“The box! You opened it, we came!”Hellraiser’sPinhead is without question one of the best and most recognizable villains of the horror genre. And just as Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee were instrumental in bringing their on-screen adaptations of those haunting literary characters to life, Doug Bradley was just as important to the Cenobite known as Pinhead. And Bradley would reprise the iconic role if the right opportunity presented itself. Bradley said in an exclusive interview withBloody Disgusting:
“I certainly never say never. I’ve never said I was done with it. I’ve never said I’m retired from it. I’m sensible about these things, too. I was in my mid-30s when I first played the character, and I was just turning 50 when I played him the last time. I ain’t in that age range anymore. I’m now in my 70th year, and to some extent I think special effects makeup is a younger man’s game.”
Hellraiser
Bradley first portrayed Pinhead in Clive Barker’s 1987 macabre masterpiece,Hellraiser,but it will require a new take on the renowned character to get the actor back in the makeup again. Bradley added:
An older, darker Pinhead would intrigue me, one not so much in love with the flippant one-liners and the witty comebacks and so forth.
A Hell-Raising Return?
Doug Bradley’sdesire to portray “an older, darker Pinhead,” refers to author Cliver Barker’s 2015 horror novel,The Scarlet Gospels. Published nearly 30 years after Barker gave birth to Pinhead — who remained nameless in the book — in his 1986 novella,The Hellbound Heart,it’s the themes ofThe Scarlet Gospelswhich intrigue Bradley. The actor said in the same interview:
“Christian theology was very much avoided in relation to the way that Hell was talked about in the first Hellraiser movies. Clive typically blew that wide open with The Scarlet Gospels. It’s very theological on a cosmological scale […] That would be the perfect bookend to my life in latex, if I can put it that way.”
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Bradley has portrayed the cringe-inducing Cenobite in all but one oftheHellraiserfranchise’s installments. Actress Jamie Clayton portrayed Pinhead in 2022’s hell-raising reimaging, instead of Bradley. And, in all truthfulness, don’t count on Bradley donning the iconic and devilish guise again unless it’s inThe Scarlet Gospels. Bradley also told Bloody Disgusting:
I’ve never turned my back completely on the character, but realistically, I think that’s probably that, and that’s fine. I’m proud of what we did with the movies, and I’m proud of my work in it. I’m cool with being where I am now.
Fans can watch Clive Barker’s originalHellraiser(1987) and itsmust-see sequel,Hellbound: Hellraiser II, absolutely free on Tubi and Pluto TV, at the time of this writing.
