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Revisiting Clive Barker’s ‘The Scarlet Gospels’ and the End of Pinhead
Cliver Barker hates the name Pinhead.
In fact, it was never his intention for his creation to be called such a silly name; one that Barker has called “undignified”. Truth be told, he hasn’t really been happy with his Hell Priests onscreen representation for some time. Though numerous sequels have depicted the demon, he’s only ever appeared in one piece of the horror author’s writings.
That changed in 2015 when Barker set out to reclaim and subsequently kill his creation in The Scarlet Gospels, a novel detailing Pinhead – er, the Hell Priest’s final days. And don’t worry, I’m not spoiling anything the author himself wouldn’t want you to know. All things considered, it would be nothing short of anticlimactic if Barker decided to let his iconic cenobite return for even more after promising his demise for so long.
The book is nothing short of fascinating due to Barker’s less-than-stellar outlook on the Hellraiser franchise. Truth be told, most of them haven’t been the greatest. The original 1987 and its sequel are classics. The rest? Well, some are pretty good. Some are unwatchable – especially the most recent offering. But I don’t want to talk about that, and you probably don’t either.
Not all of the reviews upon the book’s release have been favorable, but years later, it’s had some time to digest, guts and all. The prose is very straight to the point and doesn’t contain much of Barker’s usual poetic acrobatics, but there are times when his genius really shines through the blood and the exposed brain. There are also times when it’s necessary to look away from the pages and take a breather; passages containing extreme gore here dictate a moment of watching puppy videos on YouTube and a cold shower.
The Scarlet Gospels finally gives Barker and outlet for his depictions of Hell, the cenobite’s dwelling place, and this is really where the book shines. You can tell the author has been clamoring to accomplish such a feat for years – decades even – and it is completely apparent throughout the bloodsoaked pages of the book. Interestingly enough, it even shows a side of the Hell Priest the audience has never seen before. There’s true weakness and anger, desperation and grief. Who would have thought?
Clive Barker, that’s who, and that’s also the only person who should have ever been able to pilot who we have come to know and love as Pinhead. The Scarlet Gospels is an incredible look into not only the future of Barker’s hellish creation but the relationship the creator has with his monster. That alone is worth the price of admission.
With the release date of the newest Hellraiser still up in the air, now is a better time than ever to read what is intended by Barker to be the end of the Hell Priest. And please, for the love of both pleasure and pain, stop calling him Pinhead, okay? It’s demeaning. Shame on you.
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Movies
‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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