Pinhead rides again.
Horror fans of a certain vintage likely have a lot of time for
Hellraiser.
Based on Clive Barker's short story The Hellbound Heart and later directed by the man himself, the 1987 low budget chiller boasts a lot of charm.
It's weirder than you remember, for one, and pleasingly self-contained as uniquely crafted demons emerge from the darkest corners of hell in order to retrieve an escaped soul.
Not only that, but terrifying poster boy Pinhead is barely in the thing, yet his image was so powerful that audiences demanded more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rjDx2v12TA
Clip via Rivera1090
Cue an ambitious but stumbling sequel and then... well, the third movie came out and a once-promising horror icon became a quipping Freddy Kruger type and all hope was lost.
Amazingly, there are
10 films in the franchise, with most of them going straight to video, DVD, Blu-Ray, or general obscurity.
One of them - 2011's pathetic Hellraiser: Revelations, a film so bad that Pinhead actor Doug Bradley could finally take no more - was made purely to keep the rights.
Yet another - Hellraiser: Judgment - followed last year, and fans seemingly didn't mind that one too much, but Pinhead really has been a spent force on cinema screens for a very long time.
Talk of a proper, big studio-fronted Hellraiser reboot has been doing the rounds for years now, and it seems, finally, it's on.
Variety reports that David S. Goyer, a writer of notable blockbuster pedigree having penned the Blade trilogy, co-written the Nolan Batman trilogy, as well as working on, er, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, will head up Pinhead's revival.
Goyer will both produce and craft the script for the reboot, with Spyglass Media Group taking on the project as they look to finance, develop and "fast track" the movie.
Spyglass chief Gary Barber has told fans to expect a "loyal, yet evolved reimagining" of Clive Barker's work.
Goyer, meanwhile, seems pretty excited about the whole thing.
“I’ve been a fan of Clive’s work since the original Books of Blood paperbacks and The Hellbound Heart novella," he said.
"Having the chance to reimagine Pinhead and the Cenobites for a new audience is a nightmare-come-true.
"Gary is a true fan as well and we’re committed to making something dark and visceral.”
No word on a release date yet, but given the "fast track" note, it shouldn't be too long. Let's hope they actually do this thing justice again some 30+ years on...
