News - The Definitive Story of Hellraiser

We're delighted to announce the planned publication in 2016 of the official 'making of Hellraiser.'
Press release below!

Hellraiser

The Definitive Story of Clive Barker's Hellraiser by Phil and Sarah Stokes

The legacy of Clive Barker's movie, Hellraiser, has reached far into the minds and hearts of filmgoers and filmmakers in the years since its 1987 theatrical release.

It has spawned eight sequels, inspired two separate runs of comic books, influenced fashion and culture, prompted academic texts and documentaries and added the iconic figure of Pinhead to the pantheon of great horror characters.

Now comes this full-colour companion book: The Making of Hellraiser includes unseen material drawn from full and exclusive access to Clive's own archived notes, drafts, sketches and screenplays which document his landmark step into the world of feature filmmaking. Alongside these are materials from the archives of New World Pictures and from the archives of cast and crew of the film.

Documenting the journey from vision to page to screen and reflecting reaction at the time, it illuminates the creative passion and commitment from Clive and his collaborators in front of and behind the cameras - a shared passion that forged a landmark in horror movies.

This definitive volume covers:

  • early film and theatrical projects from Clive and the Dog Company which pre-figure the themes of Hellraiser;
  • the critical reaction to the Books of Blood and The Damnation Game, Clive's first published fiction;
  • writing screenplays for Rawhead Rex and Underworld;
  • writing The Hellbound Heart as the basis for a possible debut theatrical drecting project;
  • collaborations with Christopher Figg, Bob Keen and others in the pre-production stage;
  • Clive's first draft screenplay, with annotations and analysis of amendments to the shooting script;
  • the detailed shooting schedule;
  • pre-production and production artwork;
  • casting
  • set visits and contemporaneous press reports and cast and crew interviews;
  • on-set and behind-the-scenes photographs;
  • press and publicity material;
  • critical reaction on release;
  • the mythology and metaphysics of Hellraiser; and
  • the birth of a franchise.

Much has been said about Hellraiser in the three decades since cameras first rolled in September 1986. Featuring exclusive new commentary from Clive himself, this lavishly illustrated, studio-approved, large format book will draw out the thoughts and observations of those involved with the film - as they were making it.

Written by Phil and Sarah Stokes, Clive Barker's official archivists and authors of the ongoing Memory, Prophecy and Fantasy series of books about Clive Barker's works, authors of Beneath the Surface of Clive Barker's Abarat, editors of The Painter, the Creature and the Father of Lies, the definitive collection of Clive's non-fiction work, this Hellraiser book will reflect the meticulous research borne of their work with Clive spanning the last fifteen years.

Note - this 2016 book is about the first Hellraiser movie only and is not the same as the Damnation Games volume about the first three Hellraiser films written for the October 2015 Arrow Blu-ray release.

Hellraiser - previously unpublished

Clive Barker, on the Memory, Prophecy and Fantasy series:

"I sobbed my heart out because there were so many things in there that I hadn't thought of before. Amazing. Breath-taking. And you have captured, or quoted, or found things I just would not have remembered in my life, you know? I think in some ways I was crying for a life that I'd forgotten. You know, my thoughts, and meanings: you are the keepers of those."

Clive Barker, on the Memory, Prophecy and Fantasy series:

"What the two of you have done with these books, what you are doing, is going to be a matrix, a model for a way that people won't do things in the future. Just as people don't do things the way Cocteau did things - back in the Fifties there just weren't the models - people don't make art that way anymore and I think the models will have changed again. What you're doing is, doing for me, is what nobody ever did for Cocteau which is to preserve everything. We know almost nothing about his early drivers. We know them only as echoes of what Picasso was doing, we know what Picasso was painting and we know Cocteau's there because he's in a drawing but quite what he was doing there at the age of twenty... ? You know, he obviously was doing something of significance because he's in all the drawings and all the photographs, but nobody knows. And you've done that for me. You've filled in all the blanks."



A personal plea from us (as we're born to research and turn over as many stones as possible!): all additional images, production materials, anecdotes and assistance from collectors and from cast, crew and anyone involved with Hellraiser will be gratefully received and all credit given in the book.

Ordering details to follow...

Contact Phil & Sarah
Clive on Hellraiser
Memory, Prophecy and Fantasy series
The Painter, the Creature and the Father of Lies
Beneath the Surface of Clive Barker's Abarat


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