ICV2 carries news that Clive Barker is to remake his original Hellraiser movie. Clive is writing a new version of the 1987 classic film which has since entered horror movie popular culture; he will produce the movie as well, but has no wish to direct it. As a horror fan I am normally not too happy with the remakes (more often simple retreads methinks); some like the Dawn of the Dead remake had some decent points but still lacked the substance and depth of the original, relying instead on effects and shocks, which shows a lack of understanding of what makes good horror (yes, I do enjoy gore, but that isn’t enough for a real horror and sudden ‘jump shocks’ don’t count at all in my opinion). And to remake such an iconic, landmark movie… Hmmmm….
That said, it is Clive revisiting his own work and Clive is a fantastic writer (not just of horror, he’s just a damned good writer, period) and if he is redoing this then I will assume that he has something new he really wants to explore in it, so I’m suspending my usual Bookseller’s Cynicism in this case because I trust his work. I do wonder if Doug Bradley will be in the mask as Pinhead again though – yes, it is a good number of years later, but since his face is concealed under layers of make-up he could surely still play the role, assuming that he (and Clive) want to. Be interesting to see how this turns out. And on a related topic, is that Doug Bradley in those TV (and billboard) insurance adverts running right now? Or did I just imagine that because I’m tickled with the idea of Mr Pinhead selling insurance cover…
October 24th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Why wouldn’t Doug Bradley be in a remake? He’s been in every Hellraiser movie ever made. All EIGHT of them. I recently saw him in Hellraiser: Hellworld, which was not a particularly good movie. But I watch the Hellraiser movies whenever they come out of DVD, sadly.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:38 am
Yeah, I’d hope Doug is in it too – I can’t imagine buying the character of Pinhead with anyone else playing him. And since he will be under special make-up the fact he is a few years older isn’t going to be visible.