Hellraiser: Inferno INTERVIEW Scott Derrickson

Interview conducted via Email in 2002.

SCOTT: Mark. Good questions. Here are your answers. Feel free to post them.

1.When did you first realise you wanted to write and/or direct?

SCOTT: When I was in Jr. High, I started making movies with my dad's
super 8 camera. I've been doing it ever since.

2. How did you come to do Hellraiser: Inferno?

SCOTT: Dimension came to Paul Boardman and I, along with about a dozen other
writers, looking for an idea. They liked our approach the best, and when
the script came in to their satisfaction, Bob Weinstein (head of
Miramax/Dimension) hired me to direct it.

3. Are you a fan of Clive's work and what previous HR knowledge did you have?

SCOTT: Clive really is brilliant, he's like our modern-day Edgar Allen Poe.
He's an exceptionally good writer, incredibly prolific. As a director, I
thought he did a marvellous job with HELLRAISER, but I'm not a big fan of
his other directing ventures. As for the franchise, I had only seen the
original when Dimension approached me. I watched the three sequels, and
clearly, what the series needed was a breath of fresh of air, some sort of
dramatic change. That's what I tried to give to it.

4. Fans have said Inferno reminds them of the comic series, were you aware
of these?

SCOTT: I have heard that. Fans of the comic series and of THE HELLBOUND HEART
novel usually seem to appreciate INFERNO.

5. The majority of fans feel Inferno is the closest to the originals and a major
improvement over parts 3 and 4 what do you feel about this response?

SCOTT: The hardcore Hellraiser fans that I've met are typically passionate,
opinionated, and smart, so it's always rewarding when they love INFERNO. But
the relative absence of Pinhead in INFERNO also pissed off a lot of fans,
which I certainly wasn't intending to do. Hopefully, with time, INFERNO will
have given the series a new direction and will have successfully rescued it
from becoming predictably awful like the Halloween series. I've seen
Hellseeker, and I don't think that particular film could have been made without
INFERNO having gone before it.

6. Why did you decide to use Pinhead so rarely?

SCOTT: The series had become the Pinhead show, and what I loved about the
original was that awesome sense of mystery that surrounded him. Personally,
I'm very happy about the lack of Pinhead in INFERNO, but if I had to do it
over again, I'd put a bit more of him in there for the sake of the fans.

7. Can you tell us anything about the people who played the Cenobites and how
you went about directing them?

SCOTT: I never really got to know them, because they were always in makeup.
Except for Doug Bradley, who's just a super guy. I do remember that the
twins were very giggly and had a serious chocolate fetish.

8. The under skin massage was very close to Barkers original pleasure/pain
idea. Was this intentional?

SCOTT: Yeah, it was. The underskin massage was demonstrative of Joseph's
lustful self-destructiveness. He indulged in the pleasures that destroyed him.
In Barker's original, the character actually sought out pain as well as pleasure,
looking for ultimate experience, which is (Frankly) more original, but for both
characters, their insatiable appetites were ultimately their downfall.

9. Have you got a favourite moment from the film?

SCOTT: I really like the Shotgun Hallways sequence at the end, when Joseph is
being attacked by his own victims. I also like Nick Turturro and Craig
Scheffer's scene outside the convalescent home, when Tony confronts Joseph about
being the connection between the murders. And Doug Bradley did a great job
with the ending. He's a Shakespearean actor at heart, and he added quite a few
lines to that final speech that made it a lot better.

10. Would you want to work again on Hellraiser?

SCOTT: I was asked to direct Hellseeker, and (along with Paul) to write
Hellraiser: Deader, both of which I turned it down. I chose not to do them
because I'm too busy with other things, and I also honestly felt like I had
already done my part in the series, and that somebody else would bring more
inspiration to it now than I would.

11. What future projects have you got lined up?

SCOTT: Paul and I are writing a supernatural thriller for Jerry Bruckheimer and
a horror film for Producer Beau Flynn (Requiem For a Dream). I'm directing the
Beau Flynn project, which I hope to be shooting in the spring.

12. Any regrets?

SCOTT: Yeah. The karate kicking cowboys in INFERNO. Even my friends who love the
film give me *beep* about that. It was the only thing about the movie that Bob Weinstein
didn't like. Oh well. Live and learn.

THW: Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.

SCOTT: My pain/pleasure.

(c)2003 The Hellbound Web (c)2002 Mark Adams