The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy (42 page)

When the story became clear, Bradley offered to get in touch with Laurence himself, as they had kept in contact. In the intervening years the actress had starred in movies such as
Lurking Fear
(C. Courtney Joyner, 1994) based loosely on the H.P. Lovecraft tale
Felony
(David A. Prior, 1996) and
Cupid
(Doug Campbell, 1997), as well as appearing on TV in
Legend
,
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
and
Suddenly Susan
, before taking some time out from show business to concentrate on her family. She’d just started back, featuring in
Warlock III: The End of Innocence
(Eric Freiser, 1999) and
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
on television—still firmly established in the genre—when the
Hellseeker
offer came. Laurence accepted it, delighted to be able to play alongside Bradley once more. “[It] was really nice for me [after] so many years, to come back and be in an environment as an adult that I had started as a child,” she said in an interview on
Hellseeker
’s release, “to come back and look at things through those eyes.”
¹

But this didn’t leave long to rewrite the script again—she was actually added back in just days before filming started—and so information about where the character had been and what had happened to her since we last saw her was included in a title sequence with Trevor in the car. This was subsequently dropped in favor of Jamison Goei’s spinning digital puzzle box over which the credits play, something he came up with in his spare time. The script also alluded to money Frank and Larry had left her when they disappeared “under some rather unusual circumstances” and which might have been a motivation for Trevor to kill her. The most enticing addition, though, was actually embroidered upon by Bradley—a lengthy conversation between Pinhead and Kirsty when she re-opens the puzzle box. “I gave it to Doug Bradley,” said Bota, “and asked him to put it into the words of Pinhead but also expand on the story if he wanted to.... And he did a great job and added a lot of pages of great dialogue and great backstory which we already had in there, but he filled in between the lines. It’s great stuff.”
²
Sadly, most of this was also excised, although it survives as an extra on the finished release. The very fact that Bota was open to this and wanted the
Hellraiser
mythos to gel pleased Bradley enormously.

The rest of the cast and crew were now in place as well, ready for the February 2001 shoot in Vancouver, Canada. When casting for Trevor, the director looked at a number of different actors before executive producer Jesse Berdinka sent him a tape of Dean Winters playing Ryan O’Reily in the HBO series
Oz
. Winters’ brother Scott had originally persuaded him to attend acting school, and he made subsequent appearances in
Homicide: Life on the Street
,
NYPD Blue
,
Millennium
and
Sex and the City
, as well as in the films
Conspiracy Theory
(Richard Donner, 1997),
Undercover Angel
(Bryan Michael Stoller, 1999),
Snipes
(Rich Murray, 2001) and
Bullet in the Brain
(David Von Ancken, 2001). The script for
Hellseeker
was sent to him and three weeks later he was shooting the film.

Because of what had happened with Thorne on
Inferno
, the makers developed Trevor into a more likeable character the audience could care about before revealing too much of his true persona. In earlier drafts of the script he had less of the endearing qualities that Winters brought to life on-screen, such as his own interpretation on how much he loved his wife. “I think he did a great job with Trevor,” said Bota. “It was a really difficult part to play because he goes through a range of emotions and I think that’s what essentially was appealing to Dean.”
³

Because the script had so many morally bankrupt characters in it, one nice person was introduced: Dr. Allison Dormere (the name itself being an in-joke as it is French for “sleeping”). Described by the director as “a sort of guardian angel,” in the script it goes on to say, “Something about her just radiates a calming presence”
⁴
It was Canadian actress Rachel Hayward’s mission to sell this to the audience. Hayward’s first film role was as Angie in
Breaking All the Rules
(James Orr, 1985), before graduating to, aptly enough, “woman in morgue” for the adaptation of Dean Koontz’s
Whispers
(Douglas Jackson, 1989). Further movies included
Time Runner
(Michael Mazo, 1993),
Voyage of Terror
(Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1998), and
Cabin Pressure
(Alan Simmonds, 2001), while her TV series CV featured parts in shows such as
Sliders
,
Highlander
,
Stargate SG-1
,
First Wave
,
Xena: Warrior Princess
and
Cold Squad
.

Trevor’s vampish boss, Gwen, was to be played by Sarah-Jane Redmond, who initially came in to read for the Kirsty part. She had such a presence that Bota wanted to use her somewhere, and she proved to be perfect casting for this dominating and sexually aware woman. Born in Cyprus, Greece, Redmond’s first movie was
From Pig to Oblivion
(Simon Barry, 1993) and she filled in the time between her next one—
Disturbing Behavior
(David Nutter, 1998)—with roles in
The X-Files
,
Millenium
(as The Devil, for which she was voted the Internet’s number one villain),
Sleepwalkers
and
Poltergeist: The Legacy
. She had recently enjoyed a lengthy stretch on the new reworking of the Superman legend,
Smallville
, as well as James Cameron’s televisual brainchild,
Dark Angel
. As research she viewed dominatrix sessions at a local dungeon and said, “When I auditioned for the part, I used a photograph out of Stanton’s illustrated book,
For the Man Who Knows His Place
, as my headshot. It’s a photo of a man on his hands and knees slaving to his female master in his office.”
⁵

The part of his equally rampant neighbor, Tawny, was taken by twenty-four year-old actress Jody Thompson from
Death Game
(Randy Cheveldave, 1996) and
Fear of Flying
(David Mackay, 2000). Completing Trevor’s harem of women was Kaaren de Zilva as the acupuncturist Sage. De Zilva’s acting experience involved work on
Final Round
(George Erschbamer, 1993), John McTiernan’s
The 13th Warrior
(1999), based on the Michael Crichton book and
This Is the Disk-O-Boyz
(Morris G. Sim, 1999). Bota wanted Sage to have an accent because it would add to her exotic charms, but because de Zilva looked quite exotic anyway, the decision was taken to have her speak with a British lilt, for which she copied her English mother’s accent.

Bota came across Canadian actor Trevor White in a play. “When I first got to Vancouver and we were doing the casting I was taking in some local theatre on the weekends,” the director explained.
⁶
Bota tracked the thespian down and asked him to read for the part of Bret, Trevor’s best friend. The actor, who has a look of Clive Barker about him, had previously starred in films like
Groomed
(Trent Carlson, 1996),
The Rememberer
(Coreen Mayrs, 1999),
The Vigil
(Justin MacGregor, 1999) and
Epicenter
(Richard Pepin, 2000).

For the role of Detective Lange the filmmakers needed someone who could play an almost father figure to Trevor. They found this in the shape of kindly William S. Taylor, whose first film character was anything but amicable—a gang member in John Carpenter’s classic
Assault on Precinct 13
(1976). His lengthy back catalogue included such movies as
Certain Fury
(Stephen Gyllenhaal, 1985),
The Fly II
(Chris Walas, 1989)
Omen IV: The Awakening
(Jorge Montesi and Dominique Othenin-Girard, 1991),
The Silencer
(Robert Lee, 1999)—where he played another detective—and
Romeo Must Die
(Andrzej Bartkowiak, 2000). The yin to his yang, Detective Givens, was a role that would go to Michael Rogers, who had impressed Bota in the latest installment of
Children of the Corn: Revelation
(Guy Magar, 2001), also through Dimension. His career began with the Rex Hamilton musical,
Staircase
(Stanley Donen, 1969), where he was part of the opening song. Other films included
The Mosquito Coast
(Peter Weir, 1986) and
Mission: Impossible
(Brian De Palma, 1996). Rogers had also made a bit of a name for himself as a producer on the Lloyd A. Simandl films
Escape Velocity
(1998),
Lethal Target
(1999) and
Fatal Conflict
(2000).

Other actors playing smaller parts were
Breaking Point
’s (Bob Clark, 1976) Ken Camroux as the doctor/coroner Ambrose (who has one of the best lines in the whole film, when Allison is talking to the dead body of Trevor: “You’re creeping me out, and I’m the coroner!”); Dale Wilson, veteran of cartoons like
Spider-Man Unlimited
, as the chief surgeon who operates on Trevor’s brain at the start; Gus (
Black Point
(David Mackay, 2001)) Lynch as Tawny’s overprotective boyfriend; Kyle Cassie, also from
Children of the Corn: Revelation
, as the ambulance driver who has significantly fewer lines in the final cut than he did in the script; another voice artist—for cartoons like
Transformer Beast Wars Metals
(1999)—Alec Willows, in the only comedy role of the film, that of the janitor whom Trevor catches smoking (“Okay, you caught me. At least let me finish, will ya, I got one puff left.”); Brenda (
Mr. Magoo
(Stanley Tong, 1997)) McDonald as the older nurse who assists in the brain operation at the start then repeats the ongoing line, “We’re all here for you, Trevor.”; Basia Antos from
First Wave
as the naked woman Trevor spies on through his window; yet another
Corn
actor, John B. Destry as a minor detective; with the Cenobites being played this time by Sarah Hayward (Stitch Cenobite), Michael Regan (Surgeon Cenobite) and Nancy J. Lilley (Bound Cenobite).

Following up his special effects work on
Inferno
was Gary Tunnicliffe, who did a marvelous job working for very little money—“Stitch and Bound were sculpted to be worn by feminine petite women and Rick Bota wanted and cast very large, heavy women ... that stretched the masks.... [The director wanted to veer away from the “sexy Cenobites” of recent entries in favor of the original exaggerated concept.] The Surgeon, I was pretty happy with him. It was kind of a big idea that worked out well.”
⁷
Also returning was Jamison Goei, whose favorite effect was the eel sequence that must surely have been influenced by the worm creature in
Poltergeist II: The Other Side
(Brian Gibson, 1986): “We had an actual eel made out of silicone, used in the shots of the eel flopping around on the ground after Trevor pukes it out. Then I shot photos of the silicone eel for textures that are mapped onto the [digital] eel models. A model of the human head was then modified to roughly match Dean’s head and then match-moved to Dean’s movements on the plate with him acting as if the eel was working its way out of his throat....”
⁸
In addition, Goei handled the realistic needle through the neck scene and the blackbirds emerging from behind the merchant, some of which were recycled from the
Prophecy
clip in which Lucifer explodes into birds.

Cinematographer on the show was John Drake from
Christina’s House
(Gavin Wilding, 1999). Because he is a director of photography by trade, Bota had a difficult time deciding whether or not to hire someone at all, but it freed him up more to concentrate on other aspects of the movie. “Sometimes we butted heads,” admitted Bota, “but I think it was to the advantage [of the film].”
⁹
Meanwhile, production design fell under the remit of Troy Hansen, who had just finished working on
Children of the Corn: Revelation
and was able to re-use some of the same sets: Trevor’s flat, for instance, and the police station. The morgue, too, came from another film—
Valentine
, for which Bota had served as DP—but an actual office was taken over for the day to double as Trevor’s place of work, perfect for what the script describes as a “honeycomb of cubicles,”
¹⁰
and an old mental institution in Vancouver was a stand-in for the hospital and the underground tunnels at the police station.

Anthony Adler of
Tales from the Crypt
and
House on Haunted Hill
was to be the editor, along with first-timer Lisa Mozden, although she had been a second and first assistant editor on
Bound
(The Wachowski Brothers, 1996) and
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
(Steve Miner, 1998). In charge of music was old hand Stephen Edwards, whose varied credits spanned
She’s Been Away
(Peter Hall, 1989) and the song “Work Me to the Bone” from
What Women Want
(Nancy Meyers, 2000). His take on the score was totally different from anything that had gone before, bringing in electric guitars and pianos that would have been unheard of during Christopher Young’s time. His new title theme put a powerful spin on the old
Hellraiser
material and his haunting “Kirsty’s Theme” has to be one of the highlights of the entire production.