Friday, March 29, 2024

HBO To Expand ‘Hellraiser’ Horror Franchise With TV Series

*As a fan of the horror franchise “Hellraiser,” here’s some pretty exciting news about a potential TV series based on the film series.

HBO has teamed with writers Mark Verheiden and Michael Dougherty, and director David Gordon Green (2018’s “Halloween”) for a continuation and expansion — not a reboot — of the franchise, which centers on a group of creatures from hell known as Cenobites, led by the main antagonist of the film series, Pinhead and his mysterious puzzle box, per The Hollywood Reporter.

The “Hellraiser” series currently consists of 10 films, and the HBO project is separate from a reboot of the franchise that Spyglass Media has in development.

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The first “Hellraiser” film, written and directed by Clive Barker and based on his novella “The Hellbound Heart,” dropped in 1987. Barker had this to say about his supernatural horror film in a 1987 interview with Fangoria:

“With Hellraiser, we’re delving into the dark side of desire. This is an extremely dark story, but there’s visual grace and elegance present… The imagery we’re employing is, as far as the creatures from hell are concerned, something that hasn’t been done before. They’re like sadomasochists from beyond the grave. In fact, that’s what I originally wanted to call the picture, but they wouldn’t let me! What I like very much is the notion of intellectual puzzles resulting in physical manifestations of one kind or another. In ‘The Inhuman Condition’, the puzzle stands for many things, such as evolution; you solve the knots and beasts – which are three parts of the evolutionary puzzle – appear.

In Hellraiser, the puzzle stands for something quite different – it’s a way to open a door to hell, but it also stands for the puzzle of desire, because the configuration is tantalising in that if you solve it, you’re supposed to have access to physical experience beyond the level that one can ever hope to reach in this world… After you solve the puzzle, which requires intellect and systematic investigation, you then have access to this sudden surge of physical experience. It’s a paradox which greatly appeals to me. Hellraiser has turned out to be far weirder than I expected.”

“Hellraiser” was reportedly banned in Ontario by the Ontario Film and Video Review Board because of its “brutal, graphic violence with blood-letting throughout, horror, degradation and torture.”

Barker reportedly had to make some cuts on the film after the MPAA gave it an X rating. He told Film Threat: “I think in ‘Hellraiser’, we get away with a lot of stuff which I was kind of surprised by frankly. I was surprised that the MPAA was as accepting of some of that imagery, which is very seriously taken necrophiliac imagery, as it was. Maybe they didn’t get it, I don’t know.”

Barker is not currently involved with the HBO project.

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