Movies
Patrick Lussier’s ‘Hellraiser’ Would Have Been a Prequel!
“It’s Uncle Frank! Come here, damn you, I want to touch you.”
Those who listened to Joe Lynch and Adam Greens’s “The Movie Crypt” podcast entered hell with filmmaker Patrick Lussier.
Lussier discussed his plans for a Hellraiser remake that he had been working on with Todd Farmer for The Weinstein Company.
Those familiar with Clive Barker’s remarkable 1987 indie Hellraiser remember that the central antagonist wasn’t actually Pinhead and the Cenobites but “Uncle” Frank (Sean Chapman). The film open with Frank receiving Lemarchand’s box and opening it in his attic. When his brother and wife move in, a drop of blood releases him from Hell, sending the Cenobites after him.
Lussier and Farmer’s idea was to tell the story of Frank seeking out the box, which would bring some adventure to the Hellraiser franchise, and reveal the (new) origins of Pinhead.
“We wanted to make another movie with [William] Fichtner,” revealed Lussier, who directed the actor in Drive Angry.
“The idea essentially was that we never see the story of Frank getting the box. So imagine if Frank is actually the darkest version of Jack Bauer (from “24”) and Nicolas Cage from National Treasure. It would have been the evil National Treasure story.”
He continues: “In the beginning [Frank] is going to get the box, and he’s in Shanghai. He gets caught and they hold him down and they hammer these fucking nails into his head, but he gets free and kills everyone. But he does get the box which is being held by this guy who looks like he’s all bloated and has been ripped apart by the Cenobites. Frank steals the box and then… bad things happen.”
In this prequel/remake, Fichtner becomes the new Pinhead for the younger generation.
I absolutely love this idea because the Hellraiser franchise became way too much about Pinhead instead of focusing on the box and the concept of Hell, like the first four films.
Clive Barker was never involved in their take as he had been developing a remake of his own.
The Hellraiser franchise is quite literally in Hell. The Weinstein Company must continue to make films in order to retain the rights. If they can’t get a fresh and reinvigorating interpretation off the ground they will eventually half-ass a sequel, like Víctor García’s Hellraiser: Revelations, and repeat indefinitely. The irony of its tortured existence.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser is easily one of my favorite horror films, and the first four are all filled with such sweet, sweet suffering. I’d give my flesh for Dimension to put some heart and soul into bringing my nightmares back to theaters.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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