Name: Suspiria
Released: 1977

For most of its life, Hellraiser has been a franchise its creator watched from the sidelines. Clive Barker wrote the novella and directed the first film, then saw the series stretch into a long run of sequels without him back in the director’s chair. Now a video game built in consultation with him has handed Barker a fresh argument about what the films could still be.

“I think what was achieved in the game is a wake-up call to anyone who’s been involved in the making of a franchise like Hellraiser,” Barker told Dread Central in an interview marking the release of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, comments Deadline then amplified. “It says to get your ideas warmed over so you can go back into existing worlds in a brand new way. I have many ideas that I’d like to see realized in the Hellraiser universe, and I’m planning to keep my fingers in that pie.”

The game, developed by Saber Interactive with Boss Team Games, gives that claim something concrete to point at. It brings back Doug Bradley, who played Pinhead in the first eight films, as the voice of the Cenobite leader. “Doug is Pinhead and Pinhead is Doug,” Barker said, adding that he had feared the game would be “overly censored” and was “genuinely astonished by how far they’ve been able to push it.” He is not announcing a film of the game; he wants that nerve back in the movies.

The ambition comes with a grievance attached. Barker said several Hellraiser sequels made under the Weinstein brothers “were created simply to hold onto the rights,” and that “over time they spent less and less on them.” He did not blame the people who made them: “It’s not the fault of the writers and directors, but just the way the system works in some cases.”

His new ideas are being kept in note form. He described a visit to Rome and the Vatican, with its paintings, sculpture and the darker history of the Inquisition, as a revelation for how he pictures Hell, and named Black Sunday and Suspiria as touchstones. The new comic books are exploring some of that, he said, “but I’d love to go further in the movies.”

The first Hellraiser, adapted from Barker’s 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, reached cinemas in 1987; the franchise has since grown to 11 films. Barker won back his U.S. copyright interests in the novella and his original screenplay, effective December 2021, and produced David Bruckner’s 2022 Hulu reboot, which cast Jamie Clayton as the Hell Priest. Revival is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2.

Barker put his plans plainly: “I’d love to have another go at it.” The voice that defined Pinhead is back, in a game rather than a cinema, and the man who built the puzzle box is asking to open it again.

Tags: horror, Hellraiser, Clive Barker, Doug Bradley, Saber Interactive, Hellraiser: Revival