At this weekend’s Silver Scream Con in Massachusetts, horror icon Doug Bradley — who, of course, portrayed Pinhead in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser and its first seven sequels — weighed in on the decision to cast Jamie Clayton as a female Pinhead in David Bruckner‘s upcoming Hellraiser reimagining.

“It seemed like [a female Pinhead] was coming. It’s an interesting piece of casting,” Bradley says. “I don’t know Jamie. Of course, they’ve taken even a little bit of a wrinkle in that, because Jamie is transgender. I’m not familiar with her recent work, but there was a science fiction series on Netflix several years ago called Sense8, which I was quite a fan of. Jamie was in that, and I really, really liked her performance in that.”

“I really can’t say more than that. I do like to point out that I did wear a skirt as Pinhead,” he adds with a chuckle. “It’s an interesting casting decision. Well, that only goes so far. We say ‘female Pinhead’ like we know what that means, but there are a million shades of femininity. Where exactly are they going to go with that?”

Bradley continues, “Everything about Hellraiser has always been transgressive. Everything, always, from start to finish. It’s not a new idea in that sense, but I’m intrigued. I’m in the same position as all the rest of you, I guess, to see where that goes.”

Bradley goes on to confirm that Chatterer will be among the Cenobites appearing in the new film. “I was at Monsterpalooza, a convention in Pasadena, a couple months ago, and I met the guy who’s playing the new Chatterer. He’s like 6’9″ and a beanpole, so they’re going in lots of different directions. It’s another interesting casting idea. Cenobites of all shapes and sizes!”

Ultimately, he emphasizes that the story is of paramount importance. “The thing that will make the movie work or not is none of that. It’s the story. If the story is strong, the movie will work. That’s why Hellraiser has succeeded; not because the Cenobites are gloriously fucked up and so is Julia, which they all are. All of those elements are magnificent in the film, and Chris Young’s score is one of the best ever written. All of that is true, but the story is what makes Hellraiser work, so we’ll see what happens.”

Bradley, along with the rest of us, will indeed see what happens when Hellraiser drops on Hulu on October 7.