The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy (31 page)

14

WHAT STARTED IN HELL

All things considered, reaction to
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth
was much better than that of
Hellbound
, which might have had something to do with the commercial considerations of the film. As Phil and Sarah Stokes from the Barker site, Revelations, comment in the booklet accompanying a recent
Hellraiser
boxed set, “More accessible than the first two films, this was Pinhead Unbound,
Hellraiser
for the MTV generation, and beautiful American youths were finally slaughtered in great numbers. What the film lost in the glorious perversity of the original, it gained in scope, scale, pacing and sheer spectacle.”
¹
But there was none of the
Life of Brian
style furor the makers had expected due to the religious aspects of the movie—if there had been such a response it might have made even more money.

The movie had its World Premiere in Milan at the famous Dylan Dog Horror Fest in May 1992—where they realized a full-on rock soundtrack didn’t work. Its British premiere was at the London Film Festival later in the year, screening alongside Barker’s
Candyman
and Sam Raimi’s manic horror comedy,
Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead
. Genre magazine
The Dark Side
sent along Nigel Floyd, who wrote that it erased “all memory of Tony Randel’s disastrous
Hellbound: Hellraiser II
with its bravura camerawork, gruesome effects, nerve jangling sounds and adrenalised excitement.” Actually, the camerawork was what a lot of people picked up on, especially Hickox’s trademark deep-focus technique, where a character remains in the background while a close-up of another character fills half the screen (especially prevalent in the Pinhead/Elliott/Joey finale). While Hickox’s apparent footwear fetish seems to have been ignored by all (close-ups of Monroe’s boots at the start, Joey’s high-heels in the hospital corridor and her bedroom slippers...), Floyd went on to call the movie “a worthy successor to Clive Barker’s visceral, flesh-ripping original,”
²
with Atkins’ skilful script receiving just as much praise.

Reviewing the film for
Monstroid
, Richard Griffiths gave it four skulls, commenting that it was “much better than it deserves to be ... a cracking example of what sequels are all about.” Picking up on the fact that it was a showcase for Pinhead—“but who cares”—Griffiths also credited Atkins for taking “the useful bits of the original
Hellraiser
mythology and then adding a whole lot more as the main story twists around clever subplots, all the time building to the exciting climax.”
³

Variety
also seemed impressed this time, crowning the movie a “well produced effort” that is “an effective combination of imaginative special effects with the strangeness of author Clive Barker’s original conception.” Its review singled out Farrell and Bradley’s performances: “Farrell is a strong heroine binding the film together, and British thesp Doug Bradley is a commanding presence as Pinhead, while also doubling sans make-up as the good guy captain.” Sheila Johnston of
The Independent
was more offhand in her praise, saying, “It is competent and accomplishes the small feat of being better than its predecessor.” But the tabloids were more forthcoming, the
News of the World
drawing attention to the “gut wrenchingly imaginative special effects ... truly shocking,” and
Today
stating that
Hell on Earth
was “great entertainment for those who love being frightened out of their skin.”
The Daily Mirror
went one step beyond and proclaimed it “better than the first two horror movies in the
Hellraiser
series.”

Backing this up were the box office returns, ensuring that the third movie did just as well as the last two (total U.S. gross $12,525,537,
⁴
and encouraging interest in yet another sequel. The tagline might have read: “What started in Hell will end on Earth,” but there looked to be no signs of the
Hellraiser
series finishing. Barker was apparently going to be much more involved in the fourth film, and Atkins was again to script. But what would this one be about? A prophetic comment by a cast member at the wrap party for
Hell on Earth
pointed the way. According to Bradley, who’d had a little bit to drink by that time, the cast member said, “You know what they ought to do with Pinhead in the next one? Send him into space!”
⁵
One can imagine there might have been laughter at this “joke.” Who could have predicted that in
Hellraiser: Bloodline
we would indeed see Pinhead spacebound?

15

PRODUCTION HELL

The seeds of
Hellraiser IV
’s storyline were planted by the addition to later versions of
Hell on Earth
’s script of a coda sequence: much like the one in
Hellbound
where the Pillar of Souls emerges from the mattress. In this one, however, we are shown a building based on the Lament Configuration, caused—presumably—when Joey buries the box in the concrete at the building site. Anthony Hickox had actually found the location of this site purely by accident; the huge golden statue outside with the world wrapped around a box drew his eye on a drive around Charleston (South Carolina) one Sunday morning. It is a monument that would anticipate the global magnitude of the fourth film’s tale.

The idea for the structure of the movie would again, though, come from Clive Barker. He would be serving as executive producer from the start of the project—already in its planning stages by early 1994. “My only concern was to do something fresh and new—for God’s sake this is number four!” said Barker. “So it was important to find something that hadn’t been done before.”
¹
He came up with the notion of a three-part film tracing the fortunes of one particular family through different time periods, suggesting that it start in Victorian London. And although Pete Atkins had envisaged the third film being the end to a trilogy, this piqued his interest. He extrapolated the concept, adding the twist that this new family should be the Lemarchands: the clan that created the puzzle box. This decision would dictate that the story started in France, with the most obvious historical choice being during the Revolution, the period of atrocities and bloodshed providing a fitting backdrop. Barker had also established the occupation of Lemarchand himself in
The Hellbound Heart
, stating he was a “maker of singing birds”
²
In other words, a toymaker.

An outline wasn’t required because both Atkins and Barker were familiar with the executives at Miramax from
Hellraiser III
, and the studio was keen to make another film. So the initial meeting took the form of a pitch presentation where they both fired off ideas and Miramax gave the green light. In retrospect this freedom would prove both a blessing and a curse, and would lead indirectly to many problems later. But with their go-ahead Atkins went away and started writing the most ambitious of all the Hellraiser scripts:
Bloodline
. As usual, the screenplay would go through several drafts, but the sixth version gives us an idea of just how much changed between page and screen.

Atkins’ script begins with a series of extreme close-ups of human hands delicately working on tiny cogs and machinery, a huge eye grotesquely “expanded through a magnifying glass.”
³
It is Phillip Lemarchand described as 30, handsome and obsessed with his craft. These images call to mind the beginning of the original
Nightmare on Elm Street
where Freddy is making his famous razor-glove. We are then told via a caption that the year is 1784. Phillip’s wife, Genevieve, does not share her husband’s enthusiasm for the new piece he is making. “It doesn’t actually do anything, then.” she says. “I meant no offence, Phillip. I’m sure it’s terribly intricate. It’s just ...
dull
. I prefer your acrobats and lovers.”
⁴
She alludes to the toys he usually makes, including monkey musicians and Harlequins, all of which fill his workshop. Undeterred, Phillip sets out to deliver the puzzle box to the Chateau Du Reve, where he is greeted by Jacques, “a 19-year-old servant-cum-apprentice to the chateau’s owner.”
⁵
This is the powdered and periwigged Duc de L’Isle, whose face is covered with layers of white powder but whose red and rheumy eyes and spidery limbs place his age in the late 50s.

Lemarchand is taken through a room filled with gamblers and introduced to the person behind the commission of the box: the Princess Angelique, “dark, mysterious, exquisite.”
⁶
Atkins emphasizes that Lemarchand is beguiled by her beauty even at this early stage. Lemarchand is dismissed, but continues to watch through a window. Eager to test the box, Angelique gives it to the gamblers. Corbusier is a natural leader, good looking with a sardonic smile. At the other extreme, Delvaux is fat, ruddy and libidinous. L’Escargot is amoral, and De Conduite is a dandy. Finally, L’Hiver, Printemps, L’Automme and L’Été (named after the seasons) are young army officers present to learn the ways of the world. L’Isle issues them with a challenge: “Gentlemen, a new game...”
⁷
Corbusier is the one who takes the box and begins to manipulate it, encouraged by a striptease that Angelique performs. Like a twisted version of pass the parcel, it is handed around and with each new turn of the box, the Princess removes another layer of clothing until, finally, it returns to Corbusier and the inevitable occurs. But as the box opens, so too does Angelique show her true demonic form, her flesh rippling and eyes turning completely black.

Atkins writes: “The entire room TREMBLES as if caught in a quake. Unearthly WINDS explode up from the floor sending the candle flames shooting upwards in powerful RED FIRE, casting NIGHTMARE SHADOWS on the walls.”
⁸
As Lemarchand flees from the chateau, he encounters a derelict at the gates selling spices and wonders from beyond the sea. He shakes himself free, shouting back, “No more wonders! An end to wonders!”
⁹
The toymaker seeks help from his friend, Auguste, a young professor of science and philosophy at the Sorbonne. At first he doesn’t believe a word of Phillip’s story, then tells him to design a machine that can destroy the demons.

Lemarchand is in the middle of doing just that when he is visited at home by Angelique, who asks him to produce more of the boxes. Again, the attraction is apparent and she offers him rewards beyond his wildest dreams. De L’Isle was merely an initial contact, but she can offer him so much more than money: “When I say ‘power,’ I mean real power. And when I say ‘reward,’ I mean real rewards.”
¹⁰
Genevieve interrupts them just before they kiss, and Auguste only just manages to stop him from ripping up his new designs. Auguste’s
reward
is to be killed by Angelique’s troupe of clowns (Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot, Pulcinella and the Surgeon) and acrobats, based on Lemarchand’s toys. A black bird watches as the professor is hurled into a giant maw of Hell, which Atkins describes as “a dark infinity, like an impossible tunnel opened between dimensions. Circular, ribbed, and pulsing, it resembles a GIANT ESOPHAGUS.”
¹¹

Phillip leaves his bed that night to go to the chateau, but wakes his wife in the process. It is here that he finds out she is with child. In his eyes, this is even more reason to go—to give his offspring a better life. When he arrives, Phillip finds that there is a
Masque of Red Death
style celebration taking place, the ballroom filled with people in grotesque masks; Angelique is dressed as a black bird. This time Lemarchand cannot resist her and they kiss, but three guests intrude, one of them Corbusier. De L’Isle then reveals a pentagram beneath a circular rug. “That’s what your box is designed to replace. That and a few words of Old Latin,” the magician explains.
¹²
It is how he summoned Angelique in the first place, and how he is able to exert some degree of control over her; a summoned demon is the summoner’s to command. But now they want more of the boxes so anyone who stands in Hell’s way is forfeit. There is a fight and Angelique throws De L’Isle across the room. This snaps Phillip out of his daze and he lets slip his plans to make an anti–Lament Configuration (or Elysium Configuration as it comes to be known). The gamblers pull off their masks to reveal the hideous scars of the dead, and attack him.

Meanwhile Genevieve has followed her husband to the chateau. She finds him close to death, and he tells her to save herself and the child. Angelique overhears and cannot allow any of his bloodline to survive. But before she can kill Genevieve, De L’Isle intervenes, dragging the demon through the pentagram. With her gone, the gamblers dissolve into human towers of worms, then finally to dust. Genevieve flees the chateau, giving the puzzle box to the derelict outside. We then witness Jacques calling Angelique back so he can control her: “He who summons the magic, commands the magic.”
¹³
The next scene shows Genevieve onboard the clipper
Liberté
; Genevieve is heavily pregnant and bound for New York with the designs Phillip set to paper.