Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is scandalizing gamers and shutting down YouTube channels for its extreme gore and sexual themes, which should please Hellraiser fans, who certainly expected nothing less. Hellraiser creator Clive Barker is equally pleased with the game’s reception, enough, it seems, to consider reopening that damnable Lament Configuration to “explore” new ideas for the franchise. Speaking with Dread Central, Barker discussed the response to Saber Interactive’s survival horror game (developed in collaboration with Barker), calling it “a wake-up call” for the creatives who’ve worked on the franchise. “It says to get your ideas warmed over so you can go back into existing worlds in a brand new way. I have many ideas that I’d like to see realized in the Hellraiser universe, and I’m planning to keep my fingers in that pie.”
Barker’s last foray into the franchise was the 1988 sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser II, for which he received a story credit. (He served as an executive producer on the subsequent sequels until 1996’s Hellraiser: Bloodline.) In the years that followed, Bob Weinstein’s Dimension Films oversaw several increasingly dreadful installments, some of which Barker alleges were made primarily to retain the franchise rights. He also says those rights were used as creative leverage against him. “There are many of the Hellraiser movies that were made by the Weinstein brothers that were created simply to hold onto the rights,” he tells Dread Central. “It meant that I never had to go into Bob Weinstein’s office and hear him admit that he owed me money but wouldn’t give it to me unless I gave him another Hellraiser script […] That, as you know, is an old game that is played in Hollywood, and it is tiring to have to deal with people who don’t have the morality to give a fuck about what they owe you, and I’ll have no part of it.” The U.S. copyright interests to his novella, The Hellbound Heart (the basis for his 1987 film), and the first Hellraiser screenplay reverted to Barker following a legal settlement in December 2021.
Barker isn’t saying anything concrete about his future with Hellraiser. However, he tells Dread Central that a recent trip to Rome and the Vatican has sparked ideas that could influence what Hell looks like in potential projects. (The outlet cites “the darker history of the Inquisition” and Italo-horror staples such as Mario Bava’s Black Sunday and Dario Argento’s Suspiria as inspirations.) “I think Hellraiser is a mythology that could be given some real space to develop and expand upon,” he said. “We’re doing some of that in the new comic books, but I’d love to go further in the movies […] I have a lot of ideas that I’ve kept waiting in the wings to get going as Hellraiser films and in other media.” What a relief to know that, after all these years, Barker still has such sights to show us.
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