It’s the Booze Talkin’; A Hellraiser remake could work!

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

When you are much too young, but you are still sitting back and watching HELLRAISER (WATCH IT HERE), there are likely a few things you probably won’t pick up right away. At least that’s how it was for me. While the plot and storyline didn’t necessarily escape me, it didn’t play a huge part of my enjoyment of the film. However, I did thrive on the gruesome nature, the nightmarish images and the ripped flesh. Again, being far too young, the horrific nature of it all was disturbing in the best of ways. Clive Barker effectively used the blood and torture to get the audience squirming. Add in the fear of cenobites coming to bring hell upon those looking for it, and this movie had me in its grip. Of course, looking back on this remarkable feature, there’s much more to it than simply a blood soaked genre flick.

After the success of the original, it was clear that this was a franchise in the making. Unfortunately, aside from the terrific HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II, the sequels brought the gore, but very little else. And soon, each following continuation became less and less potent. Sure they all had a ton of gruesome imagery, but something was supremely off about each time Pinhead (Doug Bradley) and his gang would show up. The problem was something I didn’t really react to as a child watching it on the small screen. As frightening as the cenobites were, it was the level of atrocity that Julia (Clare Higgins) brought to her relationship with her husband Larry (Andrew Robinson) thanks to her her deceased lover Frank (Sean Chapman), who had escaped Pinhead and friends. That character drama was either avoided, or sloppily handled in the following installments.

HELLRAISER had the demonic entities and used them often enough to make a serious impression. However, what makes it truly work is the f*cked up relationship between Julia, Larry and Frank – especially how physically attracted to Frank she is, even when he is skinless (Oliver Smith played the monster version of the man). The real monsters here weren’t gruesome beasts… they were human. This is what made HELLRAISER work, and now we have a dwindling franchise that is looking for a fresh start. As many of you know, that is exactly what we appear to be getting as the Clive Barker classic is getting yet another offering. This time, it’s David S. Goyer who is taking on what is being called a “reimagining” of the 1987 classic horror feature.

My original reaction to this news was pretty much the same as every time I hear about a movie I love being remade. Why? We have it, we don’t need a remake/reboot/reimagining. However, it’s 2019 and complaining about remakes can be quite futile at the moment, considering every damn movie ever made seems to be in line for a revisit. So no, I was not immediately thrilled at the notion of getting a new film. And frankly, while I’ve enjoyed a few things that Goyer has brought to the big screen, I’m not sure if he’d be the right guy to bring fans what should be a small budget thriller with practical gore effects. That said, perhaps if the people behind it are really invested, they’ll avoid going full CGI on the bloodshed that this series is known for.

Another reason this reimagining is quite frankly destined to happen, its been bounced around for quite awhile. And with the lack of buzz created by the recent sorta sequel HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT, perhaps this is the only way to go if you are going to continue on with the franchise at all. While I myself have yet to see JUDGMENT, I was curious and hopeful director Gary J. Tunnicliffe’s vision would give fans something to be excited about. However, it didn’t generate much of anything at all. It appears from the trailers and the reception, that this was simply another gore soaked sequel without the disturbingly warped character dynamic that made the original so successful.

When it comes to returning to HELLRAISER, and David S. Goyer’s involvement in it’s reimagining, I’m hoping that they truly get what this story is about. If Goyer and and the good folks at Gary Barber’s Spyglass Media Group go back to the original formula, perhaps we could see a proper return. Certainly, the kind of horrific images that come with a HELLRAISER flick are easy to achieve via visual effects, here is hoping that they don’t rely on cheap CG blood and gore. Give us a story with a powerful on-screen relationship like what we had the first time out, and create a gruesome on-screen visual experience that doesn’t cheapen the nightmare and perhaps we’d finally have a new film in the franchise worth investing in. Oh yeah, and perhaps try and find a leading lady even remotely as terrific as Ashley Laurence was as Kristy, and you may have something.

Maybe it’s the booze talkin’, but a Hellraiser remake could work. When you have the incredible promise of what the cenobites represent, and the dark and disturbed nature of a deranged family with secrets, you can have something quite effective. The original feature and it’s first sequel gave us a true villain in Julia (as well as Frank), and only relied on Pinhead to emphasize the hellscape that Barker offered. To really make a successful return, all they need to do is embrace the author’s original vision. And more importantly, don’t ignore the “pleasure” and simply pile on the “pain” of this graphic world. Of course, a lot could happen by the time we actually see a new HELLRAISER, let’s just hope that if this actually makes it to theatres, they utilize what made the original work in the first place.