More revelations about, er...Hellraiser: Revelations...

Something was bugging me about that last post and I've decided it was a pretty poor effort for my triumphant return to blogging. I really did want to blog about how the trailer for Hellraiser: Revelations made me angry because it looks terrible and I was going to write a whole rant about that. Then I backed off a bit because I didn't want to come off like a typical internet critic, complaining like the world is going to end because someone has made a film I don't like the look of. In the end I went for somewhere in between, which is probably worse.

After I posted it I watched the trailer again to check the link was working and realised I'd maybe been a little unfair. The spirit of the film seems to have more in common with the first film than the sequels which in a way should be celebrated, or least the intention should be celebrated if not the execution. The real tragedy isn't that someone made a bad film based on a really really good film (they did that with films 6, 7 & 8 in my opinion) it's that Dimension didn't care about the story/franchise enough to give the filmmakers enough time and money to make a decent film.

Then I remembered my university days and decided if I was going to be negative about this I should have some research to back it up rather than a gut reaction to the trailer. Here's what I found out.

Firstly I was heartened to hear that the man himself, Mr Clive Barker, wasn't so happy about the idea either:

http://www.horror-movies.ca/2011/08/clive-barker-new-hellraiser-movie/

Then I found a review of the film, which interestingly mentions the fact that Dimension decided on a sequel as a cheap way to retain the rights to the franchise so they can go ahead with their remake (when they eventually stop fucking around). Here's the review, which I think is actually fairly balanced and does point out that the filmmakers tried to do something in the spirit of the original...

http://cenobite.com/blog/?p=131

Here's Doug Bradley's opinion...

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/39274/hellraiser-revelations-doug-bradley-speaks-out-will-not-be-returning

So Doug did turn it down, ultimately based on the shooting schedule and the budget. This makes sense. If you have a script, a shooting schedule and a budget you can make a good guess as to what the final product will look like and it clearly wasn't looking good. But fair play to him, he does wish them the best of luck with it.

Then I found the whole saga here...

http://www.clivebarker.info/newfilmsb.html

...which also has full details of the remake and the various directors attached which I fumbled through in my previous post.

But the part of that last link that struck a chord was the statement from Gary J Tunnicliffe about his script for Revelations. Partly I put myself in his position - if I'd been asked to write a Hellraiser film, would I turn it down based on the fact that there wasn't enough money? No, I'd try to do the best I could with it and hope people could see through the limitations. And he closes with these words...

'...keep an open mind, try not to judge us too harshly until you see the final result... fingers crossed, we might just surprise you.'

So yes, I still have reservations, I think what Dimension have done with it is a pretty terrible way to treat a much loved franchise and they now need to do something really special with this remake if they're going to get the fans back onside. But I will see the film and perhaps over-optimistically I am looking forward to being surprised.