9. Hellraiser
What happened here? There are way too many of these movies. It's become an expectation for a new one every year or so, and the most recent decided to do away with Doug Bradley, who was the only constant among all the other films. Now that Bradley is out, it's time to start over. I'd heard that one of the reasons the studio keeps pumping these out is mostly just to retain the rights to the story and its characters. Alright, fine. But why not, you know, try to make them kind of decent? The first film is a classic. It's very 80's but that's okay, it works. It's weird and creepy and kind of confusing but wonderful to watch. The score is perfect as well, proving just how important music is to this genre. The concept is quirky and fun but as of today, it's a little overused. In a nutshell it's demons released from pandora's box. Seen that one a few times now. So a reboot seems pretty essential in order to breathe new life into the characters and make Pinhead scary again. As a kid, Pinhead was the stuff nightmares. That face, that voice especially, it's something that sticks with you long after the credits have rolled. But what happens to iconic characters like Pinhead (like Freddy and Jason and Jigsaw) is that people begin to like and value him over any protagonist. When the franchise becomes established, the villain becomes the hero because we like seeing him hack up people. Remember when Jason was on
Arsenio Hall? The killers become pop culture phenomenons. It's cute, but ultimately dangerous to the franchise because it means any hope of good story telling is now lost. All people want to see in your films is how the killer is going to kill people. They don't want anyone to get away or survive. Talk about a sick audience, but it's only natural because the longer the franchise or story drags, the more aware we become that it's all just a movie. Hellraiser needs a reboot to remind us who Pinhead is. Given all the technology and goodies we have at our fingertips, pleasure seeking it something we do on a minute by minute basis. It's time for Pinhead and his demon pals to capitalize on that. How would he affect the modern citizen who's looking to get his rocks off? What kind of power can he have over technology, the internet, transportation, etc.? There's a lot to be done when you're dealing with the devil, it just needs to be relevant.