The Hellraiser (2022) cast confesses their favorite films from the entire Hellraiser franchise in this interview.
Hellraiser (2022) is the eleventh film in the Hellraiser franchise, and while it isn’t exactly a reboot, it isn’t exactly a continuation either. During the press conference for the new film, which is coming exclusively to Hulu on October 7th, the cast and filmmakers confessed their favorite films of the Hellraiser franchise.
Come to find out, not all of them have seen every Hellraiser film — and some saw them when they were far too young.
Hellraiser (2022) Cast Confesses Their Franchise Favorites
Goran Visnjic says that when he was a teenager, he went into a local video store and discovered the VHS tapes of the first four Hellraisers. “In a few nights, my friend and I saw all of them. Number four was always my favorite because I’m a sci-fi fan, and this one is happening in space station.”
He says this was the time of Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back so he felt a really huge impact of that one. Because of this, when the script came by, he was all in.
Hiam Abbass explains that she is going to disappoint everyone because she knew nothing about Hellraiser, or any horror movie for that matter, before filming this movie. “I grew up in a place where everything was frightening anyway, so like, if I was to escape in movies, I would choose something much easier on my psychology.”
However, as an actor, she really badly wanted to do a horror movie. As if it was fate, after talking to her agent about it, a month later this offer arose.
Brandon Flynn confesses that he has only seen the first Hellraiser, and none of the other nine.
“The first one is so iconic. I always grew up watching horror movies. Cuz I think at nine years old I was just sadistic. I was watching when I was that age. When I got this script and got to watch it with like, fresh adult eyes, it took on a whole meaning — especially knowing why he wrote the novel in the first place.”
Adam Faison says that he “commiserates with Brandon on feeling like a little dark soul. I loved horror movies. AMC horror fest, I think is where I maybe saw Hellraiser for the first time. AMC would do these reruns of back-to-back franchises. So I think that’s probably the first time that I ever had seen the Hellraiser movies.” He explains that Director David Bruckner actually got him on to the novella, Hellbound Heart, which is the basis for most of Hellraiser (2022), and confesses it was cool getting to hear Clive Barker narrate an audio book.
Drew Starkey answers that like, Brandon, he was traumatized at an early age.
“I’d say about eight or nine as well. My parents were big, big movie buffs. My mom worked in a video store through high school — the mid 80s through the early 90s. She was a big horror fan. But Hellraiser was always the one film that she was like, stay away from that. So as an act of rebellion my brother and I watched it when we were too young. But the imagery always stayed with me, like my entire life.”
Keith Levine explains that he has everyone beat, and saw Hellraiser when he was about five or six. “I have two older brothers so whenever we would go out, we’d watch VHS’ of horror films. And I remember vividly seeing Hellraiser for the first time.”
He adds that he keeps his brothers updated on his film, even texting them the trailer and poster. “So it’s very much like childhood and I’m very much honored to be a part of this. It was a long road to get here. It’s surreal to be even here with all these faces, doing any of this. It’s always been a big part of my life, and hopefully, we’ll get to do more, and it’ll continue to be a big part of my life.”
Odessa A’zion says that she was always familiar with Hellraiser, but she didn’t grow up watching them. She did start watching them after booking this role, however. “If we’re talking about favorites, I’d say that mine might be the second one. It’s really crazy because there are a lot of differences in our movie, but they’re also like a lot of similarities.”
Jamie Clayton admits that she was “a big scaredy cat when I was a kid. I got into horror in my 20s and 30s. There was a moment where I was really into horror, like Takashi Miike, The Audition, and all the Friday the 13th films, but I actually hadn’t seen Hellraiser. I watched it the night before I auditioned and I was like, Oh, why haven’t I seen this sooner. This is so beyond a horror film. There are so many layers and nuances to the story, and so much as implied. There’s a lot of glamour it’s very sexy.”
David Buckner says that he cannot compete with the rest of the cast because he didn’t see Hellraiser before the age of ten, knowing that it would have traumatized him.
“There’s no way I could have handled that. I had a friend in high school that was my gateway drug to horror. He would force me to watch things — and even then I couldn’t. Hellraiser was inaccessible to me, it was too much. It wasn’t just the gore, it was the atmosphere, and maybe what the themes underneath were. Just the idea that there was a fate worse than death. That you would just go and suffer for an eternity like that would send me home thinking for the entire night.”
Be sure to check out the 11th film of the franchise, Hellraiser (2022) on Hulu October 7th!
NEXT: Barbarian Review (2022 Movie)
About Hellraiser (2022)
A reimagining of Clive Barker’s 1987 horror classic from director David Bruckner in which 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.
Hellraiser comes to Hulu October 7th.
