However, a familiar needle-filled face will return. This time, the leader of the demonic cult, Pinhead, is played by Jamie Clayton. “Jamie scared the hell out of me,” Bruckner jokes of his leading lady. “Jamie always had a handle on him. He always did something with it that I would come back to again and again.”
With practical effects comes prosthetics, which can be awkward at best and excruciating at worst, but Clayton was up to the challenge. “She was really fearless. It’s not easy to fill shoes,” says Bruckner. “In this space, she was as strong and confident as anyone could imagine.”
Photos of Clayton as the infamous Pinhead have been released and suffice it to say, they are stunning. According to Bruckner, everyone on set felt the same when they saw her. “You could hear a hush fall over the crew because it was like hell’s priest is here, look! He certainly directed the character with a sense of grandeur.”
With features The Ritual (2017) and The Night House (2020) under his belt, Bruckner has already become a fascinating director to watch, and it seems horror is where his heart lies. “Horror is the only genre in film where it’s still allowed to be a little bit surreal,” he says. “Reality is agreed upon in a different way. There’s a freedom to it and you can get weird.”
On the idea of taking a stab at other horror franchises, Bruckner was humble, “I dare not say. I think I have to respect the movie gods.”
New franchises or not, Bruckner’s future is sure to contain horror as well as continued collaboration with writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski. And as for if more Hellraiser movies could be on the way? “The fans have to respond to that, there has to be a desire to go further? I would absolutely be honored.”
