The upcoming reboot of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser should give longtime fans a treat by bringing back original star Doug Bradley to play Pinhead. While the first Hellraiser movie is an undisputed classic of the horror genre, and 1988 sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 is also quite beloved, later returns to Hell seemed to yield less and less success. By the fifth film, the actually pretty good Hellraiser: Inferno, Barker’s Cenobites had been shuffled off to a Hell of their own, that being the land of direct to video.
It’s been over 20 years since Hellraiser: Bloodline became Pinhead’s last trip to theaters, and fans are long overdue for a quality Hellraiser follow-up. The last two Hellraiser films - 2011’s Hellraiser: Revelations and 2018’s Hellraiser: Judgment - were made only to prevent Dimension Films from losing the rights to the franchise, and the fact that they were thrown together on a limited budget shows. These movies would also mark the first instances in which someone other than Doug Bradley portrayed Pinhead, as the actor balked at both the money he was offered and the scripts he was given.
However, Hellraiser’s fortunes look to finally be on the upswing. Back in May, it was reported that Spyglass Entertainment - who acquired the rights to Hellraiser after Dimension Films went bankrupt - is prepping a theatrical reboot of the franchise, set to be written by Man of Steel scribe David S. Goyer. It’s unclear whether this new film will wipe out all the prior ones from its canon, but even if it does, one previous actor needs to reprise their role.
The Hellraiser Reboot Should Bring Back Doug Bradley
While many aspects of the Hellraiser franchise have become iconic to horror fans, nothing is more closely associated with the property than actor Doug Bradley himself. That’s actually somewhat ironic, since Bradley nearly took a different, smaller role in the first Hellraiser. At this point though, Bradley has played Pinhead eight times, and even when Hellraiser went direct to video, Bradley could be counted on to make Pinhead’s scenes interesting to watch. Many fans were devastated when Pinhead ended up being played by other actors, and much like how fans still clamor for 72-year-old Robert Englund to once again play Freddy Krueger, Hellraiser devotees still want to see Bradley don the Pinhead makeup and wardrobe again.
Sure, Bradley is 65-years-old, but if a much older Harrison Ford can still play Indiana Jones, there’s no real reason Bradley can’t still play Pinhead, a character rarely called upon for action scenes. While some might question Bradley’s inclusion if Goyer’s script ends up resetting the Hellraiser continuity, that would only offer Bradley the opportunity to refresh Pinhead and portray him closer to the eloquent, calculating villain he originally was, as opposed to the sort of “horror mascot” he eventually became. It’s unclear if Bradley wants to return to Hellraiser at this stage of his career, but one assumes if he was offered generous compensation and a worthy script, he’d gladly tear fans’ souls apart once again.
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