Monday, October 18, 2010 at 8:04PM 'Hellraiser' Reboot for Teens?
With Halloween just around the corner, it seems as though The Weinstein Company have deemed this a fitting time to break some news on films coming from their horror arm, Dimension. At last night's Scream Awards, Wes Craven and cast debuted the first trailer for Scream 4, and now this morning we're getting a few frightening tidbits about their long delayed Hellraiser reboot.
Last we heard the production slot originally scheduled for the reboot was going to be used for another dreadful direct to dvd release of the original series, Hellraiser: Revelations, once again leaving the fate of the reboot in question. Well today the studio assured us that the reboot is still happening, happening soon, and happening in a manner that will cause a cold shiver to run down the spine of Pinhead fans everywhere...
It's happening for teens!
Let me take you back for a moment to early 2009. A time when fans saw hope for the future of the franchise instead of the despair brought on by the endless string of C-level sequels. A time when Pascal Laugier, director of the brutal French horror masterpiece Martyrs, was attached to the reboot. A time when quotes like this from Laugier made the idea of a reboot worthwhile:
"My main problem, honestly, with the Hellraiser reboot is that Hellraiseris very transgressive material. It deals with S&M and gay issues, and I really want to be faithful to the book and Clive Barker's world. I don't want to betray him. So if I have the feeling that I am being asked by Hollywood to soften the franchise, I will leave in a blink."
And leave in a blink he did.
Press releases went out stating the director had left the project for unknown reasons. But when directors with uncompromising visions leave projects abruptly, we know the reasons. Or at least we have our suspicions. Over a year went by that we were left with nothing but suspicions, until today when it was announced teen thriller director, Christian E Christiansen, and teen thriller star, Amber Heard, were now attached to the project.
But those that specialize in teen thrillers can make the brutal, gory horror flick that a Hellraiser film needs to be, right? Maybe? Possibly? Please?... Even if they could, Dimension won't give them the chance as they also announced today that the goal of the reboot is to make the film more "teen-friendly" aiming for a PG-13 release.
And now we KNOW why Laugier left.
How do you make one of the bloodiest, most visually disturbing franchises in the horror world teen-friendly? The simple answer is you can't. Not without ripping out the soul of what made Hellraiser, Hellraiser. Whether you liked them or not, even the Platinum Dunes reboots of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street were hard R-rated films.
What really doesn't make sense here is that the last horror reboot Dimension made, Rob Zombie's Halloween, was a very hard R. And so were all of their teen-friendly-ish films in the Scream series. So hopefully the studio isn't aiming literally at a PG-13 release, but making the material more palpable for general horror going audiences.
Either way, Dimension is really missing an opportunity here to give Pinhead fans what they really want. I mean what's next, a PG-13 reboot of Candyman? Oh, wait...
Reader Comments (1)
Look at it this way, They're creating a generation of very passive, unchallenged twirps that will give birth to a generation that will completely rebel against this. You and I, if still alive, will be very old to witness it, but the trend will return once more perhaps.