Jamie Clayton's Pinhead promises very painful 'delights' in Hellraiser trailer

In the franchise reboot Hellraiser (see the just-released trailer below), Odessa A'zion plays a character named Riley, who comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the dreaded and pain-obsessed supernatural beings known as Cenobites.

"It's the tale of a young woman, who's struggling with addiction and compulsive behavior, that comes in contact accidentally with the box and unfortunately begins to dabble with it," says director David Bruckner. "And chaos ensues."

Some of that chaos will doubtless arrive courtesy of the Cenobite leader Pinhead. The beloved horror character and S&M icon was portrayed in the original film and many of its sequels by Doug Bradley, but in Bruckner's movie, Pinhead is played by Sense8 actress Jamie Clayton.

"We felt a kind of anticipation around the fans to reimagine the character," says Bruckner of the decision to cast Clayton, a trans woman. "We knew we wanted Pinhead to be a woman. Jamie was just the right person for the role. A person's identity can be really exciting for a role in many ways, but I have to emphasize that Jamie absolutely killed; that's how we got there."

Hulu Jamie Clayton as Pinhead in Hellraiser (2022)

Bruckner was a teenager when he first saw the original 1987 Hellraiser. "It was so visceral and so impactful," says the filmmaker, whose credits include 2020's Rebecca Hall-starring Night House. "It was a movie that really, really scared me. It's digging into things that are so troubling that I was almost afraid of the people that created it! This is not a remake. I just didn't think you could ever remake the original Hellraiser. It's too much its own thing and it would be, I think, perilous territory for filmmakers because how do you top that? This is a new story in the Hellraiser universe."

The director reveals that he would be in heaven returning to the franchise's hell-ish environs if the film proves a success. "Should the fans and the movie gods allow, I would love that idea," says Bruckner.

"Hellraiser is a unique challenge, I think, for a group of filmmakers because, you know, it could be a guy in a mask, but it's not; it's inter-dimensional demons that shoot chains at you from an endless labyrinth," he continues. "It's complicated and not just conceptually but also logistically. I feel like I speak for our whole team, the SFX, the VFX, the production design; we learned a lot on this. It is tempting to think we'd have an amazing grip on it going forward, should there be an energy and an appetite for it."

Hellraiser hits Hulu on Oct. 7. Watch the film's trailer above.

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• From The Signal to rebooting Hellraiser: David Bruckner's life in horror