It had to happen sooner or later that Clive Barker's Hellraiser would get remade. In fact, given some of the lesser horror titles that have been remade in recent years, I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. Barker's demonic original was released in 1987 and introduced bad guy Pinhead, a viciously evil soul who is unleashed from Hell when a puzzle is solved.
The setup for the original story is that a man named Frank buys an old puzzle box from a mysterious seller (but it comes with a free frogurt!). After he solves the puzzle, he is killed and demons called Cenobites show up. Pinhead is the leader of the Cenobites. Meanwhile Frank's brother Larry moves into Frank's house with Julia, who previously had an affair with Frank. Frank is actually still living upstairs in the attic of the old house, but isn't exactly human anymore. When he was killed, his blood fell to the floor and Frank's soul uses the blood as nourishment. He is later brought back to life when he convinces his former lover Julia to help him. Of course, the Cenobites aren't happy about this turn of events.
The gory movie deals with themes of pain and pleasure from pain, and even whether Pinhead is an angel or a demon. It didn't achieve enormous success initially upon its release, earning less than $15 million in U.S. box office grosses, but compared to its shoestring budget it was a true winner. Several sequels have followed, most of the straight-to-video variety. It has garnered an enthusiastic, cultish following along the way and probably maintains a more devoted group of fans than more well-known horror franchises such as Friday the 13th.
Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, co-wroters of Feast - which was profiled in the third and final season of Project Greenlight, have been tasked with updating the story for the modern era. Barker will not direct, but he intends to make this remake even scarier and the gore and visual effects to be more impressive. (Michael Bentley/BOP)
