I'm usually pretty good at reserving judgement until I've seen the thing I'm actually judging. Usually. But I have to admit my heart sank when I saw this trailer...
Here's a bit of history (which I haven't bothered to research properly so it's history as I vaguely remember it). Dimension were trying to remake Hellraiser for ages. Hellraiser is one of my personal favourite films of all time. Still, I am an optimist and I knowing that people won't leave things alone if there's a possibility it can make them more money I could see the logic. The straight-to-video sequels had become progressively less interesting over the years (I really like number 5 but it's downhill from there). Mostly they were made up of unproduced horror scripts that they shoehorned the Pinhead character into so they could attach it to the franchise ('they' being Dimension). Again this makes good business sense, but it also resulted in some dull and fairly confusing films. So it needed to either be rebooted or stopped altogether. Personally I would've opted for stopping, but...
A couple of things actually got me quite excited about the remake. First Clive Barker signed up to write the script, specifically stating that if they were going to do it anyway he'd like to at least have some control over how they did it. Secondly, one of the directors attached at one stage was Pascal Laugier, director of Martyrs which is probably the best horror film I've seen in the last ten years. He was the perfect choice. What makes Martyrs great is that it's a horror film that's about something. It tells a proper story with themes and interesting characters and ultimately asks some tough questions. It's a film that's impossible to forget. Which is also what I loved about Hellraiser.
I don't think Laugier and Barker were ever attached to the project at the same time but in the end that didn't matter. They both ended up quitting. A couple more directors may have been announced but ultimately it looked like the remake was dead and maybe that was for the best. Then Dimension announced that they would be making another sequel instead. And that's where the trailer comes from.
I don't think it's necessarily fair to criticise the trailer before seeing the film and I'm sure everyone involved tried their hardest to make it work on what looks like a minuscule budget. The writer, Gary J. Tunnicliffe, has been involved with Hellraiser since the third film as part of the make-up effects crew and later became the principle make-up effects artist for the sequels. In a way he's the perfect person to write the script, and for all I know the script could be brilliant. It is at least a straight Hellraiser film and not an old script that they've reformatted for the franchise. Also, Tunnicliffe's self-produced Hellraiser fan film No More Souls is actually pretty good...
So despite the fact that there's clearly no money behind Hellraiser: Revelations can it really be all that bad? One obvious thing makes me think yes, it can be. There's no Doug Bradley. If you're still with me I'm assuming you know Doug Bradley's role in the films. While he got less and less screen time with each new film his performance was always spot on. There was something otherworldly about the way he played Pinhead. Hearing that voice always sent a shiver down my spine and it was creepy without ever being over-the-top. It's only now, seeing someone else perform that role, that I really appreciate how much Pinhead belonged to Doug Bradley. He was Pinhead. And now he's not anymore.
For all I know Doug could have turned the role down or maybe even wanted to do it but couldn't for whatever reason. But the thing that really disappoints me about this and about the way the remake fell apart is that whoever is making the decisions has a complete lack of understanding of the elements that made Hellraiser work. One of those elements is Doug Bradley. Ideally you shouldn't be making a Hellraiser film without him, only I appreciate films don't really work like that. But if you don't have him you rewrite it, you take Pinhead out, you do something else. In a way I would even have been happier if Gary Tunnicliffe had played the role again as he did in his short - that at least would've shown some respect to the franchise. In a way I would rather see a fan film than a half-hearted attempt to make some more money from optimistic idiots like me who'll pay to see anything with Hellraiser in the title.
I should at least thank them for giving me something to blog about. I've had a tough few weeks recently and I was considering giving up on the blog until I saw that trailer. Hopefully I'll have something more positive to write about next time.
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