hellraiser

Camelot's DarKnight Pictures will be releasing two horror documentaries, the subject of which is oh so sweet. Unearthed: The Hellraiser Saga and Zombie Culture: Documentary of the Living Dead will be produced by Anthony Masi (Halloween 4, Halloween: 25 Years Later, His Name Was Jason).

With a Hellraiser reboot (heretics!!!) on the way, it seems like the perfect time to release a behind the scenes feature. Unearthed will explore every facet and theme of Clive Barker's two decades of Cenobites in his beloved Hellraiser series. Meanwhile, Zombie Culture is investigating the zombie craze--delivering a retrospective on an eight-decade international obsession with the popular movie monster.

I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen His Name Was Jason but from what I've heard it was a decent overview of the Friday the 13th franchise, with a lot of great behind the scenes stories. According to one friend, the most amusing thing about the doc was listening to everyone try to take credit for revolutionizing the use of a hockey mask. Hellraiser creator, Clive Barker, has said the cenobite fashions and creature designs were heavily influenced by religious garb and alternative lifestyle fashions. This is just one of many compelling factoids behind the franchise so my bets are that Unearthed can't be half bad. As far as Zombie Culture goes--you can never have enough zombie anything. I do hope the documentary touches upon some of the social and/or political influences on zombie cinema. For me, that's a huge part of the undead appeal. What about you?

Word of a Hellraiser remake has been floating around since 2007 when it was revealed that Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, the duo behind the French sensation À l'intérieur, were attached to direct. After a year of near-stagnation, it was then revealed that the scribes of Feast / some of the Saw movies Marcus Dunston and Patrick Melton were attached to write the remake. Eventually, Pascal Laugier, the director behind the controversial French flick Martyrs, became attached to the project. Then, because Pinhead really doesn't seem to want this remake to get made, Laugier took his business elsewhere.

Well, according to Bloody-Disgusting, the Hellraiser remake is officially without a director and a writer, but that still hasn't stopped Dimension Films from pimping their bad boy at the American Film Market. They even gave a synopsis:

"Based on Barker's critically acclaimed novella "The Hellbound Heart," Hellraiser tells the story of an unfaithful wife who attempts to assist her dead lover in his escape from hell. Having lost his earthly body to a trio of forsaken demons - lead bby one of the most enduring horror characters of all time, Pinhead - he must force his former mistress to bring him the necessary human sacrifices to complete his body. Clive Barker's Hellraiser promises to be a terrifying journey into the darkest corners of the soul."

While the notion of a Hellraiser remake is indeed a frightening prospect, the fact that it's going to be made in the dreaded third dimension is enough to make the film far more terrifying than any fate Pinhead can bestow upon you. As of now there is no release

There are two reasons that the Hellraiser series has spawned a bazillion sequels, books, comics and a possible remake. First, Clive Barker is wildly imaginative and can seduce the dark with his poetic and beautifully perverse reverie. Second, the Cenobites.

The word cenobite means 'a member of a monastic community' but the Cenobites in Barker's stories and the Hellraiser film series are the dark guardians of an unholy order. Barker's novella The Hellbound Heart describes the Cenobites as Theologians of the Order of the Gash (or simply, The Gash) and The Hierophants. These creatures can only be summoned through the Schism by a device such as the Lament Configuration. Yeah, that's the infamous puzzle box. Many of the Cenobites were once human but their insatiable appetite led them to open the box -- transforming them into the mutilated figures we know. Purveyors and explorers of the flesh, the Cenobites are called by those who seek unearthly delights and become trapped in an endless cycle of torture and pain.

In the films, Doug Bradley portrays the most well known Cenobite, Pinhead, who is considered the leader of the pack. A former Captain during the First World War, he lost his faith in humanity and sought comfort in the cruel and unusual. Pinhead boasts a head full of pins that have been hammered into his skull, hooks and chains galore (also his favorite weapon) and a torso of peeling flesh. Even though I totally dig his leather gown, I'm not sure that's enough to make me open the box. Other Cenobites include the Chatterer, the Siamese Twins, Butterball and Stitch. Each one has a sinister set of mutilations that would make Bob Flanagan jealous.

By Jenni Miller

"Listen to this!" A friend pressed the ringer on his BlackBerry, and it played the theme to The Omen, "Ave Satani" by Jerry Goldsmith, which he'd assigned to a particularly heinous client of his. Another friend had, for a time, assigned a relative the unforgettable score from Halloween as composed by writer/director John Carpenter himself. And I'm sure somewhere there is someone with the theme from The Exorcist, which was written by Mike Oldfield.

Ringtones aside, there's no denying that a deft soundtrack or score can ratchet up the tension in any movie, especially one that uses droning noises and other disturbing, almost subliminal effects that can slip past the viewer and straight into our brain. Some of my favorite spooky soundtracks sure to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end include the above, naturally, but there are a few that need some love as well.

Jessica B. is rightfully confused over what's going on with the Hellraiser remake. The thing can't hold onto a director. Hell, I'll do it. (Actually, no I won't.) Read on for the latest news, and then click the link down below for a bunch of directors who might be good for the job...

If I were a more superstitious person, I would start to think that Dimension's Hellraiser remake is cursed. It has been a long time since Clive Barker first signed on to help re-write his original story for the screen ... again, but here we are three years later and not a day closer to a finished product. The last anyone had heard was that Pascal Laugier (Martyrs) had signed up to direct. But, thanks to an update from Barker's Twitter feed, we now know that "Pascal Laugier is regrettably no longer on the Hellraiser remake. I think Martyrs is extraordinary, I don't know much more. I mean why would anyone tell me? I mostly discover these things here or through friends who still buy the trades."

The horror-remake has had a revolving door cast for a couple of years now, and Laugier isn't the first director to walk. Originally, the French directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (Inside / A l'interieur) were supposed to be shooting Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton's script, but Bustillo and Maury soon left the film thanks to "creative differences." Laugier was supposed to be their replacement, and we might be back to square one now that rumors are swirling that Dimension has plans to commission an entirely new script as well.

More here!