New “Gary J. Tunnicliffe” Interview for “Hellraiser Revelations”.

Gary J. Tunnicliffe Applying Makeup tp Doug Bradley.

“Gary J. Tunnicliffe” The Writer, and The Lead Special Artist of “Hellraiser Revelations”  The Latest Sequal in The “Hellraiser Franchise” Has Just Done a New Interview with “Shock Till You Drop” Where He Talks About The Story, The Cenobites, and The ReCasting of “The Lead Cenobite (Pinhead)”. He Does Not Say a Lot New Information About “Hellraiser Revelations” in This Interview But You Can Tell He Really Tried to Make a “Hellraiser” Movie That The Fans Will Like.

Here is The Interview;

Shock Till You Drop: What can we expect here story-wise? A stand-alone tale similar to past Hellraiser sequels or something that might tie in story-wise to the first three or four (which had a bit of a connection to one another)?

Gary Tunnicliffe: This is very much a “stand alone” tale, however, unlike a lot of the previous Hellraiser sequels this was written purely as a Hellraiser movie, this wasn’t another screenplay that was shoe-horned into a Hellraiser movie by adding a couple of scenes with Pinhead.
The story was actually originally conceived as a potential “remake” idea, I pitched it after a dream I had. It’s a much smaller story, more akin to the first movie, more intimate, more about “desire” and playing more with the idea that maybe it’s humans who are the real monsters and not the cenobites. The only connections to the first movie really are Pinhead, the Box, the Vagrant and the mythology surrounding them.

Shock: Clarify what the story is about because we haven’t received anything “official”?

Tunnicliffe: Well, obviously I don’t want to give too much away but the story centers around a dinner party held by one of the families of two late teenage boys who ran away and went missing in Mexico. Strange video footage and items were found at their last known location, but nothing has been heard from them for over a year. The dinner party is filled with tension and strange revelations. But the evening takes an even more bizarre turn when one of the boys – beaten, bloodied, exhausted and terrified – turns up. Relief and joy are mixed with a myriad of questions and concerns and soon a mass of secrets, hidden agendas and evil truths take us on a journey into the bizarre and terrifying world of Pinhead and the Cenobites.

Shock: Compared to the sequels in the latter half of the franchise, how “true” of a Hellraiser film is this going to be and how big a part does Pinhead play in it?

Tunnicliffe: Again, I think this is much more of a Hellraiser movie than some of the other sequels because it was written solely as Hellraiser movie. In regard to Pinhead and the Cenobites I’ve always held a strong belief that they are the “frosting on the cake.” Those brief moments with him – and the other Cenobites – in the first films were so strong that they captivated you, but the story itself was what drove the movie. In some of the later movies they tried to do too much with the Cenobites and just like a cake with too much frosting…the balance wasn’t right and it was a bit sickly. I think it’s difficult, because as the writer of a Hellraiser film you have to have Pinhead and you want him to talk – so you can write some if that delicious Pinhead dialogue that Mr. Barker and Mr. Atkins started in the first two films. But I think he also has to be pro-active, he has to do something to get his hands dirty or he runs the risk of becoming a monologing James Bond Villain. It’s a very difficult balancing act and at this stage you’re also battling “the law of diminishing returns.” The audience knows him, are familiar with him, have him on their t-shirt so how scary is he? Hopefully we got the balance right, not too much, not too little… a little talking and lot of, well, you know!

Shock: You’ve done Pinhead make-up on yourself, but was it a bit surreal to lay it over someone’s face other than Doug Bradley’s?

Tunnicliffe: I was actually saved from that surreal experience as I was busy working for Wes Craven on Scream 4 during the shoot of Hellraiser:Revelations. I was able to supervise the majority of FX over the Internet and over the phone and Mike Regan and my crew took care of everything. For the actual application of the Pinhead make-up I turned the duties over to a good friend and excellent make up artist Richard Redlefsen. Truthfully, I don’t know if I could have applied it anyway, it might have been just too weird and I would have simply missed Doug too much!

Shock: What can we expect cenobite-wise and make-up wise?

Tunnicliffe: Hopefully, the biggest thing we achieved and you can expect is consistency, the budget was incredibly low, I put all of my screenwriting fee into the FX and I had to ask my crew to work for reduced rates just to create what was needed and maintain a look that was as good as the other films in the franchise. Cenobites are inherently expensive, they are multiple-pieced, complex, detailed make-ups and the costumes are very expensive – luckily I had some items in my own personal collection that really helped cut costs and keep the quality high. But you can expect at least three full Cenobites – including Pinhead – a skinned character and host of make-up FX.

Damn Hearing His Description About The Plot Made The Movie’s Plot Sound Like Just Another Remake of  The Other Straight to DVD Sequals I Hope It’s Not True and They Did Not Waste This Opportunity to Really Make Truely Original Sequal That Really Adds to The Franchise. But One Thing That Seems to Be a Sure Thing is That The Cenobites are Going Back to The Higher Quality of The Original 2 Especially Since He Put All The Money He was Paid for Writing The Screenplay into The Special Effects and in His Screenplay It Seems That He Gave Them a Good Amount of Actual Invovlement in The Plot. The One Thing That Stood Out in The Interview for Me was That He Did Not Seem to Like The Decision for “The Lead Cenobite (Pinhead)” to Be Recast in This Movie Either I Wonder if  He was Offered The Opportunity to Rewrite The Script Knowing “Doug Bradley” was Not Coming Back as “The Lead Cenobite (Pinhead)” Would He Cut Out That Character and Replace Him with Another Cenobite.

Here is a Link Where I Got My Information.