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‘Hellraiser’ Director David Bruckner Details the Fleshy New Look of the Cenobites [Interview]
Hulu’s Hellraiser, a reimagining of Clive Barker’s 1987 horror classic from director David Bruckner, is available now exclusively on Hulu.
In the new Hellraiser movie from Hulu, “A young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.”
The film summons forth a new batch of Cenobites, led by Jamie Clayton’s Hell Priest. Bruckner’s vision for the iconic Cenobites forgoes the leather and pushes the self-mutilation even further. In the Priest’s case, it results in extravagant robes made of flesh.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with Bruckner on the new look of the Cenobites, from concept art through to practical effects prosthetics.
“I didn’t know how to replicate the original Hellraiser,” Bruckner explained the initial concept change. “It’s too good of a movie to copy it in some way. To be honest, I don’t know where this movie will end up in terms of how much nostalgia it has to offer, but I find that nostalgia alone is not something that excites me very much. Hellraiser’s always been known and revered for its design, and I wanted us to be able to join in that conversation and riff alongside what had come before us. To me, creatively, that’s a way to show one’s appreciation, but you have to be willing to allow it to change in some way or another. To not think of that as a violation of what we love, but as a continued conversation.”
The approach meant reflecting on the past and present eras and the Cenobites’ role in both.
Bruckner explains, “A lot of that means being open to a contemporary context. In thinking about black leather, in particular, I felt that our conversations about BDSM have changed. That fetish culture is something that is much, much more above board than it was in ’87. Back then, we allowed some Cenobites, leather-clad Cenobites, to scare the hell out of some suburbanites that were afraid to look at themselves in some way. Nowadays, we’re very much doing that. You’re talking about a conversation that’s high in consent and communication. You’re seeing echoes of that creeping into fashion. I was joking that my mom reads 50 Shades. It’s kind of everywhere in some way. Not that it’s not relevant to what the Cenobites are in their pursuit of experience, extreme as it may be, but that such an overt nod might play differently nowadays. We were exploring alternatives to that.
“How do we do that now in a way that is still shocking and can unsettle us? And we had an idea, and I don’t actually remember where the initial idea came from. But the notion came from a conversation of what is leather, if not a representation of skin form-fitting that can accent the human body in various ways. And we started thinking about extreme versions of body modification, and this idea emerged of, what if they were their own leather? What if they were so modified that their flesh was tailored in such extreme ways that it felt like clothing? And that it had all the personality you might find on a work of art bestowed upon a runway model. Except it was born of the body, and it could have the potential to capture the regal vanity that the Cenobites carry, which is, again, a reflection of their principled nature towards their pursuits. That was really exciting. I think once we had that idea, we didn’t look back.”
Bruckner credits his conceptual and SFX artists Josh and Sierra Russell, whom he’d collaborated with frequently.
“I have to sing the praises of and emphasize the influence of Keith Thompson. Keith Thompson’s a concept designer I’ve worked with since The Ritual. He is solely responsible for the vision that is The Ritual monster,” Bruckner tells us. “The Russells and I brought it to life in so many ways. But yeah, Keith has a very, very unique approach to design. He’s taught me a lot in the time that we’ve worked together about what makes great design and what’s a design that you can get lost in? I think one of the things I’ve taken to heart and tried to run with in the movies is the idea that oftentimes the first flash that you see of something might create an argument in your mind. If it’s a big monster in the woods movie, then if you’re waiting for the monster reveal there, it’s always a little disappointing the first time you see it. Because, as fans of the genre, it all gets reductive at a certain point. We haven’t seen anything new. But it’s impossible to do something new.
“But if that second beat of recognition can be something that you can lean into, if there are mysteries present in the image that can lose you, then you can gain future traction in the experience. And so that was very much the approach to the Cenobites. And Keith got a hold of this idea of skin, what if they were their own leather, and began to explore.”
In addition to Clayton’s Hell Priest, there are an additional six credited Cenobites: The Chatterer (Jason Liles), The Weeper (Yinka Olorunnife), The Gasp (Selina Lo), The Asphyx (Zachary Hing), The Mother (Gorica Regodic), and The Masque (Vukasin Jovanovic). That means many design concepts and an even bigger hurdle of bringing them all to life via special makeup effects.
Vukašin Jovanović as The Masque in Spyglass Media Group’s HELLRAISER, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of Spyglass Media Group. © 2022 Spyglass Media Group. All Rights Reserved.
Bruckner breaks down the process: “Keith Thompson and I did several rounds in design back in the fall of 2020, and then the Russells came on board, and this is, I think, my fourth movie with the Russells at this point. They had the impossible task of figuring out how to accomplish this. Prosthetics are hard anyway, but full-body prosthetics are a whole different ballgame. As you mentioned, counting the Priest, we have at least seven Cenobites in the movie, depending on how you think about where some of the events turn. That’s a lot of work; that’s a lot of time in the chair. A lot of creativity comes into play when Josh and Sierra have to figure out how to implement this stuff. There’s obviously a creative license that takes place.
“So, there’s a further layer of collaboration with them to bring these creatures to life. I’ll say, too, that none of this worked for our schedule. It looked impossible. We have 45 days to shoot this movie, which is a good amount of time for some films, but given the amount of gags and madness on screen, it’s not a lot of time. They came up with a really fascinating way to create the skin suits that was a two-layered approach where you have a muscular base layer, and then you have the skin layer that sits on top of it. There is tension in the movement between those two layers that you may not notice in overt fashion, but you can see a tension between those two textures in a way that your brain recognizes. Then we use a little bit of VFX augmentation to pull it all together and paint out the seams.
“It was a logistical challenge to figure out how much we could do in VFX but still feel completely practical. Then how much that would free us up to suit them up faster so that we’d have more time to shoot. We were in the weeds on that, but Josh, Sierra, and their team pulled off an enormous feat with this. Cause they also had to do all the other gags in the movie, as well.”
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
‘Abigail’ Review – Radio Silence Delivers Another Gory Good Time at the Movies
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