‘Terrifier 2’ – Gruesome Slasher Shocks Box Office Once Again, Adds $850k for $2.3M Total!

‘Nocebo’ Review – An Unconventional Revenge Story Where Mysticism Battles Capitalism

‘Terror Train’ Remake Trailer – Tubi Original Premieres in Time for Halloween

‘Hellraiser’: The Chatterer, The Gasp, and The Weeper – The New Cenobite Actors Speak [Interview]

‘Soft & Quiet’ – Blumhouse-Produced SXSW Horror Movie Sets November Release

Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej Talk “Ghost Files” and Their Favorite Horror Movies [Interview]

“Chucky” – WWE Superstar Liv Morgan Guest Stars in Episode 4 This Halloween!

“Warrior Nun” Season 2 Trailer – Evil Doesn’t Have a Prayer This November

Watch This Week’s Episode of “Chucky” Right Now for Free; Tiffany and Nica Are Back!

‘The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself’ Trailer – Netflix’s Witch Series Unleashes Bloody Mayhem

‘Nocebo’ Review – An Unconventional Revenge Story Where Mysticism Battles Capitalism

‘Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed’ Review – A Satisfying Experience That’s Not Without Its Flaws

‘Some Like It Rare’ Review – French Cannibalism Movie Serves Up Deliciously Dark Comedy

‘The Curse of Bridge Hollow’ Review – Netflix’s Family-Friendly Movie Goes Big on Halloween Spirit and Spectacle

‘Halloween Ends’ Review – The Strode Saga Comes to a Strange, Polarizing Conclusion

Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej Talk “Ghost Files” and Their Favorite Horror Movies [Interview]

Must Be the Season of the Witch: ‘Halloween III’ Turns 40

‘Old People’ – German Elderly Kill in Droves in New Netflix Horror Movie [Horrors Elsewhere]

Appreciating the Cosmic Thrills of 2014 Alien Horror Movie ‘Extraterrestrial’ [The Silver Lining]

The Queer Horror of “Chucky”: Episode 2.02 – “The Sinners Are Much More Fun”

‘Bloodborne PSX’ Dev Reveals Teaser for ‘Bloodborne Kart’ [Video]

Demo For Lo-Fi VR Action Horror Game ‘LIMINAL PHASE’ Available Now [Trailer]

‘Blood’-Inspired Throwback Shooter ‘CULTIC’ by Jasozz Games Available Now [Trailer]

‘Terror Train’ Remake Trailer – Tubi Original Premieres in Time for Halloween

‘The Willowbrook’ Trailer Invites Influencers for Recovery

‘Bloodborne PSX’ Dev Reveals Teaser for ‘Bloodborne Kart’ [Video]

Demo For Lo-Fi VR Action Horror Game ‘LIMINAL PHASE’ Available Now [Trailer]

‘Evil Dead: The Game’ – The Blacksmith from ‘Army of Darkness’ Coming Soon!

‘Blood’-Inspired Throwback Shooter ‘CULTIC’ by Jasozz Games Available Now [Trailer]

‘Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed’ Review – A Satisfying Experience That’s Not Without Its Flaws

Recently pushed from its original August release date to December 25, Summit Entertainment’s The Darkest Hour is a 3D alien invasion movie that takes place against the backdrop one of the world’s most fascinating cities – Moscow, Russia. Directed by Chris Gorak (Right at Your Door) and starring Emile Hirsch, Max Minghella, Olivia Thirlby, and Rachael Taylor, the film follows the four central characters as they navigate the ravaged landscape of the city while attempting to evade the deadly, invisible aliens that are intent on hunting down and annihilating the world’s remaining humans.

Back in September I was flown out to the Russian capital to have a look at the set and interview cast and crew, in the process experiencing a captivating city I wasn’t sure I’d ever see in my lifetime. In the first part of our visit, we spoke with producers Tom Jacobson and Timur Bekmambetov (director of Night Watch, Day Watch, and Wanted) during an extravagant lunch at the top of one of Moscow’s most historic luxury hotels.

Also included in this section of the report are materials related to the phenomenon of “ball lightning”, a scientifically unexplained occurrence that features heavily in the alien invaders’ method of destruction.

See inside for the full skinny.

I fly into Moscow from Detroit via Frankfurt, and I’m sick as a dog. I’ve been struck by one of the worst cold & flu combinations I’ve suffered in ages, and I feel like I’m dying. It’s as if my ears are going to explode with every descent to the tarmac – an excruciating build-up of pressure in my head, knuckles white as I grip the armrests and try not to scream. I’m blowing thick ribbons of green, black and yellow snot into napkins and tissues and scraps of notebook paper.

It doesn’t matter where I am – sitting in a plane, standing in line at the airport, huddled inside a bathroom stall, riding in a taxi, lying in a hotel room bed – the mucus is everlasting, clogging up every passage, crowding around my skull as if attempting to find an entry point. Worming its way through my body like some living parasite.

On the forever cab ride from the airport our driver, who looks about 15, darts in and out of traffic like he’s got nothing left to lose, and maybe he hasn’t. He almost hits a pedestrian at one point and I can feel the nausea rising in my throat. Outside, the air is dense with smog. Car horns honk, ceaselessly. Next to me in the car is a very friendly British journalist whom I’ve just met, and I try to make conversation even as I fear I might puke on his shoes at any moment.

But I should back up here, because I’ve neglected to mention customs. When I got off the plane after around 15 hours in the air – miserable, unable to sleep- I was greeted by a wall of people standing in a small white room, pushing their way to one of the small windows at the front. I could only breathe through one nostril. My ears were horribly plugged from the pressure of landing. They crackled strangely but wouldn’t clear.

The bustle around me sounded as if it were taking place underwater. I blew my nose, over and over, into shredded, balled-up tissues that were well past the point of usefulness.

Two pretty American girls nearby spoke glorious English as they slowly worked their way to the front. I latched onto them for the sense of familiarity they offered. I listened in on their conversation, if only to focus on something besides my misery.

One was a bit larger and more outspoken, blonde. She spoke in a high voice and seemed a bit wild – the leader of the two, confident and vivacious, but also a little insecure. The other girl was thinner and taller and healthier-looking. She had light freckles, I think, and narrow, mysterious eyes. She was calm and soft-spoken. I pegged her as an athlete – soccer, or basketball, or volleyball…or maybe all three. She could’ve been Amanda Knox’s sister.

I got jostled around by the crowd, all of them fighting, surging toward the front. A little boy navigated his way through the mass of bodies like a motorcycle driver during rush hour, darting in and out, his mother rolling her eyes on a cell phone as she paid him no mind. She spoke in clipped Russian to someone, and she laughed, even as her son disappeared into the crowd.

I remember thinking what a horrible mother she was. Disgusted at the way she neglected her child. When he reappeared later he showed her something he’d found, but she couldn’t be bothered. She gave him a wan smile and patted him lightly on the head, and he ran off again, swallowed up again, by the crowd again.

I don’t know quite how it happened, but I soon began to notice that people who had once been behind me were now four or five spaces ahead of me in the tangle. How had they managed that? What was I doing wrong? I could feel the walls closing in, the unerring whiteness, crushing me.

What a horrible, awful, vicious, primal, disgusting country, I remember thinking to myself during the car ride, as I could feel the bile rising. I was sure my British companion could sense these terrible thoughts, as the color drained from my cheeks. I leaned my head up against the window, its cold hard surface cruelly boring into my left temple. I told myself I wanted to die, and in the haze of my sickness I actually meant it.

We pulled up to our hotel, the historic Ukraina, located on the waterfront of the Moskva River. Now officially known as the Radisson Royal Hotel, it is one of the “Seven Sisters”, a group of Moscow skyscrapers built in the “Stalinist style” of architecture – Gothic, Baroque, foreboding, all buttresses and spires. The “Radisson” sign, something I’d grown used to seeing jutting above freeway off-ramps and attached to square, personality-free structures, contrasted awkwardly with the artfulness of the building’s design.

Not that I could be bothered to care much at the moment. I felt like death warmed over. I just wanted to go home, away from his crazy, alien place and into my own bed, in my own room. I wanted for someone to take care of me. Serve me breakfast in bed. Curl up against me to soothe the ache settling into my bones.

My companion and I entered the gargantuan five-star lobby, the tile floor spread out in front of us like some demented indoor prairie. Crystal chandeliers glistened off of and marble staircases and Grecian columns. High above us, a magnificent ceiling fresco beamed down an image of pastoral beauty.

It soon became apparent that we were in the lap of luxury. Uniformed hotel staff approached us at least three or four times as we made our way across the enormous room, offering to help us with our bags. We declined, over and over. All we needed was to find the check in desk, which felt miles away.

When I entered my room, I had nothing on my mind but sleep. I didn’t shower, I didn’t brush my teeth. I threw down my bags, downed a jar of wasabi peanuts sitting on the dresser to clear out my sinuses (oh, glorious relief), and crawled under the covers of the bed, which looked like something out of one of those Eloise books all the little girls read.

After blowing out all the mucus I could and swallowing several pills to ease the constant ache, I drifted off almost as soon as I laid my head upon the satiny pillows…

I didn’t wake until lunchtime the next day, when we were scheduled to dine with producer Timur Bekmambetov, the visionary Russian filmmaker best known in the U.S. for directing the American action movie Wanted with Angelina Jolie. We took an elevator up the top floor of the hotel, high above the city, and were greeted by a massive spread of food and drink. A Roman feast, though one I would likely have trouble fully appreciating given the nasty bug still working its way through my system.

Nonetheless, it was clear that no expense had been spared. Waiters scurried about, refilling glasses and serving up more food than we could ever possibly consume, bringing out plate after plate of strange Russian dishes.

When he arrived, Bekmambetov took a seat at the center of the table. With his full beard, rotund physique, rosy cheeks, and pleasant demeanor, he was like a Russian Santa Claus. Joining him was Tom Jacobson, best known as the producer behind several hit ’80s John Hughes comedies including Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Uncle Buck, and Christmas Vacation.

The two men stood in stark contrast to one another – big, huggable bear Bekmambetov on one end, diminutive, nerdy-looking Jacobson on the other. They could’ve been a slapstick comedy pair from the 1930s, chasing each other around tables and fighting over ingénues.

Over lunch, the questions began. One journalist asked about the Moscow wildfires that had succeeded in shutting down production on the film for several weeks near the start of principal photography.

“We just couldn’t believe how bad it got,” said Jacobson. “And then one day it got so bad that you couldn’t see 100 yards down the street. Then it started getting into the hotel. Smoke was in the corridors of the hotels. It was on [the sound]stage. You could literally see it. Even though our stage was air conditioned, you could see it in the sets. And it wasn’t the cameraman putting smoke in. It was the country on fire…. We scrambled really quickly and within three days flew everybody out of town and just watched it from afar. Because no one really knew. They didn’t know how to fight the fires.”

Luckily the rain came to help put out the flames, and the Americans were flown back to pick up where they left off. “Even now, the government is taking credit that they conquered the problem,” said Bekmambetov, speaking in thickly-accented English. “But in reality it’s just rain.”

Bekmambetov went on to describe how the unique Moscow setting is utilized to play upon the sense of dislocation that comes from finding yourself in a strange country, far from home.

“It’s a story about an alien invasion,” he said. “[But]…it’s a metaphor for the foreigners and from the beginning of the movie, American boys feel themselves like aliens here or they feel like Russians are aliens. There’s misunderstanding or miscommunication. Then when the real aliens appear, together [the Russians and Americans] have to fight to survive.”

“Two young American guys, Emile Hirsch and Matt Minghella,” said Jacobson, chiming in. “They’re here for a business reason, but…right at the beginning of the movie, they get cheated. They’re here to launch a website and they think they have investors, but they’re young guys out in the big bad world. That doesn’t go well and then they meet these two young women, Olivia Thirlby and Rachael Taylor, who are here, traveling. And then the world ends.”

“There’s two sides to it,” said Jacobson of the format. “One is sort of a subtler side which is what we’d call immersive. You put yourself into the environment. As we said, there’s a scene that’s shot on Red Square where it’s completely empty. It’s after the invasion and the city has been depopulated. Our two guys only see one or two people as they go. It’s very spooky. …And part of it is a huge action component. The movie is an action thriller. Those scenes are very tense. Then there’s a visual effects side to the movie where our characters interact, usually not to good effect with them and the invaders. Those effects in 3D will be amazing.”

“In 2D, the audience has to be more creative because you only see these colorful shadows on the white screen and, in your mind, you have to create the world. …But in 3D movies, with the glasses, you don’t have to imagine the world. You are already there,” said Bekmambetov, sounding suspiciously like an American studio executive (though he’d later contradict himself by telling us he enjoyed Avatar more in 2D than in 3D). “It’s kind of corrupting the audience’s imagination because you don’t have to imagine. …We didn’t understand what 3D meant for us and how it would change everything. It’s the same thing that happened during the 16th century when painters created perspective. Before that, it was more regiment[ed] and symbols. Then, they created the illusion of the real world, and it becomes a big deal. It changed everything.”

To bring their vision to life, the producers chose Chris Gorak, a former production designer whose first film as director was the 2006 Sundance selection Right at Your Door. The small-scale disaster film, about a couple’s struggle to survive after multiple dirty bombs are detonated in Los Angeles, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and later picked up by Lionsgate for $3 million.

“We met a lot of people, [but we] just loved what Chris had to say for a lot of reasons,” said Jacobson. “He had very smart things to say about the story and the characters. [‘Right at Your Door’] is really grounded in reality. It’s scary and it had scale in a really interesting way for a little movie. …[And] he comes from a visual background. So his sense of being able to bring that in and being able to tell a visual story we were very excited to have. He’s doing a fantastic job and we think he’s going to have a terrific career. And [he] deserves it.”

According to Jacobson, the invading aliens are “creatures of electricity and electromagnetism” who cause a massive power outage around the planet when they land. Their manipulation of the world’s energy supply imbues the story with an interesting twist that is 180 degrees out from films like Pitch Black and this year’s Vanishing on 7th Street – films where the characters need to stay in the light to stay alive. In The Darkest Hour, this idea has been flipped on its head.

“The unique idea of this movie is because [usually] if you are in darkness, you are scared,” said Bekmambetov. “But this movie is the opposite. In darkness, you are okay. Because of the aliens, they all carry lightbulbs and if they are coming, you see the light. In this case, if you are in darkness, it means there are no aliens around you. But as soon as you see the light. …The lamps mean they are coming. All the characters wear bulbs. If the bulbs start to light, that means that aliens are coming. It’s how they protect themselves.”

Indeed, this detection using light sources is key to the main characters’ survival, particularly given that the aliens are invisible for, according to Bekmambetov, “90 percent of the movie”.

“They’re revealed near the end and even then, there’s some mystery,” said Jacobson of the extraterrestrial invaders. “They react very fatally with the people around [them]. They’re pulled apart in a very dynamic way. …It has to do with an electrical interaction. And then they come, as Timur said, to trigger electrical responses. There would be no power in here,” he said, referring to the room we were sitting in. “There would be no lights on. If an alien came through, you might see a little shimmer. You might see some sparks. They might blink in and out through a little ripple in the air and these lights would flicker.”

“All the mobile phones would start to ring,” chimed in Bekmambetov.

So do the aliens actually want something, or have they simply come to destroy?

“There is a reason,” said Jacoboson. “They want something and it’s pretty simple.”

It seems to me that a lot of aliens in the movies come to this planet for water…, one journalist suggested.

“Or girls,” joked Bekmambetov. Everyone laughed at that.

Following the invasion, the central foursome soon receive help from a fellow survivor – a Russian man – who through scientific testing has been able to partially figure out how the aliens operate and designed a shield of sorts to defend against them.

“He’s built a Faraday cage. Who knows what a Faraday cage is?” asked Jacobson, as if conducting a high school science class. “It’s a cage of wires that no electricity can penetrate. You can be inside a Faraday cage and someone can shoot a bolt of lightning at it and it dissipates in the cage. So he’s built one of those and is using microwave science. There’s one theory behind ball lightning that has to do with electricity vaporizing silicone to cause it. He’s worked on that. So we’ve tried to embed that throughout.”

Jacobson’s words drifted into the ether as I fixated on the sprawl of the city outside the window – an endless expanse of urbanity, extending as far as the eye could see. The sky was a yellow-gray color – a sickly hue, mirroring the state of my mind. I still felt groggy from the nighttime cold & flu concoction I’d taken the night before. Everything seemed fuzzy and indistinct.

After a few minutes of zoning out, I turned my attention back to Jacobson, who apparently was still talking.

“These two young guys came to Moscow, something happens, and they go ‘Oh, what the heck? We are here in Moscow. Let’s have a good time. Moscow has a great night life,” he explained, talking about the lead-up to the invasion sequence that happens early in the film. “So they find this club they go to. They meet these two young women there. Things are pretty happy. The music is playing. There are beautiful people around. Then all of the lights go out. ‘What the heck?’ They all wander outside and it’s dark. The entire city is completely pitch black. No one can start their car. Their cell phones don’t work. Nothing works. It’s pretty spooky.

“And there is this shimmering light and things are coming down to the ground,” he continued, as if spinning a tale around a campfire. “They think little sparklers. If it was America, it would be like the 4th of July. It looks beautiful, and then it’s not so beautiful. Then, there is devastating panic. The aliens start to do their work and our characters run back inside this club. And there is this big action scene, and it’s told [with a] sense of immediacy. A sense of you really [being] connected to these people and what’s happening to them, and they don’t know. As if it were really, you know, imagine if it were to happen to you. If there was an attack. If there was, like, the blitzkrieg.”

In The Darkest Hour, this blitzkrieg takes place against some of the most iconic locations the sixth-largest city in the world has to offer: Red Square. Freedom Square. The Lenin Library. At one point during the conversation, Jacobson claimed the film was the first American production ever to shoot entirely in the Russian capital.

“It’s not easy to shoot here because the city is very busy and very intense,” said Bekmambetov, who was born in Kazakhstan. “For example, if you want to shoot in Red Square, you have to shut down Red Square. It’s like a hundred thousand people during the weekend. And you have to shut it down and you have to control it, and it’s not easy to do. It’s the same as the shooting day in Lenin Library because it’s by a central road of the country where all of the bureaucrats drive back and forth during the day. And if you want to shoot there, you have to deal with them because they need to think about the security. You cannot put a hundred cars in their way. But somehow it has happened.”

“It took a lot of planning,” said Jacobson. “For instance, there is this one location in Lenin Library. It’s this beautiful state library. It’s very highly regulated with a huge plaza with the statue of Dostoevsky in the front of it. And we wanted to shoot a scene there with our Russian characters. They’re Russian soldiers and that is their encampment. That’s their base. And they told us, ‘There is one Sunday a month. The last Sunday of every month.’ “…We only had so many Sundays on our schedule, so we had to plan really far in advance,” he continued. And when we shot there, we had to go in at midnight the night before and dress it to make it look like an army camp. And for the Russian cast – this is a scene with the combined Russian and American cast – the scene has a hush to it because the Russians, as we were shooting it, they couldn’t believe we were in there. …It’s like, I don’t know, shooting in the Capitol in Washington. It’s this amazing location.” Someone else half-joked that the film would be a good way to bring in more tourism for the city, even though for the majority of the film it would be seen in ruins.

“Come see Moscow. Worthy of destroying,” said Jacobson.

“Come see it before we will destroy it,” quipped Bekmambetov.

After lunch, we stepped out onto the balcony encircling the top of the hotel to get a better view of the city. 34 stories high, and we really could see everything. Jacobson and Bekmambetov pointed out all the landmarks. Everyone took pictures. I stood alone for a moment at one corner of the terrace, staring off at the horizon. The sky still held that bilious yellow-gray color, and the air felt thick around me. Home had never felt so far away.

Up here though, above all the traffic and the noise, for the first time I was able to truly appreciate the beauty of Moscow. From above it looked like a big, beautiful quilt, a patchwork of colorful onion domes and steely gray housing blocks left over from the Soviet era. The Moskva river coiled through it all, a gentle curl of ashy blue. The rest of the Seven Sisters rose above the landscape at regular intervals like proud sentinels, their spires jutting harshly into the ailing sky.

Emile Hirsch Teams With Cult Horror Director Ryuhei Kitamura for ‘Killer Bees’ Video [Exclusive Premiere]

‘The Immaculate Room’ Locks Kate Bosworth and Emile Hirsch Inside Later This Year

Saban Films Acquires ‘Dig’, Starring Emile Hirsch and Thomas Jane

Hulu’s  Hellraiser , a reimagining of  Clive Barker’s  1987 horror classic from director  David Bruckner , is available now exclusively on Hulu.

In the new  Hellraiser movie from Hulu, “A young woman struggling  with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.”

The film summons forth a new batch of Cenobites, led by  Jamie Clayton’s Hell Priest. Bloody Disgusting spoke with the actors behind The Chatterer ( Jason Liles ), The Gasp ( Selina Lo ), and The Weeper ( Yinka Olorunnife ) about getting into character and how the makeup and prosthetics informed their performances.

The hierarchy and lore behind the new batch of Cenobites isn’t something explicitly discussed in Hellraiser but rather hinted at through the performances and interactions between them. The trio’s answers to our questions provided fascinating insight into their roles.

For starters, Yinka Olorunnife’s answer to one of our questions might inspire you to pay closer attention to The Weeper upon a re-watch…

“David [Bruckner] and I didn’t have a conversation about what the backstory was for Weeper,” she explains. “However, the conversations we did have was about the weep; what does the weep sound like? He was giving me ideas. I had ideas in my head. So, we talked a lot about what we wanted the weep to sound like and the Weeper’s movement. Those were the main things that David and I went over. And then we obviously came up with something that I hope people like. But the backstory was for me so that I could understand why she weeps.

“That was a big thing, was why do I weep? What does the weep mean? Am I weeping for myself? Am I weeping for you? Am I being empathetic, or am I mocking you, or am I seducing you? What am I trying to do? And actually, I figured that there’s more than one weep and different weeps mean different things. You can see in the film that I do have two different types of weeps, and both of them mean something completely different.“

Yinka Olorunnife as The Weeper in Spyglass Media Group’s HELLRAISER, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of Spyglass Media Group. © 2022 Spyglass Media Group. All Rights Reserved.

Selina Lo responds, “Similar to Yinka, a lot of the discussions with David focused on movement, which is very, very important for the Cenobites; the walk in particular. We practiced that meticulously. It sounds easier than it is, but to get the walk right, to capture the regality and intentions that the Cenobites are feeling, is actually quite a tricky process alone, let alone in our costumes, which is an entire thing in itself—also, the focus on her throat, the Gasp’s throat. We took influences from the original Cenobite, who was Pinhead’s right-hand woman. So, I had that influence, but a lot of focus on how she spoke, and just that every word is painful, but she enjoys the pain.”

“It’s that weird construct, and that was a really important element for the Gasp,” Lo elaborates, “It was great because David is so passionate about the Cenobites, and he pays such great detail. I remember specifically this one brilliant piece of direction that he gave me, which was on the line, ‘Save your breath for screaming,’ which is one of my favorite lines. We’d done it a few times, and then he said, ‘Deliver it not like a threat but like you’re saying a lullaby.’ I just thought this is the most genius direction.“

Jason Liles tells Bloody Disgusting, “For the Chatterer, when I first got the audition, all I had to go off was looking back at the old films. I watched the first two before the audition, the sides, and then the description of the character. When I first got that email, one of the things in the description for the character says, ‘While underneath he’s driven by basic impulses and desires to see his victims feel a similar fate to his own, he remains principled and only attacks when ordered by his superiors.’ So I knew from the beginning, okay, I will do whatever the Priest says, but there’s a desire for other people, victims, to feel the same fate I have. I saw it as we’re almost like the military, and there are ranks, but it’s also like a religion because I desire for other people to feel my fate as if I found a certain religion, like, ‘I’ve been saved. I want to save other people’s souls.’ This is the way of being saved, converting them to being a Cenobite. They don’t understand, but they’re going to see. 

“Then, when we talked with David, we talked about this, and we agreed on many points and figured out how he moves and walks and whatnot. Adding onto what I did in the audition, we worked on that more when I got to Serbia and was in person with David. David did a great job of really helping us all find these characters and directing us in the moments on set, which gives you a lot of peace and releases any stress because you know David’s going to help us find it on set. He knows what he is looking for, what to tell us, and that really helps a lot as an actor when you have a director like that.”

Jamie Clayton as Pinhead in Spyglass Media Group’s HELLRAISER, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of Spyglass Media Group. © 2022 Spyglass Media Group. All Rights Reserved.

Discovering who each character is and how they move becomes complicated when you factor in the extensive makeup and prosthetic process. Each actor is covered head to toe to transform into a regal-like Cenobite.

Olorunnife’s transformation only further helped her performance. She explains, “We talked about movement and for me, if you look at my feet, I’ve got steel rods, and the feet are quite big, but I’m walking on steel rods. The way I had to walk and move was heavily influenced by that suit. There was no running; there was no clumsiness. I had to be elegant and regal, which was the idea, but I was forced to be elegant and regal because of the prosthetics.”

Lo details the constrictive nature of their makeup transformation, “The way that our body suits are constructed, they are limiting because it is thick silicone bands that essentially are resistance bands. But I think it helped, at least for me; you felt contained and bound. I think that works for the Cenobites because we do have that control, and we are in a constant state of pain. I mean, my throat’s torn open, every word is painful. There’s a metal rod going through over my head, holding the skin habit down, attached here. All of that, I feel, works for the character. The whole pain, pleasure thing is also very prominent in the originals. I feel our characters were informed quite a lot by the costumes.”

Liles credits the MUFX team for the incredible transformation.

“Josh and Sierra Russell and their entire team that put all of this together did an amazing job. We could talk about them all day, just that. I’m so thankful to them for making something that looks so beautiful because when you put this on, you’re literally putting on the character, and you feel more like the character. Then with the Chatterer, you can only see so much out of that. When you can’t hear, you have to control your breath when you’re inside of there, and then you can only see so much. It changes how you think and feel, and then it changes how the other actors look at you because they can see how terrifying you look, which changes how you feel. It just helps you go to that place of belief that much more.”

Zachary Hing as The Asphyx in Spyglass Media Group’s HELLRAISER, exclusively on Hulu. Photo courtesy of Spyglass Media Group. © 2022 Spyglass Media Group. All Rights Reserved.

“They are uncomfortable,” Liles says of his skin suits. “They are uncomfortable. They make them as comfortable as possible, but there is a pain and discomfort to them that makes you feel like someone else or something else. The longer the day goes on, the more tired you are, but it helps between the moments of action and cut. Just reserve your energy, go full force, cut again, and wait. It’s indescribable.”

Liles also describes how Bruckner wanted to understand what the Cenobite experience was like for his actors. He tells BD,  “David even wanted to have a Cenobite suit made for him so he could understand, but they said, ‘Oh yeah, it’s going to cost a couple hundred thousand dollars.’ We’re like, ‘Oh, never mind then. Dang.’ I heard in  The Night House he got down in the river with the actors because he said, ‘I want to feel what you guys go through.’ But it is something that you can’t explain… ‘Oh, I understand what that’s going to be like’… and then when you get in it, you’re like, ‘Oh! This  is what it’s like.’ It helps the character come out. Like they’re saying, it’s restricting. There’s only so much you can do in those, so it informs how you move.”

You must be logged in to post a comment.