As we all know by now, the new Pinhead in HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT will be played by Paul T. Taylor. Taylor, who is also starring in our own Jimmy O's currently shooting flick SICK FOR TOYS, recently sat down with Jimmy O and gave him the EXCLUSIVE scoop on the new HELLRAISER flick.
Paul T. Taylor on the HELLRAISER: JUDGEMENT script and what we can expect:
The script is very reflective of the early works of Clive Barker, and I don’t mean just “The Hellbound Heart,” which is what it was based on. Books like “Books of Blood” and his early works. I think that when Gary was writing the script – he’s sort of a Clive Barker scholar I guess, I think he reads or has read anything that Clive has ever written because he absolutely loves Clive Barker and his work – so when he wrote the script it really had the flavor of Barker’s world that was created in the first film.
When this story starts we are at a place where it’s established that the puzzle box is obviously [introduced]. Everyone who knows HELLRAISER, the puzzle box is what it is, it’s a tool that we use. And to connect with the souls , to gather the souls, to punish or ravish or however you want to put it, the people who are seeking the experience. But over the years it has evolved into something more about punishment than I think anything else. Like, you are a bad person, I’m here to do my job, I’m going to… I don’t know, chop your head off for example. That happened in one of the later HELLRAISERS. Why is Pinhead chopping someone’s head off?? Because it was in the script. I mean, it was fabulous but it was like, well here is Pinhead in the basement with an axe and he’s going to chop someone’s head off. Okay. Not exactly S and M, it goes a little further than that.
Taylor on where HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT begins:
There is a conversation happening when it starts, and it’s between Pinhead and a new character. And it is about, okay, we’ve established this puzzle box and times have changed and we need to come up with some new methods. We need a new mechanism, we need something new. A tool we can use to do our jobs. And they are speaking from a place that is another region in Hell. It is sort of the offices I guess you could say. It’s not literally any of this, but how I see it. And they are working. They are at work. This is not them punishing anyone currently. So there is a new mechanism and can’t talk about that, but I’m just going to say that the puzzle box is always there. It’s not going to ever go away. If you don’t have a puzzle box in HELLRAISER, forget about it. So that is where we are it the world where Pinhead exists. That plane in hell where Pinhead exists.
Taylor on the main HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT story:
The main story though is always about the horrible humans. Main story is about a serial killer and these two brothers who are detectives and a female detective who joins them. They join forces to find this serial killer. And of course all the little HELLRAISER, dangerous stuff is happening underneath all that going on. It’s like the first HELLRAISER film. It wasn’t about the Cenobites, it wasn’t about Pinhead at all, he had like five minutes of screen time total. It was about this adulterous wife who was so full of lust and evil that she brought her dead boyfriend back to life who was the brother of her husband. It was a crazy, adulterous, murderous story. So it follows that same formula as it were, although I hate the word formula but it works for the HELLRAISER films. But the script is so good in telling that story and telling this new angle about Pinhead and the Cenobites, it’s a new development or new chapter as it were.
Taylor on writer/director Gary J. Tunnicliffe's approach to the flick:
On the set, the aesthetics that drove the work were the Davids’, and those being Cronenberg, Lynch and Fincher. That was Gary’s inspiration for the aesthetics of the movie. And some people who have seen it say that it feels like THE CELL and SEVEN mixed with HELLRAISER.
Cronenberg, Fincher, and Lynch?? I'm so f*cking there!
I don't know about you but the more I hear about HELLRAISER: JUDGEMENT the more excited I get about finally peeping the flick once it hits. If Dimension ever releases it that is…
We'll keep you guys up to date on all HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT news, and also keep an eye out for updates on Jimmy O's new flick SICK FOR TOYS!