This is a treatment on
an idea of how to redo the Hellraiser legacy. My thought is not to remake the
first film but rather a faithful adaptation of the novella that Hellraiser
director Clive Barker had written. The Hellbound Heart is the book that
Hellraiser is based on and is in fact written and directed by the author of the
book itself.
Well from the beginning,
my idea is to do a different film altogether, it’s the same story and core concept and world, but it’s following the
events and aspects of the novella more closely while at the same time, filling
in a few certain gaps by giving a powerful narrative that is idiosyncratic yet
chilling and emotional; via at some points non-linear storytelling as well as
strong fantasy scenes which may seem very real for the characters and for us
before we cut back to what’s going on in the main story. The aim of these
fantasy scenes is to give us a deeper sense of the characters individual
emotional states and the desires of their hearts and minds.
My idea of this
adaptation begins with a line from when Frank meets the Cenobites for the first
time, having solved The Lament Configuration, says “You know what I
want.”,
this is heard against a black screen so that we don’t know who this
is, it introduces the character of Frank while leaving what or who he’s saying this to
our imagination, except for hard-core fans of the novella.
We then see a dark and
tight minor glimpse of the creepy attic where the significant events of
Hellraiser and the novella take place, starting with the moment where Frank
solves the puzzle box. Here we see items, which Frank sets out as offerings for
the Cenobites, before we find ourselves in another part of the Cotton
homestead, where Rory, Frank’s brother, and his wife Julia, a beautiful and
alluring female with womanly curves and contours.
The aim of the first
fifteen minutes of this version is to slowly reveal the Cotton family, the emotional
state of Julia as memories of her sexual encounter with Frank haunt her, and
slowly reveal that there may be more to Frank’s strange unexplained disappearance than meets the
eye.
Unlike the 1987 film,
Kirsty is not the daughter of Rory (He is named Larry in the movie.) but
actually an old friend, who has always harboured a strong unrequited crush on
Rory, a love that I would like to make, besides Frank’s failed journey
for the ultimate sensual experience and having to contend with bringing himself
back to our world and being free of the Cenobites, central to the core of the
piece.
I’ve always viewed
Kirsty as some Snow White character, lovely dark hair and maybe blue eyes,
almost like an alternate version of Zooey Deschanel in a very realistic if very
dark and horrific fairy tale universe. I view the heart of the film to lie in
some connection or connections, between all the four characters and how the
puzzle box and the world of the Cenobites, but most of all how Frank’s longing and
quest for twisted pleasures, damage whatever relationships the four characters
have with each other.
A particular aspect of
this core is some dark connection between the beautiful and virginal princess
Kirsty and the hedonistic and secretly evil Frank, for while Frank loved his
brother’s wife he had a secret lust after this slightly
younger woman, albeit a dark impulsive lust. I always had this image in my head
of Frank, Rory and Kirsty having known each other long before Rory even met
Julia. At some point, Frank may have come across as a jerk to Kirsty, a plain
yet beautiful young flower, until he surprises her with his true self, a deeply
violent and sexually perverted creep, and grabs Kirsty against her will, before
proceeding to touch her and nearly rape her, which he restrains himself from
doing. He vows to rape Kirsty properly one day soon, maybe anytime in the next
few years. This experience leaves a powerfully nightmarish and very real scar
on Kirsty, but even more so as Frank threatens to beat her and kill Rory if she
even shows any sign or indication that Frank ever did anything to her.
This turns Kirsty into a
deeply scarred as she becomes this idiosyncratic and quirky adult woman, in
fact she even plans on moving away from the neighbouring town outside of the Cottons’ home town to
move on to a job and new life, leaving her parents behind and still worrying in
her most private moments, that even far away Frank may still find her to attack
her and murder his brother whom she loves so much.
The idea is to slowly reveal
Kirsty’s secret crush, but throughout the entire film not
even in a mention or flashback do we get an indication that Frank ever went as
far as to molest Kirsty, only to vow to rape her in future but to murder Rory
and beat Kirsty to death. Finally, we will learn of this revelation after
Kirsty finds that Rory has been killed anyway, in order for Frank to get skin
for his body, and then Kirsty kills Julia accidentally, or so it seems.
As Frank finds Kirsty
and claims that “He was already dead long before I touched him.” We then learn of
Frank’s
molestation of Kirsty.
Kirsty is deeply quirky
and vulnerable but having to see Frank again, even worse Frank as a skinless
creature, and having to meet the Cenobites and her life being put in the
balance via the deal she make on bringing Frank to the Cenobites, somehow ends
up changing her into a full-fledged woman with courage and a better knowledge
that there are demons in another world and hope that maybe there could be a
paradise, maybe not a Hell but a purgatory in which Rory may be dead but at
least that he’s happy and free of suffering and depending on if
there could be a sequel from this treatment, and depending on whether they’ll do it like
Tony Randal’s sequel in 1988, either this hope will be the case
or Kirsty will find out that Rory is actually in hell, alone and still
suffering.
I think it’d be great to see
a lot of powerful symbolism, religious and dreamlike, in this interpretation,
while grounding the entire story in humanistic reality, and then be surprised
by the presence of the Cenobites and become immersed in their Hell, while
discovering a more in-depth explanation and origin of the puzzle box, and even
then we’ll still hopefully keep the believable reality of the
story and characters.
As for the Cenobites, I
would like to have them look exactly like they did in the novella, all the
while leaving an impression with the female (actually it’s sort of
half-and-half perhaps because of the unearthly gender-confused voice.) Cenobite
with pins in his/her head, much like Pinhead in the movies. Except she is not
the lead Cenobite, in fact she probably won’t have much screen-time as much as her fellow demons,
yet I think I’d give her a more important role, depending on how I
feel about continuing this interpretation through sequels, maybe concluding
with the yet-to-be-written book The Scarlet Gospels, which will be Pinhead’s final appearance
and bring everything together.
I also would like to do
a twist on the whole Pinsty thing, in which many die-hard Hellraiser fans have
formed, through many different fanfics and artwork, a new story element where
there is something between Pinhead and Kirsty and in fact Pinhead loves her so
much that he wants her to be a Cenobite, in fact I think that happens as well,
in some fanfics and in the Hellraiser spin-off comics in which we see a Kirsty
Cenobite that rules hell as she wishes and carries on the legacy of indivisible
pleasure and pain.
I’d like to bring
that into my interpretation by, if I write sequels, establish a development
where the female Pinhead Cenobite is developing a serious and powerful love for
Kirsty, to the point where she desires to not only take Kirsty to her Hell but
also to make her as a Cenobite. Don’t know how that’d work but I like the Lesbian Cenobite-human romance,
I think that’s fresh and taps into giving Kirsty a more powerful
and painful transformation, after what shes been through in Hellbound Heart,
how can she leave her world behind and rule Hell as a demon.
Now to explain the
fantasy scenes of my vision of Hellbound Heart, I think we’d begin with
showing what the Cenobites show Frank, when they give him a sensory overload
before taking him to his Hell; showing him such sensual memories and things as sucking
on his mother’s breast as a baby and his brother’s arms wrapped
around him, in what either seems to be a struggle or brotherly embrace, among
other sensual memories and pleasures that Frank harbours.
Then we see Julia’s memory of
meeting Frank and their affair. Julia then dreams of seeing Frank again,
handsome and wanting to touch Julia, who submits and agrees to do anything
Frank wants.
Then we descend into
more wholesome yet bizarre territory as we get a glimpse into Kirsty’s emotional state,
regarding her love for Rory. I thought of a scene where Rory and Kirsty are
together on a beach, with Kirsty either wearing a beautiful summer dress or a
bikini, and they both kiss and embrace. This is to show how wholesome and
innocent Kirsty’s most sexual desires are, despite how much emotional
damage Frank has caused her.
Also get non-linear
again as we see flashbacks of Kirsty, Rory and Frank in their high school days,
we see teenage Kirsty watching Rory and admiring his handsome looks and his
goodness and then a flashback of Frank’s assault on Kirsty. Then finally a memory, or
fantasy, in which Kirsty is alone and outside the school cring and holding her
folded arms, in a feeble attmpt to hide herself, before Rory find her and
checks if she’s okay. The memory or dream ends with Rory embracing
Kirsty, if this memory actually happened, then this would be the first time
Rory shows serious concern for the woman who always loved him from the start
and a sign that they’re both meant for each other.
I imagined this memory,
true or only in Kirsty’s imaginings, to be shown and intercut with the final
scene of the novella where Kirsty meets The Engineer outside the Cotton family
home and Kirsty is entrusted to be the keeper of the puzzle box until the next
pleasur seeker comes looking for it.
As Kirsty looks at the
box and hopes that there is another purgatory without pain or suffering and
hopes that Rory is there, I imagine cutting from this moment to the memory I
just explained above.
