Martyrs’ Laugier pinned down for ‘Hellraiser’

With Scream and Scary Movie a thing of the past, Bob’s Dimension Films are desperately looking to make a profitable franchise again, and after hiring and then placing the French filmmaking duo behind Inside (À l’intérieur) and setting them on Halloween 2 instead, they are now looking towards a fellow countryman to take over the reigns of the pinhead franchise re-start. After murmurs about the attachment of the director to the new project in the blogsphere, The Hollywood Reporter now confirms that Pascal Laugier is indeed in the running to direct Clive Barker Presents: Hellraiser.

Laugier told THR that “this is a dream project for me — I know Clive Barker’s work very well, and I would never betray what he has done. Fans are expecting a definitive ‘Hellraiser,’ and I don’t want to take that away from them.”

I can see why they’ve picked Laugier to possibly take over this franchise, his grizzly-looking Martyrs made some people dizzy, while I was simply unimpressed by where the filmmaker took the storyline and thought that the visual depiction of abuse and the prologue didn’t do much for the film’s outline – I specifically remember thinking too little too late, the cold, clinically style certainly matches what we may have seen in Barker’s stuff. The Weinsteins own the domestic rights for the film but much like what they did with Inside, I expect it to go the Dimension Extreme route with a DVD premiere.

Released in 1987, “Hellraiser” told the story of an unfaithful wife who attempts to assist her dead lover in his escape from hell. The movie introduced viewers to a race of demons called Cenobites, most notably one nicknamed Pinhead — who became one of the most enduring horror characters of the decade — who was summoned using an antique puzzle box. Based on Barker’s critically acclaimed novella “The Hellbound Heart,” “Hellraiser” was written and directed by Barker and spawned a lucrative film franchise.