INT: Rick Bota

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

The
Arrow interviews Rick Bota

Shelved for 3 years,

HELLRAISER
DEADER is finally upon us, raising hell on DVD shelves around the
world. The lad behind the flick RICK BOTA is no stranger to the
franchise having also directed

HELLRAISER 6 (Hellseeker) and the
upcoming HELLRAISER 8 (Hellworld). I recently got a jab at exploring
the man’s melon and here’s what he had to say about DEADER and
beyond!

Hellraiser 1 to
5…which one is your favorite?

Wow, your not
going to include 6,7 or 8? O.K., I can live with that. I would
definitely have to go with 1 (by the way, even with 6,7, & 8
included!). Any movie that
works well for an audience is going to get a sequel made, and not
many sequels can match up to the original. I feel the Hellraiser
sequels have all fallen short of the original as well. The first
film was derived from Clive Barker’s brilliant short novel The
Hellbound Heart, and anyone who has read that work, and enjoyed it
as I did, would have to agree that Hellraiser is the best of the
films.

It was also a
completely different experience for the viewer than any of its
successors. It was the first time we met those wonderfully gruesome,
now iconic, cenobites. The novelty of seeing Pinhead and the
cenobites has since exhausted, and unfortunately, that has put a
handicap on their usefulness as a ghastly image to supporting the
narrative. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still scary as hell, but the
audience is expecting them, and expecting the scare just doesn’t
have the same effect as being surprised by it the first time.

In Hellraiser,
seeing Pinhead in the hospital for the first time was so shocking
that it made for a memorable, and classic horror sequence. Today,
the audience demands to see more and more of him, because of that
experience. But, it’s like asking to see a magic trick twice. Your
experience of the trick, and your motivation for seeing it is vastly
different the second time. You really desire the same reaction you
had when you were fooled the first time around, but the magician has
lost the advantage of surprise.

As the focus of
the scares, as Pinhead essentially is, it’s difficult to build
tension when everyone knows what’s hiding in the darkness. The
latter of the sequels, from Bloodline to the present, tried to build
some of the scares elsewhere. The viewer then feels cheated because
they didn’t get to see enough of Pinhead. Hellraiser has been so
successful as a cult favorite; it’s been a tough act to follow!

Hellraiser
Deader is your second Hellraiser sequel out of 3 (with Hellworld
coming up). What is it about the franchise that keeps you coming
back to it?

I was offered
Hellraiser: Hellseeker and had a wonderful experience from all
aspects of the production. I was developing a few other projects
that were not on the fast track to production when (Executive
Producer) Nick Phillips called from Dimension and asked me to do
another one. We piggybacked the two together (7 & 8) so it really
felt like one film.

Clive Barker was
very helpful and considerate in offering idea’s during filming and
post production (although Clive officially had nothing to do with
the films) and it was in part to his kindness and enthusiasm that I
came back for another run at it.

From a
production standpoint, I think it’s also a little like episodic
television. There are often one or two directors that repeat
regularly because they become familiar with the characters and
storyline, and with the quick pace of the schedule. These films are
direct to video for a reason, there is not a lot of money spent on
the production (compared to most theatrical releases) and therefore
these have to be done quickly and efficiently. That’ s a big part
of getting the job.

At this point
are you trying to keep to Clive Barker’s original flavor to any
degree with your sequels or are you going your own way?

Clive’s film was
made 18 years ago, so the techniques and styles I use are clearly
different. But in terms of scare strategy, yes, I watched Hellraiser
many times to note his pacing of both the horror, and the
storytelling. If you look at Hellseeker, you’ll find several ”winks”
to the original (these should be obvious to the true fan). Doug
Bradley was also a much-appreciated collaborator in keeping Clive’s
mythology on course to the original. Obviously, we have branched off
in many directions, but that’s what happens when you get past the
third installment of any storyline. Eventually, you’re going to jump
the shark. When we did is up for debate.

How prominent is
Pinhead’s presence in your upcoming two Hellraiser sequels? Has he
changed or evolved since Hellseeker?

That question
seems to be at the center of every review and inquiry regarding the
sequels. I answer that by saying that Pinhead’s screen time in the
original is, in fact, minimal by comparison. In fact, most of the
horror films that work for me are the ones in which the “unknown” is
kept….. UNKNOWN! As I said, the audience now knows (and loves)
Pinhead, and I realize people rent his movies to see him, but from a
genre stand point, and as the filmmaker, my intention is to balance
his on-screen presence with the characters ability to sustain
tension and anxiety for the viewer. That translates into finding new
ways to scare without necessarily seeing Pinhead in every horror
scene. Too much on screen time for Pinhead renders a “guy in a
rubber suit” and not necessarily more scares.

What was the
biggest obstacle you encountered while shooting Deader and how did
you overcome it?

The biggest
obstacle is going to be obvious to the Hellraiser fan base. The
script “Deader” was a script Dimension had previously purchased, and
wanted to make, but could never develop it into something they
wanted to finance. It must have started gathering dust on the
shelf, so they gave it to Tim Day (who co-wrote Hellseeker) with the
directive “turn this into a Hellraiser film”. The central character
Winter, who was the antagonist in Deader, suddenly became a
secondary character to Pinhead.

This weakened
the plot of the Deader script; then the Deader mythology had to be
twisted to fit into the Hellraiser mythology, which weakened the
Hellraiser script. I feel both storylines suffered to some degree,
but I also think we had a tight shooting script to work from.
Arguably it was a stretch to link the lineage of Pinhead and Winter
to help merge the Deader mythology with the franchise, but it was
the mandate set before us. Don’t expect any Winter references in any
future sequels.

What’s your
favorite gore howler out of Hellraiser Deader?

I knew from the
beginning that the bathroom sequence had potential to be a real
scream. It works very well, mostly due to an all out performance by
Kari Wurher. Runner up would have to be the Marla bathroom
sequence. Everyone who watches it knows she’s going to jump out at
Amy, but I delayed that moment for so long you let your guard down,
and that’s when we strike. It would have been a good popcorn spill
had this been released theatrically.

Lots of fans (me
included) were disappointed by the Kristy cameo in Part 6. Do you
have any intentions of bringing the lass back for a more prominent
go at it with Pinhead?

Ashley Lawrence
was offered the part very early in the pre-production of Hellseeker.
We had all intentions of writing the story around her character more
than we did. I was told she wasn’t available, and we changed
course. Weeks before shooting Doug Bradley called her directly to
say hello, and she told him she never heard anything about it. I
think her agents were negligent with the information.

Sadly, by that
time we couldn’t really change the course of the story, but we did
rewrtte the Kristy part for Ashley with as much of a tie-in to the
original as we could. But again, we had a script from Dimension
that we had to rewrite and were obliged to a central storyline. I
would have most certainly included her more if the script were to be
written from page one.

At this point is
there a Pinhead Vs. “somebody” being planned or talked about?

There was for a
few minutes after Freddy VS. Jason opened so big a few summers ago.
I’ve read internet rumors that Clive Barker is considering another
storyline centering around Pinheads termination. For me, I’m done
with the franchise. But, never say never…

It is said that
you shot some sequences for Robert Harmon’s THEY. Care to share with
us which ones?

Robert wasn’t
available for the re-shoots of They. We re-shoot a small part of the
ending that, understandably, Robert wasn’t too happy about. After
your question, I looked it up on IMDB and found my name along with
his for directing “They” which is a joke. I shot a couple days for
the production, but the film is entirely, and completely his. I
will be correcting that error on the website as soon as I finish
this interview…

What’s next on
your plate as a director? Any new projects up in the air?

As a horror film director, it’s a full time
job looking up in the air for new projects. In the meantime, I
write, I read,…and I watch every horror film I can get my
hands on.

Buy Hellraiser Deader here

I’d
like to thank
Rick for dropping by the site and
being so candid about his DEADER experience. Looking forward to
Hellworld! BRING IT!