Director David Bruckner on bringing 'Hellraiser' back from the dead
On Oct. 7, a reboot of the classic horror franchise "Hellraiser" comes to haunt Hulu.
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.
Hulu describes the film as a story about "a young woman struggling with addiction" who "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 opened up to ABC Audio what it was like taking the reins of a classic franchise.
"Well, you really want to get it right. It's a beloved franchise," he said. "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 lightning in a bottle that was, you know, the old films."
"Every movie's terrifying! You know, every one of them is a massive leap of faith," he added. "And that gets very real when you're on the ground and, you know, you have people in full prosthetic Cenobite suits."
Odessa A'zion, the real-life daughter of "Better Things" star Pamela Adlon, plays Riley, who comes to learn it isn't advisable to mess around with mysterious black magic boxes.
Doing so brings other-dimensional creatures called cenobites to Riley's world, led by the iconic and aptly named Pinhead, played this time around by trans actress Jamie Clayton.
A'zion told ABC Audio that it wasn't hard to look scared around the pale-faced, sadomasochistic creatures, because unlike other movies, they weren't computer-generated.
"Sometimes, you know, you do scenes with a tennis ball on a stick," she said of what actors sometimes have to look at on set, before special effects teams add in computer-generated monsters. "We had none of that. This was all right in front of us, exactly like you saw in the trailer, exactly like you'll see in the movie."
"We were doing scenes with real cenobites," she added with a laugh. "It's crazy, it was all practical, it was incredible to look at. It was insane."
The actress also praised the artists behind Josh and Sierra Russell's Russell FX special makeup effects company, who worked with Bruckner on "Hellraiser," as well as his horror films "The Ritual" and "The Night House."
"These guys are so talented," she said.
See what else is streaming on Hulu this October here.
Hulu subscription plans start at $6.99 per month, and there is a bundle offer featuring Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ for $13.99 per month.
Disney is the parent company of Hulu, ABC News and "Good Morning America."
