Hellraiser Stars Talk Tackling the Franchise's Legacy for Hulu Reboot
The spirit of the Hellraiser franchise has been kept alive in comic books and novels over the years, and while there have been multiple sequels being churned out every few years, it's been more than two decades since an installment landed in theaters. Coming from 20th Century Studios and landing on Hulu is an attempt to revive Hellraiser, which is easily the most attention the cinematic series has earned from the general public in quite some time. The new film stars Adam Faison and Drew Starkey, who recently detailed the challenges and excitement of getting involved in the series. The new Hellraiser hits Hulu on October 7th.
"I was familiar with the movies when I came into this because I would watch AMC's FearFest. They would have back-to-back franchise reruns," Faison recalled to ComicBook.com of his connection to the series. "So Halloween, Gremlins, Hellraiser, and so I would watch those a lot as a kid just because, especially around Halloween time, I just loved getting into the season and escaping and so I watched a lot of those when I was a kid. Then once I got the script and then I had a conversation with [director David] Bruckner, he was like, 'You should actually really read the book, the novella, which this is actually more the basis of,' and then he's like, 'There's actually this really dope Clive Barker narration.' I actually listened to that and it's so cool to just hear his voice and him just casually, monotonously saying things that are very creepy and it adds a nice little tongue-in-cheek vibe to it."
In the all-new Hellraiser, 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.
A key component of the franchise is delivering not only grisly deaths, but also grotesque creatures, with Starkey detailing the experience of seeing such creations on set.
"I really loved working with Jason Liles, who plays the Chatterer, just because Chatterer was always my favorite, the most terrifying out of the Cenobites for me," the actor recalled. "There was a full day. It was probably about seven hours where me and Riley, played by Odessa A'zion, are pinned on this gate by the Chatterer and I'm just face-to-face with his face. His teeth are actually going, they had the animatronics going, so his teeth are chattering. And after about five hours of that, your brain starts to go like, 'Oh, my God, what is going on?' But it was incredible, just seeing all the Cenobites day to day was wild. Any amount of work ... It was hours of them getting into the full body prosthetics, so they were all incredible."
Now that they've crossed Hellraiser off their lists, the pair revealed the other iconic franchises they'd be interested in getting involved in.
"My mom was a big fan of the Halloween franchise, I loved it," Starkey detailed. "I think that is something similar with this franchise, whereas it's not so much a traditional kind of slasher film. There's a lot of psychological elements that are really, really terrifying. So yeah, Halloween would be sweet. That'd be awesome."
Faison added, "Mine would probably be 28 Days Later. I know, also, it's hard because sometimes you have to give it time. So maybe if it's 10 years down the road or whatever, sometimes you have to let it breathe to have a reimagination or a remake or reboot or whatever, what have you, but I'd say 28 Days Later is probably one of the freakiest and one of my most favorite horror movies."
Hellraiser debuts on Hulu on October 7th.
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