HBO is making a Hellraiser show

HBO sure is going dark lately. First, we hear about about them tapping Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin to adapt the critically acclaimed video game The Last of Us, about a zombie apocalypse, for the small screen. At least The Last of Us has an uplifting surrogate father-daughter relationship at the heart of it. Now, Deadline reports that that the network is developing a show based on the Hellraiser franchise, which is a lot bleaker.

This franchise, — which by now has 10 movies to its name — kicked off proper with 1987’s Hellraiser, directed by Clive Barker and based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. It’s about a race of creatures called the Cenobites who are summoned upon the completion of a mysterious puzzle box. What exactly are the Cenobites? I’ll let their leader, Pinhead, put it in his own words:

Also, you might not want to watch this clip if you’re eating:

“[We are] explorers in the further regions of experience, demons to some, angels to others.” Oh, those Cenobites.

So the Cenobites are gross monsters who have mutilated their bodies. They travel periodically from their home dimension to harvest human souls and keep the balance between good and evil intact.

And actually, they’re not exactly monsters; they used to be humans, although clearly they’ve gone through some changes. It’s all very dense. Reportedly, the new series won’t be a remake, but will rather continue the story with all of the established mythology in place, so it’ll be important to know this stuff should you choose to watch this nightmare engine of a show.

HBO has tapped David Gordon Green to direct the pilot of the show plus several other episodes. Green made his name making stoner comedies like Pineapple Express and Your Highness, although he’s now better known for the new round of Halloween movies with Jamie Lee Curtis back in the spotlight as Laurie Strode. On writing duties are  Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Gallactica, Daredevil) and Michael Dougherty (X2, Godzilla: King of the Monsters).

This is an interesting project for HBO to take on. They’ve done horror shows before: True Blood was all about vampires, and the recent Stephen King adaptation The Outsider definitely had its moments, but this promises to more gruesome than usual. What happens when you put that HBO polish on a queasy cosmic horror franchise? Let’s find out.

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