What the HELL happened to HELLRAISER X JUDGEMENT

Hellraiser Judgement.

This title is honestly fitting for the end of this whole month long dive into 4 franchises, and naturally the end of Dimensions run on Hellraiser. Everything involved with Judgement is, was. Well.

I had to do a lot of double checking and making sure I wasn’t going insane. Because a lot of events seemed to repeat from the previous film To a point it honestly felt like someone used ai to muddle up a story and it glitched out repeating itself. As it turns out. Dimension just never, ever learned, and the were creatures of habit.

It had been seven years since Hellraiser Revelations showed its face to the world and asses collectively shit over its pinned gaping face. The Weinsteins were once again faced with the reality they needed another Hellraiser film before the rights would revert back to Clive. For free.

So once again they began their quest to keep the rights and push out another production. The result of which, would not only be their last outing in the Hellraiser franchise. But the end of a long past its due era. Having binged through each one of these movies again it is genuinely sad. Nearly heartbreaking when you watch the steady decline in quality after Bloodline. But if you shift over to Dimensions Halloween films, you see a maintained quality. Shitty sequels for sure. But they never went straight to video and they never shoved Michael into a crime drama.

Judgement would take a few bold steps, which feels a little too late given what they’d done to the franchise up to this point. It also marked another actor taking the place of Bradley in yet another attempted Pinhead.

There is, one thing.

And only one, I will grant this film and it’s the closest I will give to something considered ‘credit’ for this film. It’s the fact that the film actually felt like someone read the Hellraiser comics from the 90’s and tried adapting some of its lore and material to film. That is the only near kindness I will give this piece of liquid burning shit.

So in that spirit, like I say aloud whenever I need to vomit up dragon fire(acid reflux) let’s get this fucking over with.

The story

We begin with as I mentioned, the one and only thing this film seemed to try. We are introduced to the director and long time torch bearer of the franchise, head of special effects Gary Tunnicliffe. He plays a new face In hells bureaucracy, The Auditor. He explains to the audience how Hell has had to adapt to the new world and things aren’t the way they used to be. Because of cellphones, the internet and meme culture. People no longer go out seeking puzzle boxes. You can desensitize yourself online without seeking the Lament configuration. So this has forced hell to run their soul taring business through a halfway house.

Yes. Hell lures sinners now to a run down shack in a ghetto, where they hold court. Basically the ‘sinner’ has the choice of making it easy and confessing their sins or they are forced from them. The Auditor uses his steampunk typewriter to type out all of their largest sins committed on earth in their life time. The pages are then given to a new bureaucrat, The Assessor. An obese man who pulls out a plate and utensils. Douses the papers in the tears of children, because it’s basically A1 to bureaucrats. And hell. He devours the tear marinated papers and promptly vomits them up into a nearby funnel attached to the wall. A wall which has our Jury. Three mostly naked Suicide girl model rejects missing bits of their faces but not their tits. These ladies move from kneeling to standing, walking 3 feet just to kneel again at a trough holding the fresh vomit, dig their hands in it like its apple sauce and declare a verdict for the sinner. Once he is found guilty the sinner is restrained on a bed, where the naked ladies violently strip him, and return to kneeling. And a leather clad man enters the  room reenacting a scene from Ace Venture When Nature Calls. Carrying a large leather backpack that contains a leather bound gas mask wearing gimp. Who leaps onto our sinner and slashes him comically with oversized crescent blades, which manage to perfectly remove the mans skin in one piece.

The idea then being once the sinner is found guilty and stripped of flesh. They are then sent to hell where the King of hell sits on his throne and awaits his new victim. The king of course is Pinhead.

Who appears to be bored and that is something you’ll have to get used too. Because its his only purpose in the film. To be bored and restless.

The movie learned what happens last time when you let things get boring. So its time to introduce the main plot of the film. An entirely original concept. A detective story! Yes we have a detective story where a grizzly detective is trying to solve a serial murder case hunting down a killer known as The Preacher, another original story idea in a cop drama, the Preacher, another entirely Dimension films original concept, a serial killer who kills people who break the ten commandments.

You knew what this was when you rented it. And I chose to watch this a second time.

So our duo of detective junior crime fighters, Sean and David Carter track down every lead they can on this elusive not at all a twist ending incoming killer. Eventually the investigation leads Sean to the run down shamble shack Hell is paying rent on. Once he enters their domicile, the Auditor captures Sean and begins auditing the mans since. Which he doesn’t hide. The man begins getting everything off his chest like Chunk in the Goonies. We go through the same process as before. Type down sins, feed fat man the paper salad with a dash of child tears. Only this time as he attempts to eat the sins, he ends up choking on them and vomiting black goo. Which the suicide girl hopeful rejects don’t care for at all. The auditor is confused by the fat man choking on sins. Either this man is a bad ass in the world of sinners or there are other things afoot.

Which there are. We now enter the next part of a confusing story. The auditor is visited by an angel from Heaven, working as a Metatron of sorts, her name is Jophiel. She has come down from Heavan into Hells hood house to tell them, chill the fuck out and let the detective go. The man has a get out of hell free card from the G man himself. The auditor has some issues with this but decides to take it up with his bossman. Pinhead is bored, still, and decides he’ll come check out this man who entered Hells hood and figure out why the man upstairs has plans for him. Unfortunately while swallowing the spit of three naked tattoo’d ladies with daddy issues and one beautiful bush. He managed to escape and the ladies are dead or taking a very awkward nap on the floor. Pinhead takes a small nibble of the mans sins and determines it’s cool. They can chill out and do what Heavan wants while the man does his thing. He’ll be back and they can get answers then.

Mildly confused and wondering why he got a semi chubby after swallowing goth girl spit, Sean continues his investigation. Leading into yet another first for Hellraiser, a cop suffering hallucinations as reality and illusions combine and cenobites start visiting him at odd moments in his day to day.  But it doesn’t stop him and the junior detective squad from slowing down their investigation.

Which is HEATING UP!! Yes they are close to finding who the Preacher is and ending his reign of holy terror on the city.

Leading us to yet another entirely original film trick of Dimension, as we soon discover who The Preacher is that’s been killing in the name of the ten commandments. The Preacher is Sean! Who knew it! A surprise twist!!

So yes Sean is the Preacher, and his is planning on his next poetic biblically charged murder. His brother and his wife. Apparently he discovered his wife banged his brother, thus adultery, thus our final deadly sin…I mean tenth commandment killing. Only Sean is going to kick things up a notch, instead of killing them in the name of gods divine law. He decides to have his cheating wife and slut brother solve the box. In yet another original idea, he is going to offer these two up as replacements for himself. Let them go sit in a stuffy room getting audited for hours.

Pinhead finally gets to speak more than a single sentence and very nearly begins doing an “We’re not so different you and I” speech, until our resident angel leaves Heavan once more and commands Pinhead to let Sean go.

It’s played off genuinely like that scene in a typical cop film where the local police get upset and ask ‘Just what the hell is going on here, who are you!” and the //angel pulls out a much larger badge and tells the local cop “We’re taking over this investigation, orders from upstairs, take it up with your boss.” And we now have an angel and demon king playing jurisdictional games.  Pinhead just wants to rip and tare, while Jophiel is hear to keep the man alive and doing what he’s doing.

Yes, that is the angels official from God statement to Pinhead. God, wants Sean, to go around killing sinners. Pinhead and the auditor can continue judging sinners. Because the Preacher is striking fear in people, because of killing sinners, while Hell is taking care of even more sinners directly. So with sinning being a killable offense again. People are praying and going to church more. Taking up religion as a protection from murder. Which makes God happy. As Jophiel explains to Pinhead, good cannot exist without evil, and Heavan learned that evil is much easier to deal with and control, when you’re the one in charge of the evil.

Pinhead, is still bored. He finally got a chance to get off his throne of stone and show off his tattered rag robe. He gets to talk to someone who doesn’t have a featureless face with a stitched mouth, or another suicide girl going over their long list of mental health issues and all the medication they’re taking.

Upset by Heavan telling him what to do. Pinhead kills Sean. Jophiel is miffed by this and warns Pinhead he is going against gods design and this will not stand.

Jophiel is an angelic white girl that stepped into Hells hood and she’s acting a fool, talking all kinds of mad shit. So Pinhead slaps her through the throat with a chain and tells her to shut up and get out of his domicile.

With that we get comical. God is upset now that his murderer  we got him several more followers on tiktok is dead, his angel who managed his socials is now dead. So its time to drop a google doc on Pinhead. God, crumbles down the walls of hells house, and strips Pinhead down of all his leather, all his little pins, and punishes him by…making Pinhead a human being. Living in Detroit. We see Pinhead screaming in torment and this banishment from hell as its king, now living as a mortal, having to collect food stamps and find work at the job center.

Meanwhile the director steps back in as the auditor and we see him continuing to work, readying his typewriter to assess another soul. Letting us now that Hell keeps going on, and Pinhead is one of us.

There’s your Hellraiser Judgement.

Firstly. Lets celebrate the fact this is the last one we have to go through. The last time we have a detective, a man suffering problems of the mind and hallucinations. The last time we have a micro budget Hellraiser released on a medium that is being forcefully removed more and more each day.

Seriously lets actually celebrate the studio going with an original story that wasn’t a pre-existing property they shoe horned Pinhead into.

As for what happened with this film? There’s a lot, and it borders on making you feel you are in Hellraiser Inferno, experiencing déjà vu.

Like genuinely it’s going to feel really fucking familiar and possibly funny. But I promise you leave this place with the same amount of sanity you arrived with.

To begin with that familiar sound, the studio realized they needed to pump out another Hellraiser to keep the rights. Thankfully they didn’t end up like last time, working with Clive on a remake and lying about working on a remake before pushing hard for an 11 day shoot to shit out a movie that barely could fall under that.

Instead the decided to work with Clive barker on another remake/reboot of Hellraiser.

Yes. This happened.

Twice.

Yes Clive approached them after Hellworld about doing a big budget darker remake of the original, and yes they lied to him and ultimately ghosted him. Losing Clive and the return of Doug Bradley. Yes Clive turned his back on them.

And yes, Clive Barker talked to them AGAIN about ANOTHER reboot.

The studio was at a standstill and things were looking dire, again for them. Bob Weinstein was the one who approached Clive. He requested a face-to-face with Barker. Weinstein promised Barker this time they would really work with him. He would have creative say. They said he could write it and this time. The film would honor the design and lore, the look of his original. It would be a big budget theatrical release. Once again Clive made two demands. Bring Back Doug Bradley as Pinhead, and absolutely no CGI of any kind.

They agreed and Clive began writing his new Hellraiser.

His story took place still in the 1700’s like he wanted. But instead of France and honoring the Bloodline LeMarchand story. It would take place on Devil’s Island. LeMarchand would be a prisoner forced to solve and open the puzzle box. Which would introduce us to Pinhead. They would do away with his human story as Elliot Spencer. Giving us the idea Pinhead really has been at this for centuries. The film would shift over to the familiar family from the first one, this time taking place in Massachusetts. In this iteration Frank did not die and gain resurrection when the family moved in. This time around Kirsty is living with her father and step mother. Frank is a fugitive on the run and hides in their attic. He and Julie begin their affair and Frank eventually solves the box being torn apart.

Pinhead went through a major makeover as well. He would look more like he was portrayed later on, wearing white robes instead of the traditional black leather. He didn’t use hooks and chains on his victims but instead rapidly grown vines with deadly thorns. He had more freedom this time around as well, much like the books. Pinhead was only visible to those who opened the box, to the rest of the world you were screaming at nothing. He could appear whenever he wanted and torment you before taking you.

He also had new cenobites which he would create himself organically. Having reached the Hell Priest stature he would do this regularly. In the film Clive had him summon a deadly mist near a maternity ward, killing newborns and using them to form an obese gelatinous blob of a cenobite constructed of baby flesh he named, Bloat. Another would be a reanimated corpse from a hospital morgue he would turn into a hook wielding demon. This was much more in line with the dark visions he had and released with his Tortured Souls line. One figure I still have packed away because I fell in love with its grotesque beauty. It was a man with his face stretched back by dozens of wires with a womb inserted into his stomach baring a demon child inside. His body supported my medical hooks and bars. This was a much darker Hellraiser and he was not holding back. He intended to show the world what his creation could be and would be again versus what Dimension had sold.

He delivered his script to Dimension and they trashed it immediately. Just like last time.

He promised Barker at least a $20 million dollar budget theatrical release. That was a lie. The entire face to face meeting Bob had with Barker was a lie. He kissed Barkers ass and promised him any and everything he could want or need for his Hellraiser. With no intention of ever delivering. Because Bob was interested in saving their studio and doing to Barker exactly what they’d done to their crew over the past few productions. He used their olive branch meeting to drum up interest for the film for international buyers. To get fans to quiet their hate and give them the illusion their master would be finally returning to the helm, and so would Doug Bradley. He promised a big budget theatrical film and total studio compliance. All while in the background the studio was already fine tuning the script they fully intended on going with, written by, directed by and staring Tunnicliffe.

See back when Hellworld was being pitched, Tunnicliffe gave them a story he wrote called Enter Darkness. Like Hellbound Hellraiser 2 it would take place in a psychiatric hospital. It’s a completely original horror idea where a group of interns were studying a group of patients who all shared identical nightmares about a puzzle box and demons. Yes it was Dream Warriors meets Hellraiser. Which then completely ripped off Hellbound by including a lead doctor who would take all their shared experiences to summon a cenobite himself.

Dimension loved the idea and shelved it for the time. It sounded like something that could potentially fill their remake slot. So in their vault on a shelf it sat. While they made Hellworld.

Once Hellworld came out and Tunnicliffe saw the end result and how cheap they were with it. He decided to write a script he called Judgement. It would be  not feature pinhead, or a puzzlebox.It would be Hellraiser like in the same sense that Bad Robot created the Cloverfield Universe. Like the comics it would focus on a Bureaucracy of hell that were completely different than the cenobites. He even tried financing the film without Dimension, feeling he might be able to grow a better budget than Dimension would’ve given him to do it. He took it to Kickstarter and hoped fans would start throwing money. No one did.

So he did what he knew ultimately dimension would tell him to do. He rewrote the script himself, adding Pinhead in along side his new characters, the Auditor, Assessor, and the suicide girl hopeful rejects. He pitched this script to Dimension. As it was with the bible story. He was denied three times.

The man did all the work for them destroying his standalone film and they turned him down. They insisted on him making instead his original Hellraiser Enter Darkness. Which he was not thrilled about. He believed. With his soul, that Judgement was better, fresher and would serve as the drops of blood to bring Hellraiser back through its bloodied mattress.  

He believed SO strongly in it, that he made them a deal. He would rewrite the script for Judgement, exactly how they would want it, and if they liked it. He would get to direct it. If they hated it? Then he would not only do the movie they wanted, he would direct it for free. Dimension said sure fuck it why not. Apparently his rewrite. Which we just watched, for the second fucking time in my life which is two times too many. Apparently it was enough for Dimension to give in and let him make his vision.

Which he was polishing up, and beginning to ready for production. While Dimension was busy lying to Barker a second time, ghosting him a final time, and lying to fans for the last time.

Now for the record. Tunnicliffe isn’t a bad guy. He was in a way the Moustafa Akkad of hellraiser. Just without the authority. Whether he knew or didn’t know about the meetings with Barker and their bullshit deal we don’t know. But we do know he repeated history again. Once Barker left for good this time, he and the studio approached Doug Bradley. Again.

Now last time Bradley was insulted by their offer and the terrible script. Tunnicliffe called Doug himself this time, not the studio. He felt bad for him and had told Bradley how he hated the fact the very last time anyone would see him as Pinhead, is tied to him saying the line “How’s that for a wakeup call.” He told him this time would be different. He could course correct Pinhead and there would be no one liner bullshit. Doug said alright, he’d be interested in reading the script.

The studio sent him a multi-page NDA again threatening $1 million in liability if he ever talked about the script. Mentioned the film in any way whether he’d do it or or not at conventions. Private conventions, Any way shape or form online. All this to see the script, and then another for the production of the film.

Bradley told them given how badly Revelations turned out, he was not going to  go into this blindly signing a document before even seeing a script, and given what happened in Revelations coupled with their treatment of his close friend Clive. He declined it all together.

Which begs the question of did the studio even intend to hire him or did they just lie to Tunnicliffe to get him happy to finally direct and write his big film.

So once again, the film would move on without Clive or Doug, the audience was given another false flag of hope which I genuinely don’t know how anybody could believe a word Dimension said.

History was repeating itself, however something new was afoot that signaled a ripple in the waters around the studio. Clive was done with them and their bullshit. He wasn’t just lied too, he was used. Instead of walking away and disowning the series and studio. Clive went silent. If relationships have taught me anything, and I could pass this basic logical lesson on to anyone. When your partner gets upset over something you see no big deal over. If there response is to go silent, and continue on with their routine? You fucked up. You didn’t just mess up, you didn’t do something wrong. You just straight as hell fucked up, and what was coming would not be something you’d want to be any part of and your best course of action is to immediately throw yourself at their mercy. Or open the ark of the covenant and stare right at it. So Clive kept quiet, and watched, waited for the film to come out and do what it would inevitably do. Then he would have something definitive to say.

For now, it’s time for the studio to do what they do best. Getting exactly what they wanted, so they can fuck it up as hard as they could.

So they fought hard for the script the director no longer cared for, and part of me thinks even if straight to video at least it would have possibly been better than Judgement was. But then I am reminded no matter what, the Weinsteins just have this odd behavior where even when they get something they’re happy with. They meddle with it unnecessarily, they lie and cut corners they didn’t need too, and just…honestly do every dishonest thing they can to a point you wonder what they even liked with the thing to begin with since they just destroy it in the end. Well the same happened here even with them liking and being sold on the new story Tunnicliffe gave them. However when they reviewed footage he’d shared with them to show how the film was going and showed off what he planned to be the near climax of the movie, the big inquisition scene with the fat man who had been judged and skinned. Well the Weinsteins thought it was way too weird for a slasher film and something they felt people wouldn’t understand and again would just be too weird for them. So they told him to massively cut down the far longer scene. Move it to the beginning of the film and use it as an intro.

Normally that not be such a big thing. But this was the big pay off scene of his narrative. The film as he shot it was a slow burn building up to the Auditor, assessor and judgement tit trio. So cutting that sequence down from apparently a near 20 minute sequence, which was mostly dialogue free, down to the first 12 minutes. His character had much more dialogue explain hells filing system and the typing of sins, how they weight them and their ‘judging’ process. The scene we got later with the detective being licked or, cleaned. That happened in this scene originally and was a hell of a lot longer. The girls were also drenched in blood during the scene. It was too much so they took it out. Had the women walk out in leather thongs and lick the detective vs the fat man we see in the beginning. Cleaning his flesh and gathering the filth in spit form.

It’s one of those when you hear it and think about all of it we kind of are better off without it. But again what we got instead well. It’s a game of would you rather that no one really wins playing.

This was only the start though. The Weinsteins really wanted to keep with forcing Hellraiser to be the thing no one wanted it to be, it could not be and they desperately tried making it be. A slasher. Because of that they would constantly meddle in the story to give a higher body count. Anything that would satisfy there slasher kick. This was why the go-nowhere boring and repeated story of cops investigating odd murders was shoved into the story. It gave them an excuse for adding more bodies to the death count even if we didn’t see them die,

This also meant they could pad out the run time of the film by adding police procedural scenes. Investigating crime scenes. Leads, crime photos. Hunting the Preacher etc.

They had to do something with all the lore they cut out, and the auditor and his crew being cut down further. Even the female detective we didn’t mention in the synopsis. Because she genuinely didn’t add a damn thing to the film or its story, Christine Egerton. She was a result of rewrites and the studio wanting their traditional slasher trope of a final girl. She was a last minute addition which is why her character is barely there, and makes just as quick of an exit.

I joked about the film being a rip off of the film Seven. The sad reality though, is the studio actually instructed Tunnicliffe to rip off Seven! No shit they honestly told him to do that. See in his original film the murderer was an auditor of sorts. He was a semi Hannibal like capable, methodical serial killer. Who targeted people with deep hidden crimes. Killers walking among us types. He would audit these people judging them and inflicting cruel justice that the courts would never as no one knew of them(mostly) The detective was a psychologically broken man who used his position to hunt down criminals they couldn’t lawfully arrest and punish. So when he is pulled into the halfway house of hell, the gluttonous man who choked on and vomited black goo when devouring his sins didn’t even do that in the original. The auditors typewriter jammed up and what sins were digested choked the demon because of the insane amount of sin the man had committed. He was supposed to rival the worst Hell had come to know and see.

The Weinsteins didn’t like this. It was still too weird. So the mandate was for him to rewrite the characters and rip off the killings in Seven. Make it religious in nature. Don’t say he’s going after the seven deadly sins, that too on the nose. Say instead he’s going based off of the 10 commandments. Then its not a real direct right off. I guess The Weinsteins felt by directly ripping off the deadly sins killings of Seven would give the audience something familiar they would know and could follow. Something that even if a direct rip off would still in the end be more fitting of a low budget direct to video movie versus an atmospheric supernatural horror film. Because that wasn’t enough they wanted to market the film ENTIRELY as a dark gritty crime drama. With Pinhead as a special appearance. Not a main focus.

Let that sit and swim in the toilet bowl a little.

Pinhead. The face they put on every poster for every one of these films. A character in Hellraiser. In a Hellraiser film. Was reduced to a special guest apparence in a crime film.

This is why we ask why so often with these. It’s like me telling you I want to make a new Indiana Jones movie because I love that series. So when you agree to do it, I tell you to make it more like National treasure because that is more relatable for the audience versus a film exploring Indiana Jone’s later years and his slowing down of adventure.

WHY NOT JUST MAKE A FUCKING NATIONAL TREASURE FILM!!

God now that is something I could see them doing. Make a National Treasure film solving ancient puzzles and riddles, then out of fucking nowhere Pinhead appears and tares Nic Cage apart.

To add on with their weird logic. The film actually had a lot of cenobites. A lot of them. We get to see a couple of them hanging out with Pinhead. They would appear randomly though the film tormenting the detective and attacking suddenly. The Weinsteins thought those should be taken out. Because it made the film confusing. Shifting from the crime scene to cenobites attacking him. So those were taken out. It’s mostly funny because again this film had a very small budget of $350k. They spent money on those costumes and effects, only for them not to be used. Just seen for a few seconds chilling in a corner. Because of this? We got suicide girl tits. They had no more funds to spend on hells costumes. Including Pinhead. So pinhead NEEDED clothes, that’s why he was given a raggedy robe, even though he was supposed to be the King of Hell in this. And why the jury of hell was reduced to three named tattoo’d women. They didn’t have money for costumes or makeup. They already cut out the ladies covered in blood. So instead we get full on tits, bellies and leather thongs. It was the first time in Hellraiser you got nudity not for titillation and horror quota, but because they couldn’t dress more cenobites. It’s also why we had a leather gimp in a gas mask instead of our usual featureless leather strapped cenobites.

The lack of budget is also why the grand finale of the film played off exactly how it did. In his original story after Pinhead killed the angel. He was so full of himself and what he’d done that he saw nothing wrong with having stood up to and defying god. He dared him to do something, and he did. God cast him out of hell and doomed him to life as a mortal. Something this Pinhead saw as the worst imaginable thing. They had intended to have a sequence that went further than Hellbound did with the rehumanization of Pinhead to Elliot. This would have seen the nails in his head stripped out violently. Flesh torn from the hell priest and his own Passion of the Cenobite like scene.

However having spent all of their budget that last week of filming. We got the sudden jump of the auditor explaining what happened, A quick cut and slow motion shot of a homeless Pinhead, with a few grid line scratches on his head, whimpering about suffering screaming into the camera and a flash image to show us Pinheads face. Letting us know “This is pinhead, he is human now”.

Which is a good lead in to a side story that is as any good play, tragic, and hopeful. Fans, critics and the studio all agreed that the last man to play Pinhead was absolutely the worst to do it. Aside from his makeup not working and making for the chubbiest looking Pinhead. He was not brought back for Judgement. As we went over Bradley had been approached again about playing the part and walked away when they tried hitting him with the NDA. With Doug out of the picture and given the backlash from fans over the recast and how horribly that had gone. They decided wisely to hold a secret audition that wouldn’t even say who the character was let alone the movie. The last thing they needed was the horror community hearing about another recasting and another Hellraiser without Doug. The only problem was, they would hear about it. From Doug himself. Who took to social media to let people know he would have nothing to do with this film. Unfortunately the director tried to do damage control. This would be his film after all, based off his script and as a long time flame bearer of the series. He wanted fans to know he would respect the series and that he DID in fact try to work with Doug. He did this by releasing online private emails he had with Doug Bradley about the film and returning to it. Because of the, Doug got deeply upset and the director ended up severing his long time friendship and relationship with Doug Bradley.  Doug flat out declared he would never be in another Hellraiser film. In fact at a fan convention he flat out admitted the only thing that would ever get him to put the makeup on again is 1. If Clive were involved, and 2. If it was for a film version of Clive’s book The Scarlet Gospel.

With his friend now gone, Tunnicliffe turned to the auditions. Which brought in a horror fan and pinhead super fan Paul Taylor. A classically trained theater actor. When he read the lines for a character named The Auditor, and saw the line “Come inside we have such sites to show you”, he apparently told Tunnicliffe he knew what this movie really was, and pulled out from his backpack a Pinhead toy and puzzlebox he carried with him.

He was hired on the spot.

Of course no one can play Freddy Kreuger like Robert England, and no one can have the majesty of Pinhead like Bradley. But fans were in agreement that with all the trash this movie hauled and its Seven rip off, and poor script, and shittier quality film. Paul played Pinhead well. Gone was the over acting of Revelations. Back was the quiet calm collectiveness of Pinhead.

It’s just a shame he barely was in the fucking thing, and even then he came off as incredibly bored instead of indifferent. I mean hell they even deepened his voice where as the last guy they for some reason didn’t and he just sounded like someone doing a terrible Vin Deisel impression. But that was also Dimension. Even Bradley had in the past complained that they didn’t do the same audio work as previous films to deepen his voice with reverb and bass. They did it to cut corners, But apparently Revelations taught them after 4 shit films maybe they should do the bare minimum. Even if too fucking late.

Up until now Tunnicliffe seemed an alright guy, and I think perhaps still is. But the man really wanted to go all out for this film. Had this been his first time directing I could understand, but it wasn’t. Whether it was his want to make a truly unnerving hellraiser horror film, or a change of approach. The man decided the films drastic state called for equally drastic measures. Being a fan of old school directors like Friedkin, he would employ old tactics and tricks to get better performances out of his cast. Having the lowest budget imaginable, and 3 weeks to squeeze out and film the movie with one take shots and only one angle for everything. He couldn’t allow actors to find their voice for each scene, so he helped.

Th director of the Exorcist, William Friedkin did some crazy shit to the cast to get honest reactions. He would fire a pistol off on set to startle them. He open hand slapped the shit out of an actor to make them cry and shake as they gave last rites to their dying friend. So he felt he would try the same, by calling up the wife of Damon Carney. He got her to give him all of the actors real life traumatic memories, things he felt guilty of and for. So when Damon is sat down being read his list of since by the Auditor(the director), he was reading off to everyone in the room the real actors true life traumas and secrets. Causing the actor to look shocked and yell. Which you see in the movie. It’s just a long way to go for a cheap straight to video movie. But his behavior wasn’t just his to play with. Paul Taylor overdosed himself on nicotine during filming.

Mercedes McCambridge famously smoked cigars  and drank heavily to get her voice down low enough for the voice of the demon inside Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist. Paul thought to do the same for Pinhead, smoking heavily to lower his voice, even delivering lines with smoke still in his mouth. It would sound great sure, but his body said fuck that and fuck you and the man ended up needing medical help for 30 minutes shutting down production and kindly being told never do that shit again.

It’s tragic but also hopeful that these people were trying to do something. Trying to give a little extra and get something more for the film. It’s honorable. But it’s also for a move that no one cared about especially the studio. It was still a film done to hold onto the rights fulfilling a legal contract. But these two were going to try and give it that little bit of razzle dazzle.

As you can imagine, with single take scenes, a budget gone before the ending was even filmed, and a studio that limited everything imaginable to a point you’d expect they told the cast to piss in water filter cups to recycle the piss to drinkable water to save them money. Well doing all that on a low end budget film would mean like the last movie. A disaster of film. Which it was.

So when the movie was handed off to the editor. They absolutely lost it. For the exact same reasons as Revelations. They would have to add in flashes, jump cuts. Slowed down shots. Tighter up close shots to hide the lack of production value. Arranging scenes to make a cohesive storyline and doing the worst layer CGI to draw a few squiggled grids on pinheads human face.  Funny enough the reason we lack some gore in kills is because they only filmed one shot of each and the fact you saw the limits of the production on camera, you couldn’t linger too long. Just like with Hellworld and Revelations. Sit too long on a single shot or an inch this way, an inch that way. You end up ruining the entire shot. History again repeated itself throughout the editing as it had the production.

It sadly became a feature with making a Hellraiser film with Dimension instead of a bug.

But the Weinsteins got what they wanted. They fought for a story they would’ve killed, and still managed to kill the one they settled on and never once gave a shit for.

Audiences equally did not give a shit. It was bad enough to repeat twist endings and keep using other peoples original films to shoe horn Hellraiser into. But flat out ripping off a good film like Seven, for a hellraiser film that wasn’t even that. That was bad. Making a hellraiser film that contradicts its own logic is another level. Pinhead is the self imposed King of Hell. Yet God cast him out and. The auditor continues on working for hell. Because hell still had its boss. Who wasn’t the king of hell?

So what the fuck was Pinhead? In The Scarlet Gospel it made sense. Pinhead had worked up through the ranks and got to a point he had planned to overthrow Satan himself. He wanted chaos in hell and he tired of things the way they were. It worked. This, at one time had a story which maybe made sense. But it got cut up or never existed in the first place and I’m giving the benefit of the doubt when I shouldn’t. It just made no sense.  Audiences hated trying to figure it out because in the -end it just wasn’t worth it. The film was what it was always going to be. Trash. A film made for legal reasons for as little as possible that would never be anything but the floating turd in the toilet it was meant to be.

So the film was pieced together like Frankenstein’s monster if he’s used glad bags, shit from several corpses and a frogs heart. It was ready to be released onto the masses despite the overwhelming silence of said masses. However, it was not going to be released as planned.

I truly do mean this for once when I say, this is where the fun begins. The film was supposed to release in 2017, however after the Weinstein’s watched the film, specifically Harvey(this is important) Both Weinstein’s found the movie to be…deeply embarrassing.

Yes. The studio that shoved these things out entirely to hold onto the rights, finally came to feel what the fans had and realized this thing was, deeply embarrassing. Harvey found it. Especially the naked jurors later covered in blood to be, uncomfortable to watch. HE felt they would face a lot. A plethora some would say of public backlash for it. They decided quickly to shelve this movie and cancelled all plans for a promotional campaign for the film. They had what they needed to retain the rights, but no one would buy this piece of shit and they finally knew it.  It only took 6 absolute pieces of direct to video aborted shits for them to realize it.

So the film sat in their vaulted shelf. Until something happened that. Well. Shocked a few people and, started a small movement you may have possibly heard about, something called #MeToo…

You knew eventually we’d get to this, but yes. In October of 2017 all the allegations came out, the MeToo movement swarmed in and Harvey suddenly couldn’t operate in public without an oxygen tank and was incredibly fragile. Suddenly out of nowhere how weird.

Needless to say as things heated up, Dimension films and the Weinstein company imploded. All of their assets were frozen during the investigation and trial. The studio was destroyed and they needed to sell EVERYTHING as fast as possible to pay off their creditors and legal debts.

This of course lead to Lionsgate quickly buying up completed distribution scraps from their gargage bin outside and, their vault. Lionsgate was playing Storage Wars and experienced the grim reality of storage hunters. You go in hoping what you bought will have something of value, and instead all you find is a ready for video copy of the latest Hellraiser disappointment. Lionsgate who had a long storied past with shit films, even they knew this film was absolute and complete dog shit. But they had to make something so, they released it quietly, with only an unannounced online trailer Hellraiser Judgement.

The film was released purely and clinically as a liquidated bankruptcy asset.

Its release, as quietly and unremarkably as it was. Marked the end of Dimension films 25 year stranglehold on Hellraiser.

Dimension Films and The Weinstein Co declared bankruptcy in 2018. Harvey survived to attend his court trial in 2022.

Which means Harvey was free long enough to witness another act of Justice.

Clive Barker remained as I said deeply silent during Judgements production and after its release. He was, however, building a legal case. He’d contacted attorneys about suing them and getting back his property. They had pushed him too far and he was done with them. Especially when learning the last time he had been purposely lied too and used by the studio to promote their shit direct to video film production.

Clive officially filed a federal copyright lawsuit in 2020. His legal team were standing behind a section of the copyright act which gives independent authors a non-negotiable right to terminate any prior transfer of intellectual property rights to a corporation after 35 years. Well Clive had sold the rights to the characters and Hellraiser all the way back to New World films back in 1986.

He wasn’t suing Dimension though, or the Weinsteins. Hell he didn’t even bother Lionsgate with this. He went straight to the source as his legal team stated in court that. He sold the original rights to New World Pictures. They were the technical Landlord of Pinhead, while the Weinsteins had obtained long term exclusive licensing contract. Going after the original owner he sold it too would secure him his property entirely.

It was a very dirty court battle, but in the end Clive got his property back. He once again was in charge of and caring for the rotted corpse of his creation.

After he gained his property back, we got a new Hellraiser film, one made with his full blessing that he produced, and really loved. He enjoyed the new Hellpriest and their beautiful look. He was happy with the story and gave it his full blessing. Something not done since Bloodline.

And just recently. Dominating the top games played out there was the release that’d bare his name, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival.

A game the studio sought him out on and he remained deeply, at its core involved in every aspect of. He kept it grounded and deeply rooted in the lore, look, aesthetic and mythology of his world. The game is, amazing. I’ve played through it three times now and each time I am confident in repeating myself to everyone out there, and seeing they all agree that. This game is the best thing fans could ever had hoped for, deserved or asked for in Hellraiser. This game and its story feel like a soul sequel to Hellbound Hellraiser 2. It’s bloody, beautiful, and Hellraiser.  As it stands there are scripts in development with his approval for new Hellraiser, potentially even his long wanted reboot of the series. With the popularity of the game there’s already early talks of a sequel happening and As I learned yesterday, Tabletop Universe Expansion have partnered with Barker to work on a Hellraiser tabletop game.

It might saturate the market but seriously after all this. Writing 110 pages discussing what these films and Clive went through with this franchise? Let the man flood the fucking market because I’d rather be tired of all the Hellraiser everywhere versus being reminded I watched Hellraiser Judgement. Twice.

I know I skipped over How Judgement performed, Because we all know. We all know. But fine I’ll still go over it. Because sure.

The movie was dead on arrival. Barely anyone noticed the trailer and fewer took notice in video stores. Those of us, the completionist and have to knows saw it, regretted it and moved on, reminded why sometimes it’s best to just keep walking.

The one good thing and again deserved yethis. Was that fans while hating the movie, hating its rip off of Seven, and shit story, and the Auditor, the Assessor and yes the drooping tittied suicide girl hopeful rejects. Despite hating all of this and the movies waste of time and money. They all agreed that Paul Taylor have a great Pinhead performance. They were surprised by it, his voice, and the fact the character actually came off like Pinhead. The makeup was also greatly improved over the last one.

We’ll never know what any of these direct to video sequels made, all we know for sure is what was lost in all of these productions.

Given how audiences all collectively did what internet critics, trolls and most film arguments say, throwing around. Hellraisers sequels actually did. They caused fans to not give a single shit and lost everything. It’s hard to find another franchise that faced similar and had its whole fan base go from accepting, to turning against them, to flat out walking off on them.  This film was just another drop in a very large, over flowing bucket of human waste.

Shockingly though, Harvey Weinstein was right about one thing. The film was uncomfortable and vocal crowds expressed that. The entire sequence called the Stygian sequence, the paper eating, vomiting, big tittied judgement and sucking sin off the body spitting into a cup then feeding it back to the victim. All of that was to some, highly uncomfortable and gross.

And poor Tunnicliffe. The long time torch carrier, effects master and finally director/writer. Before the Weinsteins were silenced, he received one of their last lies. When they saw his film and shelved it indefinitely. Bob had called him up privately and told him BIG productions were in his future, they’d be having a lot more to put on his plate and the man could expect more directing gigs.

Yeah that didn’t happen for him. And when Lionsgate took over, he waited patiently. Lionsgate dumped Hellraiser Judgement where films go to die or be bought be meth heads. Walmart. He patiently sat expecting them to offer a new project, or ask his input on another follow up. He received zero contact from them. No one would take his calls.

Hes had an uphill battle with trying to direct again and has of yet done so. He had however returned to his roots. The man was after all a great effects wizard and he continues with that work. But when Hulu announced their new Hellraiser film, and later on Revival the game. He expected maybe he’d hear something. But again no. He was not in the new Hellraiser circle. The house of Hell had been cleared out of all past names. Only Barkers remained. It wasn’t his fault really. So much as the studio that now put others who worked on those films into a survivor status.

In the end the best thing to come from this film was the fall of Dimension and the Weinsteins. The return of the property to Clive. The rebooted Hulu film and the fact Clive being so involved with the game brought Doug Bradly happily back to the role of Pinhead. Which had the effect the Weinsteins desperately wanted on their projects. Fan interest.

Of all the franchises we covered, this one had the most suffering and ground to cover. I had no idea about a lot of it. I learned a hell of a lot with researching this. I knew it would be bad but, just not that bad.

Having gone over all of it and learning what we had. It’s far easier to ask and answer, just what the hell happened to Hellraiser? It was the studio. Entirely, whole heartedly the Weinsteins. They wanted another franchise under their belts to milk and bring in the money. Instead it suffered and where they could have given it care and attention. They decided to form a grudge with its creator and relegate the series to the lowest ring of film making the whole thing straight to video.

They killed a profitable franchise all in the name of retaining rights. They lied to cast and crew all so they could get more work and quality from them at a fraction of the cost and in some cases entirely for free They were absolutely every stereotype of the evil corporate studio cartoon you’d expect.

Had they shown even a little bit of love to Hellraiser. It could have turned a profit. With the stories they were presented and could have used. Any of those had the potential to turn a profit. But they were so set in their ways and turning Hellraiser into a slasher. They couldn’t see reason and only saw hate for the resistance they were met with. Like my ex fiancé told me in one of our final calls, “I tried putting you into a box I wanted you to fit, I know that was wrong of me and I’m sorry. I tried forcing you to be something you weren’t” Only it didn’t cost her or me millions and a studio. It just cost us 4 years of our lives and a ring.

I mean this really digs at me, not my ex that ship sailed and hers burned down in the night by its own captains mental health. But it really digs at me every single failure, challenge, and obstacle these films faced under Dimension. These people were making the Scream films and took over the Halloween films. Yes Halloween Resurrection was dog shit. But more importantly they did H20.

Compare that film to Hellraiser Revelations.

Jamie Lee Curtis came to them with the idea of doing a reunion film, Bringing back her character for one more fight against Michael. The film did amazingly well and brought back interest for the franchise. They listened to a legacy character who served as a producer. She clashed with Akkad yes. They lied to her to placate her and get their sequel and followup done. Screwing her over ultimately. Yes. But they managed a hell of a return to form for the Halloween series and a profit.

They had Clive Barker. Not once, but twice at their front door. With Bradley ready to return. That’s like Carpenter and Curtis coming to you ready to work.

But they turn Barker away, and use his name to drum up interest. They chose to lie and turn away all of their ideas. Deciding ultimately to just keep the property and shove out a place holder. The only thing that makes sense as to why. Is for the same reason everyone behind the scenes including Akkad agreed. Pinhead vs Michael could never work because Michael was a slasher, Pinhead was a supernatural threat. Dimension wanted to turn Pinhead into a slasher. Something they understood within their wheelhouse. The more they tried forcing him to fit that box, the more it was clear he never would. But they had stopped trying and began shoving a corpse into a triangle pegged hole.

They had no understanding of the property. Only that it was horror. Horror sold, and they new slasher horror. Only they never even got that until much further down the road. Because they just did not care. We can’t say they were too busy to give the franchise attention and think up a story, think of a way to reboot it. They made it very clear that they had decided instead of going through the process of a real production. They’d save that for other worthwhile projects while doing what was legally needed to keep Hellraiser for the time they’d eventually get to it. Like with Warhammer, buying new models and painting them because man this new box set has some beautiful models. All while telling yourself you’ll return to your gray pile of shame eventually and finish those off. They just never did, and now, never would.

With Canon films you had two talented men who could sell you a film that didn’t even exist yet, and when they brought it into existence the film was never as good as promised but it was completed and had some form of entertainment. They didn’t feel soulless and pushed out. Those two believed in what they were doing and sold it heart and soul while making money off it. Using that money to finance the films. Dimension got lucky with a few projects but every time they backed an idea. They got excited for a production. That’s when they couldn’t pull themselves back and meddled away until they broke what they saw possibilities in. Falling back on the need to turn a profit over entertain. They did it with Halloween and they absolutely threw Hellraiser into the trash and expected a pay out. For nothing. If the Weinsteins had the talent of Golan and Globus. Shit if they just had the heart those two did. They undoubtedly could have become a better profitable business with more hits than misses.

Had New Line taken over? Paramount? Who knows. Maybe they would have worked with Barker. Maybe. It could’ve gotten a lot worse too, hell we could have actually ended up with a Freddy Vs Jason Vs Pinhead, and hell even an Ash Vs Pinhead. There’s always another level of hell we have yet to discover. But somehow and with this coming to a close, knowing everything now. I doubt it would’ve been as bad as what we ended up with.

Knowing some of these disasters now serve as lessons in filmmaking for how not to make a film, knowing studios think a lot harder before shoe horning existing titles into other properties, some good can be said to have come out of this. I just hope the future remains bright for Barker and Halloween.  I really do.

With that, I can bring this all to an end. At long last. It was a long time sat here writing, Watching the movies, researching. But I feel it was worth it. I feel bad for how long I was away from writing reviews and this all has served in making me want to get back into it. Despite working for a soulless company that doesn’t care about me. I’ll find the time, because this is something I’d gladly do more often for myself and everyone reading them. For every one of you that joined in reading these. You are a very rare breed and thank you for taking the time. A Long, long time. To read through all of it. I hope it was enjoyable and I just might revisit this months theme again sometime. Lord knows there are enough franchises out there I could do more. But we’ll have to wait and see. For now. Enjoy your candy and Halloween. Take care, and until the next time. Always remember this. If you ever feel you want to create something. Be it film, music, writing. Anything. The project you keep putting off with multiple reasons and excuses. Remember this.

Dimension didn’t put in any work or thought into 7 Hellraiser films. They punished the world with them. If they can shovel thoughtless shit with zero effort or care. You can release your work with more passion and heart in it, than any of these 7 films combined. Go create, unleash it and know you’ll never be as horrible as these people were. Thank you.