Hellraiser 2 can take Pinhead and the franchise to new heights by adapting Clive Barker’s epic The Scarlet Gospels – which also slayed the iconic cenobite. Hulu’s Hellraiser has met with a mixed critical response, but it’s easily the best entry in the series in some time. The franchise started strong with the first two entries, but a combination of producer indifference and low budgets saw the movies quickly heading straight to DVD. A planned Hellraiser remake spent many years in development hell too, and flawed as the final product might be, it’s an ambitious and faithful rendering of Barker’s creation.
In 2015, Barker finally published his long-brewing The Scarlet Gospels, a direct sequel to his novella The Hellbound Heart, which he adapted into Hellraiser. With this novel, Barker sought to merge the stories of Pinhead (AKA The Hell Priest) with his supernatural private eye character Harry D’Amour. The book is an epic tale where Pinhead sought to take control of Hell from Lucifer, while Harry and his “Harrowers” set to stop him. The scope of The Scarlet Gospels makes it ripe for a potential Hellraiser 2, in addition to making Jamie Clayton’s Pinhead the star of the show.
Scarlet Gospels Would Be The First Blockbuster Hellraiser
Like many of its rival 80’s horror franchises, the Hellraiser movies were produced on small budgets. Despite Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 featuring more fantastical settings and effects, it was still produced for a comparatively modest sum. With The Scarlet Gospels, Barker wasn’t bound by budgets or filming schedules, allowing him to take viewers on a tour of Hell. The novel is loaded with gruesome imagery and hellish vistas, and a movie adaptation could present a side of the Hellraiser movie saga never before seen on the big screen.
Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth previously attempted to make Pinhead a Freddy Krueger-style slasher. This didn’t quite work, though the Hell Priest remains an indelible horror icon. Clayton’s take on Pinhead was the most acclaimed part of Hulu’s reboot, so a potential Hellraiser 2 would be wise to put more focus on the villain. The Scarlet Gospels is in many ways the ultimate Pinhead storyline, focusing on the cenobite’s ruthless quest to tear down the structure of Hell and remake it. If it’s a direct adaptation also brings in D’Amour as the protagonist, then all the better. Of course, the main barrier to a Scarlet Gospels movie would be the budget, as it’s not a cheap concept.
How Scarlet Gospels Finally Killed Pinhead
Barker first mentioned plans to kill Pinhead off in the late 1990s, and it took nearly 20 years for this to come to pass with The Scarlet Gospels. The version of the cenobite presented in the 2015 book is particularly vicious, with the opening chapters detailing his slaughter of a group of magicians. Pinhead meets his end when he finds and accidentally resurrects Lucifer, after attempting to steal the latter’s armor. This leads to a huge battle between Satan and the Hell Priest, where Pinhead is eventually disemboweled by the former.
Even that doesn’t kill him, however. Pinhead lives enough to blind a key character and viciously assault another, before being crushed when Hell itself is destroyed. The Hulu Hellraiser – which introduced new puzzle box configurations – wisely left its options open so a possible Hellraiser 2 could have a clean slate. The next outing could play things safe, or swing for the fences and adapt – at least in part – The Scarlet Gospels. It really is the ultimate Pinhead story and would give Clayton great material to work with. It just depends on whether Hulu is willing to pump up the budget a little.
