Clive Barker, creator of the Hellraiser franchise, said Jamie Clayton's performance in the reboot has inspired him to tell new stories featuring her incarnation of the series' central villain, Pinhead.
Barker appeared at this year's Beyond Fest alongside the cast and crew of Hulu's Hellraiser. He said of Clayton's performance as the Hell Priest, "Jamie looks like the Queen of hell… she has totally reinvented it. I have to go write a new story about it." Barker first introduced the Cenobite Leader in his novella The Hellbound Heart before adapting it into the first Hellraiser movie, where the character was given the nickname "Pinhead" and was played by Doug Bradley. Bradley would reprise the role in seven more sequels. Other actors who have played Pinhead include Stephan Smith Collins in Hellraiser: Revelations and Paul T. Taylor in Hellraiser: Judgment.
Clayton's casting marks the first time Pinhead has been played by a woman. Bradley himself expressed interest in the idea and excitement to see what Clayton would bring to the role. "It seemed like [a female Pinhead] was coming. It’s an interesting piece of casting," he said at Silver Screen Con. "I don’t know Jamie. Of course, they’ve taken even a little bit of a wrinkle in that, because Jamie is transgender. 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."
The New Hellraiser Is a Hit
Reviews for the Hellraiser reboot have been mostly positive. At the time of writing, the film has an 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the film's stylish gore, redesign of the Cenobites and Clayton's role as the lead villain. CBR's own Sam Stone said of her, "Clayton’s performance as the new Pinhead, the fan-dubbed nickname for the Hell Priest, is riveting -- whenever Clayton is on-screen, it is all eyes on her as she delivers vaunted monologues in between bursts of requisite sadism."
For his part, director David Bruckner seems to have enjoyed making the film, promising he will continue to work with screenwriters Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski on future projects. He added that if the new film is a success, he'd love to return to helm a Hellraiser sequel: "Should the fans respond to this, should there be a desire to go further with it? I would be absolutely honored."
Hellraiser is available to stream on Hulu.
Source: Twitter