The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy (33 page)

For the role of John Merchant’s wife, Bobbi, Kim Meyers was selected. Meyers had worked with Yagher once before on
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge
(1985), where she played Lisa Webber, but her other credits included parts on TV’s
L.A. Law
,
Tales from Hollywood Hills
and the Chuck Norris vehicle,
Walker, Texas Ranger
, as well as the films
White Palace
(Luis Mandoki, 1990) and
At Risk
(Elana K. Pyle, 1994). Playing a similar part was Charlotte Chatton as Genevieve. Chatton also had TV experience, most notably in popular British detective series
Inspector Morse
(1992). That same year she starred as Jen Cross in
Dakota Road
(Nick Ward) opposite Alexis Denisof before going on to feature as Emma in the show starring Jane Seymour
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
(1995–6).

Bit-part actor Mickey Cottrell was chosen for the role of the evil Duc de L’Isle, having established himself in a number of parts in addition to serving as a unit publicist for movies like
Bagdad Cafe
(Percy Adlon, 1987). His first big film role was alongside Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix in Gus Van Sant’s
My Own Private Idaho
(1991) where he played Daddy Carroll.

Up for the role of De L’Isle’s apprentice, Jacques, was 21-year-old Californian Adam Scott, who was also building his career on TV appearances. The first of these was as Dan in the pilot episode of
Dead at 21
(1994), followed by a couple of turns in
Boy Meets World
. Post–
Hellraiser
, the actor could be seen in such high profile shows as
E.R.
and
Murder One
, as well as Martin Scorsese’s
The Aviator
(2004).

Louis Turenne—another Canadian by birth—stepped into the role of Phillip’s friend, Auguste, bringing with him over twenty years of acting experience starting with
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
(Mark Robson, 1971) right through to
Mystic Pizza
(Donald Petrie, 1988) with Julia Roberts. Louis Mustillo would play Sharpe, a victim of Angelique who opens the puzzle box and calls forth Pinhead. But audiences may have recognized him from brief appearances on
Quantum Leap
,
Married with Children
and
L.A. Law
. A child actor with the requisite experience was required for the scenes with Jack and Pinhead and they found this in Courtland Mead. At only seven, the young actor had nonetheless amassed a serious number of parts, from
For Parents Only
(Bill Shepherd, 1991) to
Little Rascals
(Penelope Spheeris, 1994).

Due to a reshuffle and cull of characters, there was no need to find anyone to play Roscoe or Corrine Cotton. Rimmer was now to take on a more central role and would be played by Christine Harnos. Though she had appeared in films like
Cold Dog Soup
(Alan Metter, 1990) and
Dazed and Confused
(Richard Linklater, 1993), most viewers would recognize her as Mark Greene’s wife, Jennifer, in
E.R.—
from 1994 onwards. Making up the rest of the SWAT team were Wren T. Brown as Parker (from
The Hidden
—Jack Sholder, 1987), Tom Dugan as Chamberlain (
The Puppet Masters—
Stuart Orme, 1994), Pat Skipper as Carducci (
Predator 2
—Stephen Hopkins, 1990), and Paul Perri as Edwards (from
Manhunter—
Michael Mann, 1986), now their commander.

Replacing security guard Valerie Dyson were twins Jimmy and David Schuelke, who had only appeared together before
Hellraiser IV
in Ruben Preuss’s horror film,
Almost Dead
(1994). Story-wise this would make more sense, as they are supposedly transformed into the Twin Cenobites we see on Minos, but under the latex were two other twins, first time performers Michael and Mark Polish.

This was an assignment handed to the new head of Image Animation’s U.S. branch, Gary Tunnicliffe. “Basically what happened was that myself and Bob Keen were jointly running the company in England,” explained Gary. “We were taking on more and more projects and a lot of work was coming from America. We therefore decided to set up a U.S. shop and I ended up coming out here to run it.”
²⁵
Tunnicliffe had already been involved in the effects for
Hellraiser III
, in particular the re-shoots suggested by Barker, so he was no stranger to this universe. But upon hearing that effects-man Yagher would be directing, he was worried that Image Animation might be surplus to requirements, fears that were to prove unfounded: “Kevin rang us up and basically said, ‘Hey, I want you to be involved, you’re the only people who’ve been around doing all of the films, can we meet?’”
²⁶
This secured IA’s position on the movie and led to Tunnicliffe handling the make-up on the Twins, actually based on Greek comedy and tragedy masks (sculpted by Steve Norrington). Tunnicliffe was also responsible for the design of Angelique’s stunning Cenobite, some of which he got from watching the film
Sister Act
(Emile Ardolino, 1992): “It’s true, honestly! I was watching these singing nuns and seeing the way their cowls fall down and I thought it would be interesting to do something with flesh rather than material.”
²⁷
Thankfully, there was also a touch of slinky Morticia Addams thrown in, the skin-tight outfit actually securing Vargas a place on the cover of
Femme Fatale
and
Fangoria
magazines.

Fortunately, Tunnicliffe was also keen to return to the original Pinhead look, having been a great admirer of the work done in the first two movies. The make-up in the third film had been designed for speed and it was reduced to a two-piece appliance; Tunnicliffe always felt that the pins were a little too long and cumbersome: “Personally, I thought Pinhead was fine the way he was, so we went back to the original design and pattern.”
²⁸
This would involve one-inch gold pins and a grid closely copying Geoff Portass’s original. The return to this old look would also help Bradley to get back into character. After loosening up his performance when Pinhead was set free in
Hell on Earth
he would now have to rein that in again and re-establish the boundaries of Pinhead’s persona.

Though Yagher left Tunnicliffe to handle these make-ups, he couldn’t resist designing the Chatter Beast himself and letting his own shop bring it to life. But it would take the talents of Jody St. Michael, who had been one of Rick Baker’s apes in
Gorillas in the Mist
(Michael Apted, 1988), to truly animate the monster. “There’s a center that an animal has that a human doesn’t,” St. Michael clarified. “Humans do human things, have human intentions and human emotions. Animals all have this one center, and it takes some practice to capture it.”
²⁹
Other notable crew positions were filled by Ivo Christante as production designer, costume designs by Dayna Cussler and Eileen Kennedy, Rick Kerrigan as visual effects supervisor, and David Douglas designing the spacecraft.

A design for Valentina Vargass costume, which was inspired by
Sister Act
. Gary Tunnicliffes idea is rendered here by Myles Teves (courtesy Gary J. Tunnicliffe).

Filming began in August 1994 in order to meet Miramax’s proposed release date of January 1995. The location for the first few weeks of principle photography was L.A., specifically floor three of Hollywood’s old I Magnin building, transformed into expansive corporate offices for the purposes of the shoot. Before setting up here, rumors abounded that, like the house in Dollis Hill from
Hellraiser
, this place was haunted. The ghost of the woman who was married to I Magnin was said to roam the building and didn’t want a group of filmmakers invading her territory. By the time they were finished, even Yagher had cause to believe this might be true.

Cast and crew had bad luck right from the start. There were concerns about the cinematography—rightly so—leading to the dismissal of a DP and drafting in of Gerry (
Hellraiser III
) Lively. Indeed, according to Bradley the entire art department and camera crew were sacked after just one week.
³⁰
A strike shut down production for a whole day, resulting in loss of footage. A fire broke out at the building that set off the sprinklers and caused a flood. An emergency called the assistant director away from work for a couple of weeks, and Courtland Mead developed a bad case of chicken pox. To his credit, Yagher remained composed, patient and professional, something he said he inherited from his dad: “My father was a very patient man, and I inherited a little of that. I’ve been concerned here and there, but I’ve stayed pretty calm....”
³¹

Shooting the eighteenth century France scenes were much more satisfying, it seemed. Likening the shoot to making three separate films, Yagher said on the set, “It’s a great experience to start on something this difficult and hopefully,
if
I work again, the projects will not be as tough. Right now, I’m tired, but I’m happy tired.”
³²
He also sang the praises of Barker—who would drop by when he had any free time and offer his advice—Atkins, who was on hand to do any rewrites, and the Weinstein brothers at Miramax. Publicity photographs from that time also reveal Tunnicliffe’s work on the transformed gamblers, one of them with his eyes healed over and another with his lips pulled back even further than the Chatterer.

The production then moved to an abandoned A-1 Spaghetti factory, only a few blocks from where Barker was filming
Lord of Illusions
. This would be transformed into a makeshift soundstage, and technicians recreated the Minos corridors—reverting to sci-fi type by making them completely metallic. The Minos was now a free-floating space station rather than part of an asteroid and the year had changed to 2127. Here the crew encountered yet more difficulties, including Vargas suffering from a reaction to the glue and prosthetics used in her Cenobite make-up. The whole experience had been too much for some, so much so that, looking back, Bradley said that, “
Bloodline
was the shoot from hell; it was the most miserable professional experience of my career.”
³³
One of the few highlights for the actor was his sixty-fifth appearance in the Pinhead make-up over the course of eight years, for which Tunnicliffe presented him with a specially made bus pass from Leviathan City Limits Public Transportation.

Regardless of all the horror and heartache, Yagher managed to deliver the movie on time and within budget. Running at about 110 minutes, it was screened for executives at Miramax in early 1995. Their reaction was less than favorable. Their main concern was that the most important character in any
Hellraiser
movie, Pinhead, didn’t appear until well over half an hour into the film. “I’d written six versions of this script: six drafts,” Pete Atkins told an interviewer in late 1995, “and [Miramax] always knew that the eighteenth century came first and Pinhead didn’t appear until the twentieth century story. So it’s not that anyone could blame Kevin for delaying Pinhead’s entrance.... But, I think that when they saw the movie they suddenly felt, ‘Hey, wait a minute, where’s our monster? We made a terrible mistake!’”
³⁴

Consequently, they requested changes to the film, the first of which would be rearrangement of the story sequence. The space section would have to be brought in sooner, to give audiences at least a glimpse of Pinhead and let them know he would be featured later on: the historical parts would now be introduced by Paul Merchant as if he was telling his family’s tale. There were other alterations that would be necessitated, too, such as the expulsion of the gambling scene in favor of Angelique’s “birth.” She became a young street urchin that the Duc and Jacques murder so that she can play host to the demon they summon. A happy ending would be required as well, whereby Paul gets away with Rimmer in a shuttle. All of this would require more footage.

After spending so much time and effort on such a traumatic shoot, Yagher was naturally hesitant to commit himself. “I could understand the changes that they wanted me to make but, for someone who has slept with it, which they didn’t do, it’s tough to give up what you’ve kind of created. I had given everything to the one script. So, the bottom line was that I had to decide either basically to dedicate another year to the film or go on with my life and continue other projects. In the end, it wasn’t so much the direction that they wanted to take, as it was that I just didn’t have the time and energy.”
³⁵
To watch it change day by day would have been like, in his words, “pulling butt hairs out.”
³⁶
Instead, he threw himself into work on Universal’s
Sleepy Hollow
project, to be directed by Tim Burton.