TheHellraiserfranchise is back and it has such sights to show you. Spyglass Media’s re-imagining of the iconic 80s horror movie will see the filmmaking team behindthe Sundance horror hitThe Night Housereunite to take on Pinhead and the rest of those pesky sadomasochists from beyond the grave.Night HousedirectorDavid Bruckner, who previously helmed Netflix’sThe Ritualas well as standout segments in the anthologiesV/H/SandSouthbound, will direct the new take onHellraiser.Night HouseproducerDavid Goyerwill write the story and produce alongsideKeith Levine.Night HouseandSuper Dark TimesscreenwritersBen CollinsandLuke Piotrowskiare set to write the screenplay. The great horror and fantasy polymathClive Barkerwrote and directed the 1987 original film, adapting from his own novellaThe Hellbound Heart, which introduced horror audiences to the tantalizing tortures of the Cenobites; a demonic race of sadomasochistic creatures from a hellish dimension, led byDougBradley’s iconic Pinhead.
The Hollywood Reporterbroke the news and though they didn’t have any specifics on how Bruckner’s team is approaching the re-imagining, Spyglass is said to describe the reboot as “loyal, yet evolved.” The film production company is also currently in the works on a reboot ofWes Craven’s beloved 90s slasherScream.
It’s hard to know exactly what to make of this news without more information, especially considering how challenging it has been for filmmakers across generations to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was the originalHellraiser. I don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve seen the ‘87 film, but that is a deeply weird, fearlessly kinky and all-around stylistically unique piece of horror cinema. Even the immediate sequel, which is still pretty dang great, couldn’t quite tap into that bizarre live wire current.
But that doesn’t mean filmmakers have stopped trying. TheHellraiserfranchise has endured over the decades, with the most recent,Hellraiser: Judgmentarriving in just 2018. That film was an absolutely bonkers piece of grotesquerie, pitched somewhere betweenSaw,Silent Hilland theHellraisermythology, and with a whole history of “ehhhhh” to downright terrible sequels behind them and no real lag in the release schedule to build up nostalgia, I’m curious to see what new twisted terrors Spyglass can come up with to get audiences hyped for Pinhead’s hellbound horrors once again.
For more spooky goodness, check out our list ofthe best horror films on Netflix.
