Hellraiser (franchise)
Hellraiser is a horror franchise that consists of 10 films, a series of books, various comic books, and additional merchandise and media. The franchise is based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by English author Clive Barker, who would go on to write and direct the adaptation of his story, titled Hellraiser. The films, as well as the comic book series, continually feature the Cenobite Pinhead.
The series’ storyline focuses on a puzzle box that opens a gateway to the Hell-like realm of the Cenobites, an order of formerly human monsters who harvest human souls to torture in sadistic experiments. Although Clive Barker wrote the original story, and also wrote and directed the first film, he has not written or directed any of the succeeding sequels. Barker stated that he signed away the story and character rights to the production company before the first film, not realizing what a great success it would be.
Films
Future
In October 2006, Barker announced through his official website that he would be writing the script to a forthcoming remake of the original Hellraiser film, to be produced by Dimension Films. French director Pascal Laugier was set to direct the film but was later taken off the project due to creative differences with the producers; Laugier wanted his film to be a very serious take whereas the producers wanted the film to be more commercial and appeal to a teen audience.On January 28, 2010, Camelot Entertainment Group, Inc. announced that the distributor was working on Unearthed: The Hellraiser Saga, a documentary on the franchise. It will be directed by Stefan Hutchinson and written by Ryan Rotten.
In October 2010, it was officially announced that Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer were to direct and write, respectively, a reboot of the Hellraiser franchise. The film's story would have differed from the original film, as Lussier and Farmer did not want to retell the original story out of respect for Clive Barker's work. The film was to instead focus on the world and function of the puzzle box. However, in 2011, Farmer confirmed that both he and Lussier were dropped from the project.
In October 2013, Clive Barker announced that he would be directing and writing the film; Doug Bradley was to return in his role as Pinhead. Year later, Barker stated that a second draft of the script was completed and described the film as a "very loose" remake of the original film, but said that he may not direct the film. In March 2017, Clive Barker said that the film's "script was written and delivered to Dimension years ago. That was the last anyone heard until news of a sequel surfaced".
After the successful release of the 2018 horror sequel Halloween, Miramax Films confirmed that it was considering beginning production on new installments to the Hellraiser franchise. In May 2019, Gary Barber announced that the Spyglass Media Group would be developing a new remake of Hellraiser to be written and co-produced by David S. Goyer. In April 2020, David Bruckner is reported to direct the remake and Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski to write the script. Later that same month, HBO was announced to develop a Hellraiser television series that would serve as "an elevated continuation and expansion" of its mythology with Mark Verheiden and Michael Dougherty writing the series and David Gordon Green directing several episodes, the three also as executive producing the series with Danny McBride, Jody Hill, Brandon James and Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment.
Production
In the original Hellraiser, Frank Cotton escapes from the Cenobites when his brother Larry spills his own blood on the spot where Frank died opening a puzzle box that opened a gateway to the Cenobites. With the help of Larry's wife Julia, Frank begins regenerating his body with the blood of victims that Julia supplies him. Larry's daughter, Kirsty, accidentally unleashes the Cenobites, but makes a deal to deliver Frank to them in exchange for her own life. After taking Frank, the Cenobites go back on their deal and try and take Kirsty as well. Solving the puzzle box, Kirsty sends the Cenobites back to Hell.In 1988, a sequel titled ' follows Dr. Philip Channard as he resurrects Julia, who was stuck in Hell with the Cenobites. Kirsty is pulled back into the Cenobite world, where the demons decide to keep her, but, having discovered the human identity of the Cenobites earlier, Kirsty appeals to their latent humanity, specifically the Cenobite leader Pinhead. Pinhead decides to release her, but he and his followers are killed by Channard, who has become a Cenobite himself. With the help of a teenage girl, Tiffany, who unknowingly assisted Channard in opening the box, Kirsty and Tiffany escape the Cenobite world and close the gateway behind them.
In ', the revelation of Pinhead's humanity has resulted in a schism, splitting him in two—his human self, World War I veteran Elliot Spencer, and Pinhead, now a living embodiment of Spencer's id. While Spencer is trapped in limbo, Pinhead is trapped, along with the puzzle box, in the surface of an intricately carved pillar, a relic of the Cenobite realm. The pillar is purchased by a night club owner, J.P. Monroe, who begins assisting Pinhead in his resurrection. A television reporter, Joey Summerskill, begins to learn about Pinhead and the puzzle box, which leads her to Monroe's night club. Pinhead is eventually resurrected, and begins creating new Cenobite followers in an effort to establish Hell on Earth. Joey manages to reunite Spencer and Pinhead, fusing them back into one entity, and is able to use the puzzle box to send Pinhead back to his dimension. Afterward, Joey submerges the box into freshly laid cement at a construction site.
' tells the story of the creator of the puzzle box, referred to as the Lament Configuration. A toymaker named Philip Lemarchand is commissioned by the Duc de L'Isle, a wealthy Aristocrat and master of the dark arts, to create the box as a gateway to Hell so that de L'Isle can enslave a demon. Beginning in the distant future, and tracing the history of the box from its creation in 1784, Bloodline shows how the Lemarchand family attempts to close the box forever after learning what L'Isle uses it for. Eventually, Dr. Paul Merchant creates the Elysium Configuration, a space station capable of closing the gateway for good, and he traps Pinhead inside and destroys him and the box.
', the first of the succeeding sequels to be direct-to-video, follows corrupt police Detective Joseph Thorne as he discovers the puzzle box while investigating a series of ritualistic murders. As time goes on he begins to uncover clues that suggest that he is the killer. Eventually, Pinhead appears and informs Thorne that the events of the movie have been transpiring in Thorne's own personal Hell, and that he will be reliving the same series of events for eternity.
In ', Ashley Laurence returns to play Kirsty Cotton. In the opening moments, she and her husband, Trevor, end up in a car accident that kills Kirsty. One month later, Trevor wakes up in a hospital, but because of a head injury, his memory is uncertain and he cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality. As he begins to uncover evidence that he was having a series of affairs, he also comes under suspicion for orchestrating the crash that killed his wife. Pinhead appears in the end, and informs Trevor that he was the one that died in the car crash, his own plot to murder Kirsty for her inheritance backfired when Kirsty offered the Cenobites the lives of Trevor, his mistresses and his co-conspirators in exchange for her own.
In ', reporter Amy Klein is sent to Bucharest to investigate an underground suicide cult founded by a descendant of Philip Lemarchand, who claims to be able to bring back the dead and who believes that it is his birthright to open the puzzle box and control the Cenobites. She is gradually drawn into their world and eventually sees no way out other than to join them. In the end she opens the puzzle box, summoning up Pinhead and the Cenobites, who kill everyone for attempting to invade their world. To prevent Pinhead from taking her soul, Amy kills herself.
' is set in the "real world," in which Hellraiser has spawned a successful MMORPG. Five friends mourning the death of one of their fellow players—who committed suicide after becoming obsessed with the game—receive in-game invitations to a party at the Leviathan House. At the house, the host of the party takes them on a tour of the many layers of the home, after which they are picked off one-by-one by the host or Pinhead. The final two victims ultimately realize that most of the events of the movie have been a hallucination, after the host—the father of their deceased friend, who blames his son's fellow players for not breaking his addiction to the game—drugged them and buried them alive. The police rescue the surviving teenagers, Chelsea and Jake, while the host escapes to a decrepit motel with a suitcase of his son's belongings. The host discovers a real puzzle box inside, and upon opening it is killed by Pinhead and a pair of Cenobites.
In 2011, a ninth film was released to a single theater in California for a crew showing that was ostensibly open to the public. ' is the first film not to feature Doug Bradley as Pinhead and was shot in two weeks for $300,000. It was suggested by Bloody Disgusting that the film was only shot so that The Weinstein Company would not lose its filming rights before it could produce a remake of the original. The film was released on DVD on 18 October 2011.
A tenth film, , began filming in early 2016. Like Revelations, it does not feature Doug Bradley as Pinhead, as he turned down the offer to reprise the role due to the production company's refusal to allow him to read the film's script unless he signed a non-disclosure agreement regarding its contents. This film was released on DVD in February 2018.
Reception
Box office performance
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Critical and public response
Other media
Novels
An anthology book consisting of 21 stories and entitled Hellbound Hearts was released on 29 September 2009. The Scarlet Gospels – a sequel to The Hellbound Heart and crossover with Clive Barker's Harry D'Amour stories – was written by Barker and released in 2015. Hellraiser: The Toll, set before The Scarlet Gospels and after The Hellbound Heart, was written by Mark Alan Miller and published by Subterranean Press in February 2018. In 2016, Paul Kane authored Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell which brings together the world of Hellraiser with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.Comic books
Immediately following the success of the 1987 movie Hellraiser several comics series began to be released.Epic Comics
, an imprint of Marvel Comics, began publishing series of comic book spin-offs for the Hellraiser franchise. The comics contained a set of short stories, with Clive Barker acting as a consultant on all of the comics. Between 1989 and 1992, Epic published twenty regular series comics. They also published three special issues from 1992 to 1994, one being a holiday special, in addition to an adaptation of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth and a collection of the first two issues. Other releases included the limited series Clive Barker's Book of the Damned and Pinhead, as well as the crossovers Hellraiser vs. Nightbreed: Jihad and Pinhead vs. Marshal Law: Law in Hell. The following series were released by Epic Comics:| Name | Years Published | Issues |
| Hellraiser | 1989–1992 | #1–20 |
| Clive Barker's Book of the Damned: A Hellraiser Companion | 1991–1993 | #1–4 |
| Hellraiser vs. Nightbreed: Jihad | 1991 | #1–2 |
| Epic Book One | 1992 | #1 |
| Hellraiser | 1992 | #1 |
| Hellraiser III | 1992 | #1 |
| Hellraiser: Summer Special | 1992 | #1 |
| Hellraiser: Holiday Special | 1992 | #1 |
| Pinhead | 1993–1994 | #1–6 |
| Pinhead vs. Marshal Law: Law in Hell | 1993 | #1–2 |
| Clive Barker's The Harrowers | 1993–1994 | #1–6 |
| Clive Barker's Hellbreed | 1994 | #1–3 |
| Hellraiser: Spring Slaughter | 1994 | #1 |
Boom! Studios
In December, 2010, Boom! Studios announced they would be publishing a new Hellraiser series, written by Clive Barker and Christopher Monfette, beginning March 2011, and would also be reprinting select Epic Comics under the title Hellraiser: Masterworks. The following series were released by Boom! Studios:| Name | Years Published | Issues |
| Hellraiser | 2011–2012 | #1–20, 5 TPBs |
| Hellraiser: Masterpieces | 2011 | #1–12, 2 TPBs |
| Hellraiser: The Road Below | 2012 | #1–4, 1 TPB |
| Hellraiser: The Dark Watch | 2013–2014 | #1–12, 3 TPBs |
| Hellraiser: Bestiary | 2014–2015 | #1–6, 1 TPB |
Seraphim Inc.
Seraphim Incorporated, a graphic novel imprint headed by Clive Barker, began publishing a series of original graphic novels titled Hellraiser: Anthology in 2017. They are collections of stories taking place within the Hellraiser universe hailing from various creators, including Barker himself.| Name | Years Published | Issues |
| Hellraiser: Anthology – Volume 1 | 2017 | 1 TPB |
| Hellraiser: Anthology – Volume 2 | 2017 | 1 TPB |
Video games
Super 3D Noah's Ark began as a Hellraiser license for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The team eventually abandoned the Hellraiser license and converted it into a simplistic Bible-based game. Prior to the release of Bloodline, Magnet Interactive Studios developed an unrelated video game called Hellraiser: Virtual Hell. Bradley acted in the game during filming of Bloodline. Miriam Van Scott, writing in the Encyclopedia of Hell, called it "a slick adventure" that "truly involves the player". In 2011, The Weinstein Company announced video games based on several of their franchises, including Hellraiser. This never came in fruition as the studio became defunct on August 4, 2018.Books
There have been two non-fiction books released that chronicle the Hellraiser films. The first, released on 21 May 2004, was published by Titan Books and titled The Hellraiser Chronicles. Written by Peter Atkins and Stephen Jones, with a foreword by Clive Barker, The Hellraiser Chronicles is a collection of production photographs, design sketches, excerpts from the scripts, and interviews with the cast and crew. The next book, The Hellraiser Films And Their Legacy, was released by McFarland & Company on 27 November 2006; it was written by Paul Kane, and features foreword by Pinhead actor Doug Bradley. Hellraiser Films collects the production history of all eight films, their spin-offs, as well as how the series relates to popular culture. The book provides an in-depth look at the film characters, and interpretations of the choices those characters make in the film. Hellraiser Films also provides a brief look at the fan short film No More Souls.A feature-length documentary, Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II, was originally due for release in 2015, and comprises interviews with the cast and crew. It is being directed by K. John McDonagh and produced by Cult Film Screenings, based in Birmingham, who used Kickstarter to raise the funds necessary to conduct further interviews in the United States, although Clive Barker pulled out at the last minute due to ill health.