The Hellraiser franchise was a meaty, pulpy horror series from that 80s that never had the same impact of, say, Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street. But for horror purists, Hellraiser was something special, mostly because of Clive Barker’s gothic vision and Pinhead, main antagonist of the series. You know Pinhead, you have seen his haunting face a million times even if you’ve watched a Hellraiser film.
While modern audiences might not hold Pinhead in the same regard as Jason Vorhees, they will have a brand new opportunity to meet him. Deadline reports that HBO is developing a Hellraiser series with some major talent involved. David Gordon Green, who put together the lauded Halloween reboot, will be directing many episodes of the show, including the pilot. Michael Dougherty, Mark Verheiden and others (including Danny McBride) will produce the series, which has no set timetable for production or release.
Hellraiser centered around the villainous Cenobites, a race of Hell-hopping evildoers who tormented anyone who opened the Lament Configuration, a demonic puzzle box that housed them. Originally based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by Barker himself, the first Hellraiser spawned way too many sequels. But even when the movies became incredibly shitty, Pinhead always remained a memorable bad guy. The new HBO show will be “an elevated continuation and expansion of the well-established Hellraiser mythology.” So it’s not a reboot but rather a building-upon. I am into it.
The news comes as a Hellraiser film reboot is currently in the works. And, no, the movie reboot has nothing to do with the upcoming series. So that means that after years and years of no Hellrasier, audiences are going to be getting lots of Hellraiser.