The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy (15 page)

Possibly the most high profile and recognizable new member of the
Hellraiser
family, though—especially for English viewers—was thespian Kenneth Cranham as Dr. Channard. Born in Scotland, his career began in style as Noah Claypole in Carol Reed’s Oscar-winning musical version of
Oliver!
(1968). Numerous TV and film appearances followed in the ’70s and ’80s, including
Up Pompeii
(Bob Kellett, 1971),
Vampira
(Clive Donner, 1974) and
Reilly, Ace of Spies
(Martin Campbell/Jim Goddard, 1983). He was perhaps best known at that time for his enduring title role in the much loved British TV comedy drama series,
Shine on Harvey Moon
(1982–85), set in post–World War II England. Here he played a likeable rogue struggling to keep his family together, so now Cranham would be playing completely against type.

Explaining his reasons for wanting the role, he said, “In my childhood I was very fascinated by such things and the chamber of horrors to me was the perfect place to go; and the first thing I ever built with my Meccano set was a gallows. My nephew, Ben Cranham, who’s eight, thinks that this is the best career move I’ve ever made.” He also made a good point about his approach to the material: “This sort of film, which is basically a special effects film, is like any other text. If you act it well, it works. If you don’t, it doesn’t.”
¹⁹

A
Hellbound
reunion. From left to right: Pinhead, Bob Keen, Stephen Jones, Kenneth Cranham, Doug Bradley, Peter Atkins and Nicholas Vince at the Forbidden Planet signing for
The Hellraiser Chronicles
, London, June 13, 1992 (courtesy Forbidden Planet; photograph credit: Dick Jude).

So with all the cast in place, excepting Robinson, and the rewrites done to accommodate this circumstance, filming could at last get underway. But if Atkins and Randel thought that would be the only problem they would encounter, they were to be disappointed. New World had increased the budget for this film, to enable them to top the first in terms of sets and effects, a general broadening out of the universe. It also allowed them to take the production from Cricklewood to Pinewood, where they could use real sound stages. Indeed, they were able to utilize some of the same stages that Powell and Pressburger shot their films on, and many of the craftsmen there could remember working on
A Matter of Life and Death
,
Colonel Blimp
and
The Red Shoes
. Doug Bradley has recalled how delighted he was at the move: “Real sound stages! Dressing rooms (with your name on the door handwritten in the best copper-plate)! Proper make-up rooms! I was like the proverbial kid in the candy store wandering through all this.”
²⁰

However, they couldn’t get too excited. Just before filming was due to start, as the currency was being transferred over from dollars to pounds sterling, the Black Monday crash hit the stock markets of the world and suddenly there was a 20 percent cut in the budget. This meant that scenes such as the bazaar introduction and those between Kirsty and Kyle in his apartment—plus a much longer, more elaborate Cenobite fight sequence—had to be scrapped. But cost cutting could be made by using buildings that were to hand, such as the main administration building at Pinewood (as seen in
The Great Gatsby
) doubling up as the outside of the Channard Institute, and a house just across the road standing in for Channard’s home. Nevertheless, it made sense for Atkins to remain on hand throughout the shoot in case anything else came up and more rewrites were needed, something Atkins thoroughly enjoyed because it was like a condensed film studies course.

Once again it was the technicians that turned what was still a relatively low budget film into something that looked much more expensive. Production Designer Mike Buchanan’s sets were outstanding, from the creepy interior of the hospital and its underground basement cells—three years before
Silence of the Lambs
would give us Hannibal Lecter’s prison—to the cool noirish look of Channard’s living room, and, of course, his aptly named Obsession Room filled with occult items. And all of this was again lit beautifully by Robin Vidgeon. Cameraman David Whorley was able to pull off some masterstrokes, such as the dolly back and zoom out from Kirsty’s eye at the start of the movie, and the superb 360° dolly where the camera swings around Channard and Julia as they kiss, necessitating many different changes in lighting. The matte paintings of Hell and the Carnival by Cliff Culley are breathtaking and seamless. Created over a decade before
Lord of the Rings
’ C.G.I. castles and underground caverns, these painstaking paintings on glass, superimposed on the film, give the movie a grandiose feel and evoke a sense of scale that was barely hinted at in
Hellraiser
.

With Bob Keen directing in the States, his Image Animation partner, Geoff Portass, found himself acting as special make-up effects designer on
Hellbound
, but he proved more than up to the task. This would involve new make-up for the Cenobites, including giving the Chatterer eyes (largely at the request of Nick Vince, who couldn’t see a thing during his time on the first film) and coming up with the look for the Channard Cenobite after he undergoes his transformation.

“The starting point for his design was your average household egg slicer,” revealed Portass in an on-set interview. “We fitted him with a full headpiece on which wires were attached going through the ears. Then he’s picked up by this bloody big tentacle. That’s done by a composite of various shots—there’s a mechanical tentacle, then a prosthetic headpiece that’s actually stuck onto him with the tentacles shaped to look as though they’re gripping then attached with a little coupling device to a tentacle when he’s on a pole arm—or wires, which were used in one shot.”
²¹
Cranham attempted the levitating scenes himself at first, but it hurt his neck and a stuntman called Bronco replaced him. Then there was the skinless Julia suit sculpted by Little John, the idea of which was “to make her look sexy,” according to Portass. And Image Animation was also partly responsible for changing Hell’s god, Leviathan, from an average monster to the diamond shape it now has.

Yet there were still problems in this department. After being given a pep pill—some sort of vitamin supplement—during one of the three a.m. early morning make-up sessions, Doug Bradley had a funny turn and ended up throwing Portass’s filofax out of the window. He had to be strapped down to the make-up chair with gaffer tape. Bradley also found it hard coping with the waiting around on set, and took to wandering around, unable even to have a sleep because of the pins.

It was a sentiment shared by Simon Bamford: “I must admit I wasn’t sure I wanted to do number two to put myself through that mental torture of having that costume on.”
²²
But being a Cenobite could also be quite a dangerous occupation, as Nick Vince soon discovered. During the scene in Hell with the Cenobites and Kirsty, there was a spinning pillar behind him, with a hook and chain attached. As he opened his mouth the big hook went inside and up into the roof of his mouth.

“The plan was,” recounts Vince, “that I’d take a hit in the chest from Channard’s flying tentacle in front of a spinning torture pillar. This meant holding the tentacle in my hand, thumping it into my chest and straightening up to give the impression I’d been knocked off my feet upwards, to be impaled on the torture pillar. The camera would pan up and we’d cut. Then I’d be put in a harness and attached to the pillar and spun for the next shot.... Chattering like mad I thumped the tentacle into my chest, I straightened up, I opened my mouth to scream.... Attached to the top of the spinning torture at a right angle was a piece of wood. Attached to that was a length of chain and at the end of that was a twelve inch metal hook.... It went between the false teeth and the point went a quarter of an inch into the roof of my mouth.”
²³
Luckily, apart from the pain and shock, Vince suffered no lasting injuries, but he can still feel the scar inside his mouth. It could have been so much worse.

To add to the misery, Randel split up with his transatlantic girlfriend during filming, although he claims that the pain allowed him to produce better work: the scene where Pinhead solves the Lament Configuration puzzle in his human guise, for instance, was put together right after he got off the phone with her. But as reporters like Alan Jones (for
Starburst
) and John Gullidge and John Martin (for
Samhain
) testified, the atmosphere on set was generally convivial. Jones stated that Randel was affectionately referred to on set as More Blood because of his penchant for “going full throttle,” not just because of his penchant for gore.

Gullidge and Martin were also impressed by his enthusiasm and desire to open up the mythological elements of the series. Indeed, their only—possibly justified—criticism was about the Americanization of
Hellraiser
. After the dubbing of English actors in the first film, Barker and Randel fought hard to convince New World to film in Britain, but this still didn’t stop U.S. references like “homicide” and cops with firearms creeping in. Writers John Skipp and Craig Spector also commented on the friendly working environment, but they put this down more to the presence of Barker than anything: “Clive is wonderful in that he knows how to diffuse tension and just bring people together around the project. We’ve witnessed less tension on this set, with the crew, than on any other shoot we’ve seen before.”
²⁴

But reporters weren’t the only visitors. Brit director Ken Russell (
Women in Love
, 1969) also came to have a look around while they were filming the Channard/Julia scenes. Russell was no stranger to horror films himself, having made
Gothic
only two years previously, which revolved around events at the Villa Diodati in 1816 where Mary Shelley was inspired to write
Frankenstein
and Dr. Polidori would conceive of
The Vampyre
. (The director would go on to make another genre film, released not long after
Hellbound
.
Lair of the White Worm
, adapted from the Bram Stoker tale, starred Amanda Donohoe and Hugh Grant.)

Britain’s answer to Siskel and Ebert, Barry Norman, also happened to be around filming his
Hollywood Greats
series for television, which he customarily introduced sitting in a director’s chair, and he was given permission to use one from
Hellbound
. Norman had been very derogatory in his review of
Hellraiser
, so Barker and Figg saw their chance to have a word with him about it, allegedly asking him why he wasn’t more supportive of their efforts. It seemed to work, because the review he presented of
Hellbound
for
Film ’88
was altogether more positive.

Once the filming was completed, and Barker was relatively free from commitments, the editing process could begin. Richard Marden was again in the editor’s seat, with both Randel and Barker offering their views. This helped with the pacing of the movie, and sequences such as the Cenobite battle and the climactic finale benefit from a buildup of quick cuts interspersed with the slower scenes. There would also be no question that Christopher Young would be handling the score a second time. His theme had become synonymous with the mythos and it was virtually impossible to imagine the sequel without it. Young was flown over to London from his native L.A. and spent a day at Pinewood with Randel and Atkins, then spent a couple more days with the director. According to the soundtrack notes, Randel “meant for
Hellbound
to be a ‘celebration of horror,’ rather than an obvious, conventional illustration of it. He also wanted the music to ‘respond operatically to the film’s mayhem.’” With this in mind, Young returned home to begin work on the piece, with Barker jetting over to spend time with him there, too.

The composer’s
Hellbound
score managed to exceed all expectations. It is a rich, sweeping score that combines both orchestra (the Graunke Symphony Orchestra, utilizing eight French horns instead of the usual four) and choral arrangements to produce a truly Gothic complement to the visuals. Several of the themes from the first movie were woven in, most notably the signature title theme, and the chase music used when Kirsty first entered the corridors of Hell. But the rest of it was brand new and quite innovative. The “Devil’s Horn,” for example—played when Leviathan is first shown—actually spells out G-O-D in morse code, to counterbalance the evil.

The
Hellraiser
theme was also modified to fit the Carnival and Hall of Mirrors sequences, mixing the traditional band organ music with disjointed snare drums, voices and a blending of other themes in various tempos. But there are quieter moments, too. The music for “Second Sight Séance,” for instance, utilizes the string section beautifully to deliver an unexpected purity. Once again Young elevates the film to a level beyond schlock horror, filling it with grace, dignity, excitement and multilayered textures.