It’s a good month for food and horror aficionados. A lot of highly anticipated genre movies and TV programmes have premiered this month. Among these is Hellraiser, David Bruckner’s remake which features the return of the iconic horror villain Pinhead, played by Jamie Clayton. Before making his impact on Hellraiser, though, Bruckner was tied to another legendary horror franchise, Friday the 13th, in the middle of the 2010s.
Though his idea of Camp Crystal Lake was never realised, Bruckner was recently asked if he would be interested in returning for another Friday the 13th picture by ComicBook.com. For Bruckner, “it’s like the actor’s approach to an audition; you have to just walk away at a certain point and put it behind you,” so it’s unlikely he’ll want to get back into it. And I spent a lot of time there,” he added. Some very exceptional authors were on my team, and I learned a great deal from them. Although I enjoy the franchise as a whole, I find that these specific plot points don’t hold as much appeal for me as they did when we were first developing them.
When asked to sum up, Bruckner would say: If you’re doing a Hellraiser or a Friday the 13th movie, for example, that intellectual property doesn’t belong to me; it belongs to everyone. This is just one Hellraiser film, not the definitive version. There will be more, many more Friday the 13th movies will be made. The IP is too valuable, and they will figure it out. Fans want it far too much. And no, I won’t be the first person in the theatre to guess what happened. Yes, I’ll miss what we had, but no, and the same goes for everything we create: I’m game, and I’ll be eternally happy for the opportunity to continue developing the kinds of things I love.
For Bruckner, who has become a major player in the horror scene thanks to his work on “Friday the 13th,” this is a rather reflective answer. There hasn’t been a new film in this series since the 2009 remake, and that’s mostly because Friday the 13th is now embroiled in a heated legal struggle. A legal battle has broken out between the show’s original director, Sean S. Cunningham, and writer, Victor Miller. It appears that Bruckner is content with his little stint in this famous franchise, even if the aforementioned matter were to be resolved tomorrow.
A creator’s ideas are fluid, as the director implied. What they deemed a good idea yesterday may seem like a horrible one today, just as it does for the rest of us. It all comes down to our interests at the time, and it doesn’t help that Friday the 13th is a notoriously difficult series to reboot. Bruckner, being a fan, is aware of this. As one of the earliest slasher villains to go to space, Jason has been killing campers for over 40 years, has visited New York City and Hell, and was among the first to travel to the Moon. The story has to be solid before Bruckner or any other outstanding filmmaker would consider tackling this series. For the past 13 years, Jason has been dead.
Bruckner has established himself as one of the finest genre directors working today, so while it would be interesting to see his take on Friday the 13th, he has far more pressing matters on his plate. Two of his movies, The Ritual and The Night House, are two of the best horror pictures of the last several years that almost anybody has seen. Especially terrifying for those who have gone through tumultuous relationships is The Night House. Rebecca Hall’s outstanding, award-worthy portrayal as the ghost made for a chilling ghost story with a lot of emotional impacts.
In the year 2022, horror moviegoers are getting ready to witness Bruckner’s long-awaited Hellraiser. The filmmaker looks to have marvellously rescued Pinhead from its direct-to-video sequel hell, and early reviews of the remake of the 1987 cult classic picture are overwhelmingly positive. Bruckner is correct in saying that he does not own Friday the 13th. The fans own the franchise. Whoever takes the helm for the next instalment will be part of Jason Voorhees’ massive legacy. Fans of the Friday the 13th franchise would like nothing more than to see Jason in theatres once the legal wrangling around the film is settled. On the other hand, Bruckner’s Hellraiser doesn’t come out until October 7 on Hulu, but you can see The Night House right now on HBO Max.