‘THE TALL MAN’ & ‘MARTYRS’ Director Discusses What His Version of ‘HELLRAISER’ Would Have Been

Over the past few years endless discussions have sprung up and then suddenly ceased regarding a reboot of the Hellraiser franchise.  Many talented directors and artists have been attached to do their version of the popular Clive Barker property.  However, one name that many fans, including myself, were very excited to see when his name entered the remake conversation was Pascal Laugier.  While his new film, The Tall Man, can currently be seen on VOD right now, at the time, the main film of reference for many people was his astonishing and graphic film about “higher forms” of pains: Martyrs.  Unfortunately, the French director’s vision of Pinhead and the puzzle box will never be seen.  However, in a new interview on Aint It Cool, Laugier describes how he would have approached the story.  The excerpt – from a much longer interview that can be read HERE – where he goes into detail about his experience working on the film can be found below.

BUG: I know that you were attached to the HELLRAISER remake and you’re no longer attached to that anymore. What happened?

PL: You know, what happened is I had this feeling that the producers behind the new HELLRAISER didn’t really want to do a solid serious movie, so for me a new HELLRAISER is all about S&M gay culture, because it comes from a homosexual desire and HELLRAISER is about dealing with these very questions and I don’t want to betray Clive’s vision. I’m a huge fan and I love HELLRAISER and maybe I was wrong, but I had the feeling I was wanted to do something much more for a teenage audience. One of the biggest problems in Hollywood when you love horror is that Hollywood doesn’t. You either do a slasher or you don’t do anything, you know? HELLRAISER is not a slasher. It’s not about killing a teenager and seeing random things between murders, it’s not that at all. It’s much more complex. It’s definitely adult oriented and they asked me to do something very commercial you know, which is fine, but it was a bummer that I didn’t want to do what they wanted. I’ve learned to just run away.

While his answer is quite interesting and certainly paints a portrait of the studio system getting in the way of the creative process (surprise, surprise), I’m not entirely shocked that a group of buttoned-up executives balked when they heard about gay, S&M teenagers.  I would have been curious to know whether Clive Barker would have given his approval of the film given that description.  Given the cyclical nature of Hollywood, I’m sure the discussions of the Hellraiser remake will once again be reignited any day now.

Source: Aint It Cool