Hellraiser director David Bruckner has revealed whether the 2022 Hulu film is canon to the rest of the long-running horror franchise.
In an interview with io9, Bruckner was asked about the decision to not include a subtitle in the film's title and instead share the name of the original 1987 film. "[Hellraiser] just sounded better than Hellraiser 11," Bruckner revealed. "If it was up to me, we'd put the year on it when we discuss it, because I think we all kind of know where it situates. But it just didn't feel appropriate to put an additional title on it this time."
Bruckner continued by addressing if fans should consider 2022's Hellraiser to be a reboot or a continuation of the series. "[I]t's a re-imagining, to one degree. I also think that it fits within the world of Hellraiser and what you've seen before in many ways," he explained. "I wouldn't say it's strict canon. Again, we let our imaginations run with this. And I'm a big believer that, you know, movies are dreams and sometimes they present strange iterations of one another, and that we should just embrace that and kind of run with it. My suggestion to fans is to go into it not thinking exactly where it's fitting in the history of the series and to just experience the film."
Clive Barker's Hellbound Horror Is Back
Based on Clive Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, 1987's Hellraiser was directed by Barker and starred Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence and Doug Bradley. The film centered around a mysterious puzzle box capable of summoning Cenobites, sadomasochistic entities from another dimension who are incapable of differentiating pain and pleasure. Although Hellraiser was given mixed reviews from critics, it was successful enough to receive 10 subsequent films, a comic book series and an HBO series in development.
2022's Hellraiser will mark the third film in the series to not feature Bradley as Pinhead, the Cenobite leader and primary antagonist of the franchise. Instead, the role will be filled by actor Jamie Clayton. "I don't know Jamie [Clayton]," Bradley said recently when asked about his thoughts on the film's Pinhead being female. "I'm not familiar with her recent work, but there was a science fiction series on Netflix several years ago called Sense8, which I was quite a fan of. Jamie was in that, and I really, really liked her performance in that."
Hellraiser will release on Hulu on Oct. 7.