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Director David Bruckner and star Jamie Clayton on bringing ‘Hellraiser’ back from the dead

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Spyglass Media Group

A reboot of the iconic horror franchise Hellraiser makes its debut at Beyond Fest in Santa Monica, California on Tuesday evening, ahead of its exclusive debut on Hulu Friday.

Director David Bruckner, veteran of the horror hits The Ritual and The Night House, takes over Clive Barker‘s frightening franchise for the new film.

In it, Hulu teases, “a young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.”

Bruckner tells ABC Audio what it was like getting the reins. “Well, you really want to get it right. It’s a beloved franchise,” he explains. “And any time there’s the energy to mount one of these movies, there’s an opportunity to capture at least a touch of the, you know, the lightning in a bottle that was, you know, the old films.”

However, he allows with a laugh, “every movie’s terrifying! You know, every one of them is a massive leap of faith.”

“And that gets very real when you’re on the ground and, you know, you have people in full prosthetic Cenobite suits…,” he continues.

Hellraiser also stars trans actress Jamie Clayton in the iconic role of The Priest or as the lead Cenobite is commonly known, Pinhead. She called his casting decision “really dope” in terms of trans representation. 

“[O]riginally when I got the audition, I never thought that in a million years I would book this,” she admitted. “….And when I met David and did the callback, he was everything I could ever dream of as an actor…in a director. And…in that moment I was like, I want to do this.”

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