Editorials
Doug Bradley Talks Pinhead’s Humanity and Reveals Unused Sequel Scenes
Hellbound: Hellraiser II introduces the origin story of Pinhead. We see that he was once a World War I soldier who opened that lament configuration and became the leader of Hell’s Cenobites. Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth would give his human incarnation a name and further story. At a Screamfest Q&A for Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Doug Bradley said he already knew Pinhead was human in the first Hellraiser, even though it was not revealed.
“In Hellraiser, I knew that Pinhead had once been human,” Bradley said.
“I didn’t know who and I didn’t know when. I’d not discussed any specific details of the backstory with Clive [Barker] for Hellraiser, but I knew that he had been human. I used that to hang two things on. One, that among many things I felt about Pinhead looking in the mirror was melancholy, and the sense of loss. I attached that to his sense of a loss of humanity that he couldn’t remember. I decided that he couldn’t remember who he’d been but he had an awareness of having been human which also to me made sense of his endless fascination with human beings and the dark, dirty corners of their minds and souls.”
There may have been a little more of Bradley sans makeup in Hellraiser II. Two establishing scenes were either unfilmed or cut out of the film. In one, he purchases the lament box.
“In the Indian bazaar to establish that he’s in India,” Bradley said. “The only indication we have that he’s in India is the guy speaking Indian on the radio and the fact that he’s in a tropical uniform.”
Bradley also put to rest a rumor that he almost chose a minor role of the mattress delivery man instead of the iconic Pinhead in the original Hellraiser. He confirmed that he was always up for Pinhead.
“As far as I know and as far as I remember, I was going to play Pinhead,” Bradley said.
“When [producer] Chris Figg called me to say, ‘We need to finalize this,’ I’d already been talking to Clive about Pinhead and who he was and blah blah blah. Chris said, ‘There is one other role available.’ That was the mattress delivery guy. What I said in this interview was there was a moment when I thought, ‘Maybe it would be to my benefit to be seen as me on screen. So if I go to subsequent auditions, he’ll say, ‘Have I seen you in anything recently?’ I can mention, ‘Oh you may have seen me as the mattress delivery guy.’ That went across my mind very briefly, but there was always something about this mysterious guy with pins in his head. There was never any doubt in my mind and I didn’t audition. I never auditioned. I mentioned this once in an interview way back when. If I could take anything back, it would be that moment.”
Sequels could have taken Pinhead in different directions. Instead, we got his Hellraiser III and Bloodline backstories. Hellbound writer Peter Atkins referred to “some Godfather Hellraiser movie” and Bradley recalled another version of Pinhead’s resurrection post-Hellbound.
“Pinhead being resurrected out of an altar in a church and the building was the lament configuration,” Bradley said.
What do you guys think?!
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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