didn’t scare us but made us want to punch him in the face. And instead of the beautiful makeup as seen in other films, were were met with an awful appliance. For a side by side:

The left: The original. The Right: Revelations. See the difference??

With this flop of a film, fans of the franchise were left wanting the old Pinhead back and were excited when they heard of the possibility of a remake happening. But with rumors having been circulating before the movie came out and no signs of moving forward, what were the rumors??

Mr. Barker himself has shown interest and taking the series back to what it was before the numerous sequels that laid waste to the franchise. However, the production team seems to run into one problem after the next.

Everything from script changes to deciding what Pinhead will actually look like (while it would seem obvious that he would remain the same, we need to consider that a remake also includes redesigning characters). Other problems have included how much they want to change the story, if they want to use the comics, and what other Cenobites that actually want to include (comics and films combined that are almost a sixty to choose from). Mr. Barker himself also seems to want to try and handle more than one project at any given time, the failed launch of the “Tortured Souls” film/series that was meant to take place in 2007 being a prime example.

One of the largest issues that I have come across is the idea behind the remake itself. Co-Writer of “Terminator Genisys” Patrick Lussier was selected to direct the film and Todd Farmer set to assist in writing it. Their version of the film is set around Frank Cotton, the primary antagonist of the first film, and his locating of the configuration. It also calls for Frank to BECOME Pinhead by the end of the film. I’m first going to point out that this doesn’t work for the film based on the primary source material. What I mean when I say that is that Pinhead was a Cenobite long before Frank found the box, and to change that would upset many fans. Not just that, but Lussier says that it would be like “the evil ‘National Treasure’ story”. Already it sounds awful.

Here is the original trailer to give you an idea of who Frank is and what the original film was actually about (feel free to compare it to what you’ve read since this point):

Other problems include actually finding an actor to PLAY Pinhead himself. One would wonder who would pass up such a role. It is important to consider that Pinhead has a very specific physic. He’s thin and tall with a longer face and long fingers. He’s effeminate and masculine. Now one would ask “Why not get the same actor as the first films or use makeup and CG??”. To answer the first, Doug Bradley is older now. Pinhead is a stressful character to play and, much like Robert Englund and his choice to leave the role of Freddy Kruger behind, he chose to stop portraying the Cenobite. To address the second question, CG is all well and good, but as we have seen in films of today, it’s not always the most convincing. As a producer and director, Mr. Barker enjoys practical effects as opposed to something that his computer generated. Just as well, camera angles and computers can only do so much, and I find it hard to believe that they would be successful in creating this character.

Furthermore, there have been problems with trying to dictate just what Pinhead will look like. Gary J. Tunnicliffedid (makeup artist) hold strong beliefs that the original design of the character is perfect and that it should no be changed, however many of the other individuals that worked on the project did not share the same feelings. He can’t understand why it is that they would want to change it. Six years ago he created a new design that was later featured in Fangoria magazine (see below):

Personally, I am not a fan of the design. While beautifully photographed and executed, it doesn’t feel like Pinhead to me, and that is a huge problem. I understand where he want’s to go with this piece, but I don’t think it’s the right direction. It’s to harsh and gory in comparison to the first. There is so much going on and so much to look at that doesn’t actually make sense. However, when it comes to redesigning the character and submitting said design, Mr. Tunnicliffedid said that he was “damned if he did, damned if he didn’t”, so I don’t really place too much on him when it comes to this. He’s trying to make everyone happy, except what will make them happy will take away from an original and beautiful character.

In 2013, Mr. Barker released a statement saying that he was working on a very loose remake of the film where Doug Bradley would return as the sadistic leader of the Cenobites. Besides later news that a second draft of the script was produced, there have been no other developments.

With all of this in mind, it seemed unlikely that we would be getting a remake in the near future. While I am sure that fans would love to see Pinhead return to the big screen, I doubt that he would return as we know him. Change is acceptable with remakes, though very much of what is stated above may prove that this remake will be forever changing and stuck in production hell forever. However, earlier this year progress was made. A title, possible release date, and even preliminary images as to what we can expect our horror hero to look like were released in February. With this in mind, fans can only hope that it will pay homage to what we loved from the original.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887261/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellraiser#Remake

I have no idea what to think of this except Hollywood has no other original stories to make into a film anymore.

And I need to watch Hellraisers II-VIII.

OH WAIT NVM. THERE'S GONNA BE A IX HELLRAISER THIS YEAR 2011 ACCORDING TO WIKI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellraiser:_Revelations