Movies
Clive Barker Had Spectacular Plans For ‘Hellraiser 3’!
It looks like Jon was onto something when he suggested removing Pinhead in order to fix the Hellraiser franchise. While it may have sounded blasphemous to many of us hardcore horror fans, it’s not far off from what franchise creator Clive Barker was planning way back during the filming of Hellbound: Hellraiser II.
Doug Bradley, who played Pinhead in Barker’s Hellraiser and several of its sequels, appeared on Brainwaves the other night. The conversation took an interesting turn when Bradley, who has always been incredibly honest and candid, revealed Barker’s shocking original plans for Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth. Barker planned to forge a new path, which would eliminate Pinhead from the story, but also introduce the first ever Cenobite!
“Clive had a plan for a third ‘Hellraiser’ movie which he was working on while we were filming ‘Hellbound’ that didn’t involve Pinhead at all,” Bradley explained. “It was a story set in Ancient Egypt. The Great Pyramid was the first Lament Configuration that was built to raise the great Pharaoh, who was the first Cenobite.”
It’s hard to imagine them being able to pull off such a massive idea with a limited budget (the Hellraiser films were relatively cheap). But, it’s also one of the coolest takes on the mythology I’ve heard, and would do just about anything to see what Barker had penned (on paper, of course) at the time. Just thinking about the concept of the Great Pyramid as a Lament Configuration is beyond brilliant, not to mention injecting a real-world parallel that horror films so desperately need in order to add believability and horror to them. I also love how this would have set up Bloodline, which would have had the last Lament Configuration ever.
What do you guys think? I sort of feel robbed of greatness, even though I love the time Pinhead brought Hell to Earth…
Photo Credit: The National Galleries of Scotland
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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