I can’t say I’ve ever been a fan of the Hellraiser horror films but even I get a bad feeling in my gut about this one.
Creator Clive Barker hasn’t been involved with the Hellraiser series since he produced the fourth film, 1996’s Hellraiser: Bloodline, which coincidentally was the last of the series to receive a full theatrical release, though he has intended to return as producer of a remake of the original. Nothing particularly wrong with that, right?
But a funny thing happened on the way to that remake. The Weinstein Company, which holds the rights to the series, decided to put the remake on hold but then faced the possibility of their rights expiring (the last Hellraiser film came out in 2005). The solution? Rush a cheap sequel into production to retain the rights — not unlike Roger Corman‘s infamous 1994 Fantastic Four movie — with little intention to make it anything good. Thus came Hellraiser: Revelations, the result of a $300,000 budget (if IMDB is to be believed), the director of Return to House on Haunted Hill, a cast of unknowns, and, perhaps the biggest insult, no Doug Bradley, who has played the iconic Pinhead character since the original film. Bradley was approached to return, but after reading the rushed script — and being told that the film would shoot not even two weeks later — he wished the production luck but wisely said “thanks, but no thanks.”
But how does Clive Barker feel about the latest sequel? Well, recently the horrible trailer for Hellraiser: Revelations (which you can check out below… but beware) claims that the low-budget sequel was “Inspired by Clive Barker’s Horror Classic”, and Barker seems to take exception to that considering a) he isn’t involved with this film b) it looks more awful than an accident on the highway. Barker decided to make his feelings on the sequel clear on his Twitter account recently:
Hello,my friends. I want to put on record that the flic out there using the word Hellraiser IS NO FUCKIN’ CHILD OF MINE! I have NOTHING to do with the fuckin’ thing. If they claim its from the mind of Clive Barker,it’s a lie. It’s not even from my butt-hole.
We can tell he isn’t a fan either.
If you’re actually interested in seeing this atrocity you can soon experience it in three different ways: a VOD release on September 1st, a limited theatrical run on September 2, and finally a DVD release on December 18th.
Check out the trailer below… and let us know what about it you think is the worst part (I have to say the fact that it looks like it was filmed on my old VHS-C camcorder).
Recent Comments