[INTERVIEW] New ‘HELLRAISER’ has such sights to show you

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

Though the original HELLRAISER celebrated its 35^th anniversary only a few weeks ago, its re-imagining is making its way onto Hulu this weekend – and boy does director David Bruckner and company have such sights to show you. Frightening, gory and sleek as hell, this new iteration centered on a recovering addict (Odessa A’zion) who accidently opens the puzzle box to dangerous results is updated in all the right ways, delivering innovation while building out franchise lore.

Bruckner, at the film’s recent virtual press conference, said that it was a daunting, but exciting challenge to push the boundaries of an already existing franchise.

“This is my first time ever working with sacred IP and feeling a responsibility to what has come before us and also just being so blown away. HELLRAISER is pretty hard; They’re interdimensional BDSM demons that throw chains at you from a labyrinth. It’s complicated stuff to get right. Actually making one of these films, my admiration goes to all the filmmakers that have come before us on it. 

This was something that we all talked about as a team, and I think everybody was on board for. We also have responsibility to just lose ourselves in this and allow it to take us in different directions if we’re so compelled and to be true to the story that we’re telling. It was a balance of trusting and appreciating what had come before us.”

Bruckner isn’t the only one filling some big shoes vacated by horror titans. Actress Jamie Clayton steps into the role of the Priest – a part Doug Bradley played with perfection. Clayton shares that she wanted to make the role uniquely her own so as not to draw comparisons.

“David and I had so many Zooms and discussions about how the body would look and how the head would be and the sort of stillness that was incorporated. I’m hoping that it’s something really unique. Doug is incredible, but I didn’t want to be compared or have people be like, ‘She nicked that from him. She’s doing that thing that he did,’ which is another reason why I think they wanted a woman to play the role because it takes the burden off the audience of that comparison. Doug is amazing. No one could ever, ever, ever, ever do what he did.”

A’zion had a visceral reaction to seeing the Cenobites in their full costumes for the first time on set.

“It was the craziest shit I have ever seen. I just wasn’t expecting it. It was cool that they brought back some of the old ones and had the new ones – and the new ones were crazy.  Jason is six foot seven, and he comes out in this Chatterer costume and he’s 10 times taller, and it’s the craziest. Watching them put everything on. They had to screw him in. Same with Jamie. They lube it up.”

Goran Visnjic, who plays an eccentric wealthy businessman hellbent on pleasure and pain, also freaked out seeing the actors in full costume and makeup.

“I remember seeing Jamie for the first time. I saw her before, and I saw her in the process of getting the stuff on because I was also having tons of prosthetics and stuff. So she walks on set, and I started laughing, not because it was funny, because I didn’t know what to do. She looked so out of this world.  It was kind of mystical and scary and unusual and unreal, surreal. She was just steady. And her voice – I still kind of feel unusual about that experience. I need to process it.”

Clayton thinks the reason the series has endured all these decades later is because of author Clive Barker’s authenticity.

“Clive is gay and has just a really honest, unique, very sexy approach. He wrote “The Hellbound Heart” off of his experiences going to BDSM clubs in New York in the ’70s.  That’s what makes it different is that he’s not afraid. It’s not just slash them up to slash them up. There’s all these layers and all of these ideas and things that you can dig into – and either you catch them, or you don’t. That’s what I think makes Clive’s ideas really special and really unique.  There’s a sexiness to what he writes and to HELLRAISER that doesn’t exist, in my opinion, in other horror franchises.”

HELLRAISER debuts on Hulu on October 7.