Last month, it was revealed that Clive Barker’s classic horror movie Hellraiser is getting rebooted for Hulu by Spyglass Media. Now, news has come out that the movie has cast its female lead — and that it might have a gender-swapped Pinhead.
According to Dread Central, actor Odessa A’Zion (Wayne, Let’s Scare Julie) has been cast as “Riley,” the lead in the new interpretation of Hellraiser by director David Bruckner. More interesting, however, is this bit of information from site Illuminerdi:
“Previously we revealed that the developers were looking for a female lead to play a gender-swapped Pinhead in a reinvention of the classic antagonist.”
More on this information as news comes out, but we think we speak for everyone when we say, TILDA SWINTON, TILDA SWINTON, TILDA SWINTON.
Directed by Clive Barker, on whose novella The Hellbound Heart it was based, Hellraiser follows the flight of Frank Cotton, a hedonist who escapes after being transported to Hell by an esoteric puzzle box known as the Lament Configuration. With the help of his brother’s wife Julia, he drains innocent men of their blood in order to regain his corporeal form. But when Frank’s niece Ashley gets ahold of the puzzle box, she summons the Cenobites, a quartet of unholy monks who act as “demons to some, angels to others,” led by the gravel-voiced Pinhead (portrayed in the original by Doug Bradley, whose vocal talents are a big part of Cradle of Filth’s 2000 album Midian). Now, Frank has to run and hide from his savior-captors, lest they drag his soul — and the souls of everyone around him — back to the stygian labyrinth we call Hell.
Check out a trailer for the original 1987 film:
More on the Hellraiser reboot as we know it, but suffice it to say, we’re pretty excited to see what they do with it!
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Words by Chris Krovatin
