Why Did Doug Bradley Stop Playing Pinhead In the Hellraiser Movies?

The Big Picture

• Pinhead, played by Doug Bradley in the Hellraiser movies, was a dark and serious villain in the Hellraiser franchise, not just a Freddy knockoff.
• Despite bad sequels, fans tuned in because of Bradley's portrayal, until Dimension's disrespect led to recasting.
• Dimension's rushed, disrespectful treatment of Bradley caused him to turn down opportunities to reprise his role as Pinhead.

The 1980s were the era of horror icons. While masked slashers likeMichael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Leatherface could be played by anyone, as their faces went unseen and they never spoke, a few other icons became so popular that only one actor could play them. Robert Englund ruled the '80s as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street films, becoming a household name. Then there was Pinhead. While not quite as well known as Freddy, the hellish white-faced villain is just as scary as his terrifying contemporaries. The character debuted in Clive Barker's Hellraiser in 1987, one of the best horror films of the decade (and all time). Played by Doug Bradley, he put on the pins and makeup a total of eight times, making some good Hellraiser sequels, while also being part of some really bad ones. After 2005's Hellraiser: Hellworld (which starred a young Henry Cavill), Bradley decided he'd had enough for reasons that are both surprising and offensive to his legacy.

Hellraiser (1987)

A woman discovers the newly resurrected, partially formed, body of her brother-in-law and lover. She starts killing for him to revitalize his body and escape the demonic beings that are pursuing him after he escaped their underworld.

Doug Bradley's Pinhead Is One of Horror's Most Popular Villains

The early 80s were ruled by the slasher craze, but by the middle of the decade, that began to change. In 1984, Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street gave horror fans a movie that was part slasher, part something supernatural and more intricate — leading to years of discourse surrounding whether the film can be considered a true slasher. Three years later came Clive Barker's Hellraiser, based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. Its villain — nameless in that first film, but quickly nicknamed Pinhead — was like Freddy in that he could speak, was more supernatural, and had a unique design. But Doug Bradley's bad guy was no Freddy knockoff.

Pinhead was dark and serious, a former human turned demon from Hell and the leader of the torturous Cenobites. If a victim opened the Lament Configuration puzzle box, the Cenobites would appear, and oh, what sights they had to show you. That first Hellraiser film is a classic, but Pinhead never quite reached the level of Freddy and the like due to the quick failings of the franchise. The first few sequels were pretty good, but the series quickly ran out of steam, eventually going straight to video. No matter how bad they got though, fans still tuned in because Doug Bradley kept returning as Pinhead. But that soon changed. Next year will mark 20 years since Bradley last played the character, and it was all because a studio failed its fans and the actor who had done so much for the genre.

Doug Bradley Walked Away From Playing Pinhead With 'Hellraiser: Revelations'

By the 2000s, the Hellraiser franchise was a bad nostalgia act. The plots of the movies had become dreadful, and in 2005, not one but two horrible sequels were put out, Hellraiser: Deader and Hellraiser: Hellworld. Six years later, in 2011, an attempt was made by Dimension Films to bring it back, perhaps as a remake, as those were all the rage, with remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween finding success. That was eventually nixed in favor of a ninth film, and in 2010, Bradly spoke to Dread Central about what happened next. He said he never spoke with Dimension directly, but rather with people involved with the project, which meant he was never offered a contract. He was allowed to read the script, but he quickly decided to pass when he learned that the new Hellraiser would begin shooting just two weeks later and with a very low budget. He told Dread Central:

“Whether or not this means that somebody else will be stepping up to play Pinhead, I have no idea. I guess we can watch this space together... One way or another, this does not seem to me to represent a serious attempt to revive the Hellraiser franchise. However, I wish everyone who will be directly involved in the making of this film, good luck with it.”

There was more to it than that. In 2017, the horror legend spoke to Zachary Paul of Halloween Love about why he wasn't in the film. Bradley said that in July he got a call from Dimension wanting him to come back for another Hellraiser film within the next two months. What was the rush? Dimension was set to lose their rights to the franchise if they didn't start filming by September, so they needed to pump one out as fast as possible. At this point, there was no script, cast, or crew, making it an impossible scenario. Bradley's response was, "Maybe you should lose the fucking rights, and maybe they should go to someone who gives a shit."

Dimension ignored fans, recasting Pinhead with actor Stephan Smith Collins taking on the legendary character in 2011's Hellraiser: Revelations. The final product was a complete disaster and is considered by many to be the worst of the franchise by far, garnering 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and an abysmal 2.7 rating on IMDb.

Whatever Happened to the Halloween/Hellraiser Crossover Movie?

Michael Myers and Pinhead could have teamed up to raise hell together!

Doug Bradley Was So Offended That He Turned down 'Hellraiser: Judgment'

Though Hellraiser: Revelations was a colossal failure, Dimension Films tried to bring Pinhead back from Hell in 2018. Any viewers of that film, Hellraiser: Judgment, will have noticed that Doug Bradley was absent again, as Pinhead had been recast once more, this time with Paul T. Taylor under the makeup. This film was slightly better (it certainly couldn't have been any worse), and Taylor looked and sounded more like the original Pinhead, but he was still no Doug Bradley. In the same Halloween Love interview, the actor recalled why he turned down the opportunity to return to the role that had made him so famous. It came down to Dimension rushing another movie so they wouldn't lose the rights. It wasn't being done out of love, but simple ownership. Still, Bradley agreed to read the script, but Dimension's next act was a slap in the face: they wanted Bradley to sign an NDA. He said, "I hope it’s not egotistical of me to feel someone who’s been pretty much front and center of the franchise 30 years and has been in possession of something in the region of a dozen Hellraiser scripts, now I’m a security problem?“ When he was so offended that he refused to sign, Dimension apparently began recasting Pinhead the next day.

Doug Bradley made the right choice both times. It was evident that Dimension didn't respect the Hellraiser franchise or Bradley, and appearing in either of those movies would have been beneath him. Thankfully, Dimension did eventually lose the rights, leading to 2022's Hellraiser, which, while it didn't star Bradley, gave us a phenomenal second-best Pinhead from Jamie Clayton and a film that has some passion behind it.

Don't count out Doug Bradley's return to Hellraiser. On February 23, in an interview with Bloody Disgusting, he said, "I’ve never said I was done with it. I’ve never said I’m retired from it.” The now almost 70-year-old spoke about his interest in playing an older, darker Pinhead in an adaptation of Clive Barker's 2015 novel The Scarlet Gospels, which sees Pinhead finally destroyed. “That would be the perfect bookend to my life in latex," Bradley said.

Hellraiser is available to stream on Tubi.

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