For Hellraiser fans, Saber Interactive’s video game from earlier this month is the franchise’s first bit of life in years. Amid a solid reception, creator Clive Barker doesn’t plan on letting the Cenobite madness stop there.
As he told horror outlet Dread Central, the game’s “a wake-up call. It says to get your ideas warmed over so you can go back into existing worlds in a brand new way.” And as far as that goes, Barker’s got “many” he’d like to see happen, which is why he’s “planning to keep my fingers in that pie. […] I’d love to have another go and explore.”
The last Hellraiser movie was Hulu’s 2022 reboot, and there’s been no movement on that TV show announced for HBO. Both of those were announced in 2019, and it Barker got the rights back the following year. (He signed story and character rights away before the original 1987 movie even came out.) He was candid about the films’ decline, which he blamed less on the creative talent and more on the Hollywood system milking the franchise.
“Many of [those] movies made by the Weistein brothers were created simply to hold onto the rights. Over time they spent less and less on them. A lot of amazing creative people got worked over as a consequence,” Barker said. “The compromises you have to make and the battles you have to have are totally exhausting, unnecessary, and not something I will entertain ever again.”
Notably, Barker said he’s got a good amount of Hellraiser ideas for film and “other media.” Comics have come out this year and next, so fans won’t be completely left wanting until such a time they hear news of another movie or even the TV show.
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