Jim Carey

In 1987, Clive Barker (born on this day in 1952) gave us Hellraiser. '87 was a good and varied year for horror. We had Evil Dead II, Opera, Near Dark, Predator, Bad Taste, The Lost Boys and Prince of Darkness. But Barker brought a degree of eloquence, imagination and daring to the genre that I, at just 17 years of age, hadn't seen before, at least not combined to such stunning and elegant effect. Barker is horror's Renaissance Man, a lively bundle of talents, skills and experiences through which his beyond-wild imagination is artfully channeled. We're lucky to have him.

Okay so while we wait for a full announcement from Bryan Fuller regarding his ‘dream project’ with Clive Barker, here’s my theory/fantasy. Mostly fantasy. It’s a Hellraiser TV series, but with a police procedural/detective element. The antagonist is Julia Cotton. As with the original Hellraiser movie, it begins with the return of Frank from the Labyrinth and the clutches of the Order of the Gash. Once again, Frank manipulates Julia into murder in order to restore him. Here’s where things take a different turn. Instead of focusing on the Cenobites, Leviathan et al, it follows Julia as she goes from reluctant murderer to serial killer, initially to save her lover, Frank, but eventually (like Walter White) because she likes it, it makes her feel alive. Julia murders her husband, Rory. Rory is a cop. Enter Kirsty, Rory’s partner (as in the original novella, Kirsty is a work colleague of Rory, who in the movie became her father, Larry). What we have now is a cat-and-mouse situation with Kirsty trying to catch her partner’s killer and soon finding herself in pursuit of a serial murderer. The Cenobites play a peripheral role, with Julia becoming an acolyte of sorts, learning new ways to inflict ‘heightened sensation’ from the Order of the Gash. As with Fuller’s Hannibal, Julia (likely with the help of the Order) is able to stay one step ahead of Kirsty. Julia’s dealings with the Order lead her deeper and deeper into a world of street sorcerers, the black market in magical artefacts, and various non-human or human-adjacent communities. Episodes would alternate between Julia’s ‘journey’ with all its attendant weirdness, and Kirsty’s hunt for her partner’s murderer. Over time, these two seemingly separate narrative strands would begin to interweave. Credit to Clive Barker and Peter Atkins, as this leans heavily into their intended direction for the series. From what I understand, however, the Hellraiser property is a complex one in terms of rights and ownership, so all of this is pie in the sky. A boy can dream, though.