Rise, Pinhead, rise: Zac Thompson talks franchise ahead of ‘Hellraiser: Resurrections,’ new series

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Hellraiser. And with Boom! Studios once more holding the license (not unlike the Lament Configuration itself), the publisher has some very special new comics in the works. That includes the Hellraiser Omnibus Vol. 1 (which collects the entirety of the 2011 Boom! series) as well a new Hellraiser ongoing series and miniseries across 2027. (There’s also a video game — Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival — due out October 6.)

But first up comes Hellraiser: Resurrections, a series of weekly one-shots across September that’ll prime your very soul for the glorious agony. Those five one-shorts are as follows:

• Hellraiser: Resurrections – New Wounds #1 (Mike Costa and Paco Camallonga): The gates of Hell are kicked open when an investigation into the Lament goes sideways in the best/worst ways imaginable. Due out September 2.
• Hellraiser: Resurrections – The Onanistic Ritual #1 (Zac Thompson and Gavin Mitchell): The Chatterer returns to reclaim his place next to the Hell Priest – if he can successfully maneuver the online incel movement, of course. Due out September 9 (FOC on August 3).
• Hellraiser: Resurrections – The Deep Gospel #1 (Tini Howard and Jenna Cha): Newly back from the dead, the Female Cenobite finds herself fighting for her very survival in the Nidus (where all larval Cenobites grow/develop). Due out September 16 (FOC on August 10).
• Hellraiser: Resurrections – Hell’s Council #1 (Nero Villagallos O’Reilly and Francesca Ciregia): Watch as Butterball (who died at the finale of Hellbound: Hellraiser II) meets a caretaker with some rather unsettling ulterior motives. Due out September 23 (FOC on August 17).
• Hellraiser: Resurrections – The Return of The Priest #1 (Sarah Gailey and Alessio Avallone): Freed from a pain-less life in Middle Hell, Elliot Spencer (aka, The Hell Priest) must reconvene his Gash to share his special gift. Due out September 30 FOC on August 24).

To get a better idea about this new era of Hellraiser, we caught up with Thompson recently via Zoom. We not only talked about The Onanistic Ritual, but as a super-fan of both creator Clive Barker and the series at large, Thompson is uniquely positioned as a Hellraiser “guru.” Among other topics, we discussed the scope of Barker’s original works, the arc of Pinhead among the horror genre, the development process for the one-shots, making a story with Chatterer, the especially time/relevant nature of his story, working with Mitchell (and how that helped push certain boundaries), and even a possible long-term future in this franchise. It’s the perfect primer for what should be an interesting new chapter in the ongoing Hellraiser saga.

AIPT: I get the sense that you’re a very big Hellraiser fan, and so I want to talk about your fandom. Is this your horror origins, as it were?

Zac Thompson: It’s not necessarily my origins, so to speak, but it’s definitely an inflection point for when I decided that I wanted to write. I read The Hellbound Heart for the first time, and I was blown away by how much story was packed in there in such a short page count. And the way that it had a focus on the human characters and then also really depicted the Cenobites with an arm’s length distance.

AIPT: Yeah, exactly. 

ZT: I was led to believe that they were a big, big fixture in the book. And then you read the book and you’re like, ‘Oh crap.’ It’s the same thing as the first movie – they’re only in it for a very short amount of time. And so it really changed my perspective on the whole thing and go, ‘OK, this is what you can do.’ You can write stories about these really ugly people experiencing these ugly emotions and then use monsters as a vehicle, as a commentary on that experience. To elevate it and push it a little bit deeper.

AIPT: I like that you mentioned the arm’s length quality. I didn’t pick up the book for many years later, but I always loved the movies. I’d seen Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, and those always made a joke of these monsters. Hellraiser was the first time I was like, ‘Wow, there’s no redeeming qualities here.’

ZT: Yeah. Later Hellraiser movies do the Freddy Krueger thing for Pinhead, and turn him into the fixture of the franchise. But for a really long time, in that original text and in the original film, he’s just a footnote to the experience of the human characters.

AIPT: What was the conversation like to get involved in this project? 

ZT: I’ve been very vocal about the fact that I wanted to do this. And so the day that they announced that Kickstarter, I was like, ‘They have the rights back.’ And I would be shocked – because this year’s the 40th anniversary of the original film – if they’re not taking advantage of that.

I used to work in journalism, and a lot of times the reason to write about something in pop culture was often because there was some sort of anniversary coming up or something like that. So that’s when my brain just kicked in. I emailed everyone I knew at Boom! And I said, ‘I need to be involved.’ And for a little while, there was nothing back.

Then I got an email from the editor-in-chief, Andy Schmidt. He was like, ‘Hey, I heard you’re a Hellraiser fan, we want you to come in on this.’ And I was one of the first people that was brought into this reboot, because they have a multi-tiered plan. This is just the opening salvo of everything. They gave me this big document and said, ‘Here’s our big plan. Here’s the vision for what we want to do. Here’s how we see you fitting into that vision.’ That was awesome; it gave me a window of opportunity to play in, but also they were so down to go like, ‘What do you want to do? How do you want to tell this story?’ Like, ‘We have a slot for you, but you can kind of do whatever you want.’

AIPT: Given that long-term planning, then, is there involvement from you beyond the one-shot? 

ZT: I can’t say anything.

AIPT: Could you wink or something?

ZT: ::Laughs::

AIPT: OK, fair. I just like the idea of one-shots because I think it jars people’s memories and brings them back to Hellraiser without being entirely overwhelmed. 

ZT: Yeah. And I think it will also answer some questions about where in the continuity these things take place as well. Because that was also a big question – what has happened? Or, what hasn’t happened? And so when you read all five, together, you’ll have a really firm understanding of what is canon.

Because there was like a previous Boom! series, and there’s all the films and there’s a reboot film. There’s all these different things that are working in conflict against one another. So this is an attempt to clean that up. And the vision that they have for it is to make it so long-term fans have an entry point, but also people who are like, ‘I haven’t seen anything since that original movie in the ‘80s’ – they can get caught up and understand what’s going on.

AIPT: In terms of cleaning up the continuity, do you feel like there’s a lot of stuff that had to be ignored when you’re assembling this? How does that aspect of it work?

ZT: I don’t know if it’s necessarily my place to say, but I will say this.

When they gave me the original document, they had very clear parameters on what was canon and what wasn’t and where it stopped, basically.

And you can pick up from reading mine that the things I’m dealing with and references to Hellbound. You get a little flash of Hell on Earth, and then there’s basically nothing beyond that.

I don’t know if they have plans for anything beyond that going forward. But the idea was very strict parameters. Because when you come into a big franchise like that – and I worked on an Alien book as well – you need need those guardrails because otherwise you can kind spin in a million directions.

AIPT: I can do everything, wheee!

ZT: And then it’s also like everything’s been done at the same time, right? So you have to figure out your entry point and where you draw the line, you know?

AIPT: Yeah, reading your one-shot, I didn’t feel like I had to do a ton of homework. How do you balance that deep dive sensibility with the more accessible quality?

ZT: That was a very big concern of mine too. I had a discussion with them early on – and I can concede that I was wrong on this – but I didn’t think we needed to say the word Cenobite in here.

I didn’t think we needed to explain what they are. And they were like, ‘Yeah, but there’s going to be people who don’t know this.’ And I was like, ‘If they’re picking up a Hellraiser book, they should know, you know what I mean?’

But our book is the second of five books. I’m just glad we did because I think it can be read in isolation that way and completely be understood. We give you all the parameters of the world. And then if you’re a super fan, you can see some of the things that we’re touching on, but not knowing those things doesn’t impede your ability to enjoy the story.

AIPT: Absolutely. How much did they encourage conversations or collaborations between the teams doing the books? Is that something that you lean into that’s really important to make sure you’re all on the same page tonally or maybe you’re doing something completely different tonally?

ZT: They were awesome. Actually, they brought us all in at the same time and basically said, ‘Here’s all the teams, and you guys can talk amongst yourselves and figure out your stories and how they interconnect and stuff.’ So you’ll see some elements of mine addressed in the Pinhead one-shot.

And then the Pinhead one-shot ties into all of the other one-shots. Because it comes last, it’s basically fitting everything together. But there was a lot of collaboration early on, which was really cool, because it was really fun to just be bouncing ideas off of all these other extremely talented writers. And then figuring out where things slot and where things go. And then when can go, ‘OK, we can actually build out this thing in this issue. And then this issue can be its own thing.’

I was tasked with the one Cenobite who doesn’t speak. I thought I’d have to do something a little different than the rest of you guys. I had to have another way in, ya know?

AIPT: Before we talk about Chatterer, do you feel like everybody is or was on the same page in terms of their fandom? Do you feel like maybe not everyone being a Hellraiser superfan is beneficial to what y’all are doing here? 

ZT: Totally. I think everyone approached it from different perspectives and had different takes on the material. And I think that elevates the whole thing to be this sampler and also offer these different types of stories. Like, there’s so much to love in this universe. And there’s so much that people gravitate towards.

There’s a huge queer subculture around the whole film franchise. They haven’t really embraced, like, the queer movement…the [queer] rights movement has progressed so much since that last Hellraiser series. And so being able to deal with that in comics and have people from those communities write stories in this is going to be really neat as well, because it brings something that was like previously subtext and makes it text. I think we’re all ready for at this point in time.

Even though they’re all leather daddies anyway. So it wasn’t very subtle subtext, but it was subtext all the same.

AIPT: Pretty blatant subtext, right there. 

I do want to talk about Chatterer because he is an interesting entity in that he doesn’t talk and talking is kind of a big deal in Hellraiser. How do you approach a character like that and make it interesting and have it fit?

ZT: When they came to me, I said I love him and he’s cool as hell.

For me, Hellraiser is about the people who find themselves on the collision course with the Cenobites. So I thought if I’m going to do this, and the character can’t speak, then I don’t really feel like writing internal narration from Chatterer’s perspective.

I think that demystifies the character and removes his ability to be scary on the page. So what I thought I’d is find a really contemporary POV character to put them into conflict with Chatterer, and then show sort of the parallels as to how people lose themselves to the world of the Leviathan and to the world of Hell and the Cenobites and then use it as a vehicle to resurrect Chatterer.

AIPT: I do appreciate that it wasn’t that internal dialogue. I do think it would have felt a little hokey. And there is something about him not talking that feels very important.

ZT: Yeah, and you imprint on them, right? I think there’s a lot of that going on.

It’s interesting, because Hellraiser is…a lot of Clive Barker is really, ‘Here’s a monster who can talk. And here’s a monster who can describe the conditions of their decomposing body and talk about how their heart is still intact and that they still love even this ghoul’ or whatever… And the idea for me was like, ‘Well, we don’t want add anything onto this character.’ In my eyes, this character is perfect, just the way it is. So how do we find a way to juxtapose this character with something that’s contemporary, and also use it as an opportunity to tell a Hellraiser story that you could only tell in 2026.

AIPT: The narration is really tonally perfect. In writing that, do you turn on your brain to go, ‘I’m writing in Hellraiser mode now.’ How do you actually approach the writing itself?

ZT: So way early on, before I started writing comics, I was obsessed with Barker and writing short stories – that was my big entry point into writing, these third person omniscient narrator, Books of Blood-style things. I was very inspired by that – like, how do you do this thing where you get in with the character, you follow them as as they descend into Hell and then you get out of the story? And so that mode of writing to me is where I started.

That’s the prose that I really cut my teeth on. And so when I had the opportunity to do this, I was just like, I immediately said, ‘Well, can I just do third=person narration and write it Barker style?’ And they were like, ‘Absolutely, do your thing.’ It is my voice, but I tried very much to write it like Clive would, that was like the whole thing.

And not as a cheap imitation, but like, ‘This writer is someone who made me fall in love with purple prose, taking the most disgusting thing and really eloquent about it.’ It’s this really sensual writing that fixates on sweat and tingling and these very bodily sensations and just honing in on that. And then writing about disgusting people, which is like, you know, I love doing that sort of stuff.

AIPT: I think the thing that I liked about Hellbound Heart – and it’s been 500 years since I think I’ve read it – is that sensuality is a huge part of it. There is something very endearing and physical and organic about the way Barker writes.

ZT: Yeah, it’s like honed in on desire, right? And longing in and these human emotions, but things that are not typically found in the horror genre. And I love that. I love that deep sensuality and then dealing with these awful, awful people.

I reread Hellbound Heart before I wrote this script, because I needed to make sure that I’m going back to this text and looking at the way it’s written. In my eyes, I just got to write 22 pages with Frank about a modern Zoomer.

AIPT: Speaking of a modern Zoomer, the idea of writing about somebody who is a deplorable incel is interesting. Was there any pushback from Boom! or anybody else that maybe this is too timely? Maybe this is too irredeemable of a soul?

ZT: Surprisingly, no. So like I’ve been joking about this online, but I genuinely thought, ‘Well, OK, I will only get one opportunity to do this. I’m just going to give them something that presumably might get me fired because it’s so just so third-railing. I said to Andy early on…’Look, in my eyes, this is a series that touches the third rail. You should be having conversations that feel like you can’t find them anywhere else in comics.’ They said, ‘Put in a pitch and let’s see what you got.’ I sent them a little paragraph, and they said, ‘Run with it.’

I’m aware that some of these pages are quite provocative and transgressive. There’s certain panels in here with the box that we specifically are playing with in weird ways. But I got nothing but encouragement to go for it. Like, ‘You guys want to make modern Hellraiser comics, then f**k yeah, let’s do this. Let’s go all the way.’

You’re not usually ever in a room where you can go, ‘OK, so it’s going to be a gooner.’ And he’s just basically f**king around with the box in this deplorable state for this story. And they were like, ‘Cool, let’s do it. Can we make it more gross here or whatever?’

We can.

AIPT: Yeah, ‘I was actually holding back.’

I think that maybe goes back to my initial comment about what I liked about Hellraiser, which is the unlikable quality of certain characters and them still being really compelling. That’s something I latch onto as a reader. How could you not be excited about someone who is so unabashedly themselves?

ZT: Mark, the guy at the center of this issue, isn’t the most likable guy. But I was hoping that you get a degree of empathy for how sad and lonely that lifestyle is. And maybe some understanding that we’re in a moment in history right now where young men are basically, completely abandoned by each other and society – and for a lot of good reasons, right?

A lot of them have turned into horrible monsters, but at the same time, there’s very few support systems in place for young men to kind of come forward and say, ‘Hey, I have these complicated emotions’ or ‘I feel frustrated about my place in life.’ The only place they end up gravitating to is right-wing con men who have very easy answers for all the reasons why their life isn’t working out the way they want it to.

And that’s ripe for Hellraiser. That’s ripe for horror. That’s ripe for getting into the aspects of physical appearance that come with this looksmaxxing trend. Because when they were developing these books, Clavicular was doing his PR tour. And I found him utterly fascinating. Like, ‘This is so perverse, but I can write about this.’

AIPT: Maybe this goes back to what we were talking about earlier – that idea of sensuality. Mark is very much a being who does exist in the physical, and we get to kind of see that..And, yeah, it’s gross and very off-putting, but there’s an honesty about this is a guy who is lost, and who has been shuffled aside, for reasons good and bad. So to see him spun so nakedly – pun certainly intended – it’s hard to deny even that complicated empathy.

ZT: I feel like Barker does that well. And a lot of the short stories as well…paints these really vivid portraits of complicated people.

Again, if I only get 22 pages to write a Clive Barker short story, then this should have a pure beginning, middle, and end, but also serving these other masters with the event of it all.  But the idea being that you need to get into this character’s head, understand who he is, and what he’s about to have some empathy for him – and then watch him make all the wrong decisions at every possible turn and just descend further and further into Hell. The beautiful thing is, that’s sort of Hellraiser in a nutshell – these people who are driven by these base impulses to compromise themselves over and over and over again until they’re irredeemable.

AIPT: I love that. I think with Hellraiser – and you absolutely do this in the issue – when they get their  comeuppance, it’s like, ‘Yeah, this a**hole got what he deserved,’ but also it’s not that fulfilling.

ZT: I do have empathy for what young men are going through. But it’s also sort of pathetic.

Yes, you’re sad and isolated, but learn something – be a carpenter or tell jokes or or juggle. Just interact with people. Life is about interacting with people and experiencing the warmth of other people. If you’re removed from all of those things, and you’re just chronically online, you are going to live a miserable existence. We saw it this [past] weekend when all these right-wing Chuds are all like, ‘Why didn’t The Odyssey fail?’ Because you live in a bubble where you just thought that you could talk to people on Twitter and then think that you’re going to take a movie by just tweeting about it. And the material reality of people’s actions are very different than the little ecosystem that you exist in.

AIPT: You touched on it, but this is only a book Hellraiser could do. Without dumping on anyone, other stories focus on young men being greedy and stupid and selfish. This story does a good job of a cross-section that these guys are to be laughed at, but there’s also so much more here, too. I love that depth in really highlighting a group of people.

ZT: I did a ton of research. I really tried to spend a ton of time reading about these spaces and watching videos of these guys talking and looking at Discord groups and seeing what content is being shared and stuff. And it’s awful.

I have a journalism background, and so a lot of my time comes from just looking at this subculture and going, ‘OK, I want to learn everything about it because I want to write about it with sincerity and empathy.’ And then all the horror will be that much stronger.

I can’t say enough good things about my collaborator, Gavin, on this issue as well, who really took everything and completely understood the world we’re going for right away in terms of even the way that Mark looks like a prominent right-wing streamer.

AIPT: Yes, he does.

ZT: A striking resemblance. We’re not going to name the guy because we don’t want him to rear his ugly head. But even Mark’s surroundings are informed by that guy.

The little touches that Gavin added – there’s panels of Mark in his room and he’s got brain rot, like subway surfer style videos, playing. And I just said that he’s just got typical crap on his monitors. There’s like a likeness of Trump. I think Ethan Klein is in there.

And I love that stuff. Because all of that also adds to all these different disparate threads of all these figures and the mindset you have to be in to be in front of four monitors at a time and have s**t in front of you constantly. You can’t think for yourself because there’s always something in front of you.

AIPT: The end of the issue is ::chef’s kiss:: I won’t spoil it, but it’s perfect Hellraiser. Still, I was just as unsettled by a shot of his room and all these clothes and dirt and just garbage on the floor. 

I love that both of those moments work the same because I feel like, again, what we’ve been talking about Hellraiser is that intimacy of a person’s degeneracy. Both of these moments just nailed what the whole series is about.

ZT: I was chatting with Gavin, and I said in the movies when they open the box, the whole room around them becomes this disgusting, filthy place. He’s already in there.

AIPT: Yeah, it’s like he’s in the box the whole time. I didn’t even think about that.

I do have a couple more questions, and then I’ll give you back the rest of your day. 

We talked about how you’re a fan, and now that you’ve done this story, has that altered or shaped or seen you revisit your fandom? Do you see Hellraiser, Clive Barker’s work in general, in a different light? 

ZT: Totally. I have been thinking about it a lot, just because…I was reflecting on the fact that this guy made this movie 40 years ago. And here I am writing in this world, and that’s really neat. This has been passed down to all these different people. And, for better or worse, tons of people have played with these characters. There’s this interesting thing where he created something that’s so palpable that I can come into it 40 years later, look at contemporary society and the themes that it’s dealing with…and it fits perfectly within contemporary society. Barker just created this infinite machine, this infinite propulsion engine that can just consume the worst of humanity and spit something very vibrant and interesting out.

So I have nothing but appreciation for his stuff. I look at Clive’s paintings all the time, and I revisit his short stories all the time. And, interestingly enough over this past Christmas, I had just been going back through the Books of Blood and reading them because I was  trying to get back in touch with the stuff that brought me into writing. And then, lo and behold, this all came to fruition. I got to send that script to Clive and he printed it out and wrote a little handwritten note on it. I thought, ‘Well, I can die now.’

AIPT: Can you share what the note said. Was it, ‘Good job, kid?’

ZT: It was basically that I made really good use of the themes. It was basically, ‘great work’ and signed with his name. Boom! sent me a screenshot of it because he had written it and taken a photo of it. I didn’t know what to do with that. His penmanship is still incredible, even though he’s 80. I could talk about Clive Barker forever. Honestly, I just think he’s so inspiring.

AIPT: Last question for you. If you do get that opportunity for more Hellraiser, is there a dream story or character that you have in mind?

ZT: What I would love if – pie in the sky – a Hellraiser mini that’s just focused on regular people. And the Cenobites are just in the background. Not that I disagree with the direction of the previous comics, but they’re very focused on Pinhead and Cenobites and the inner workings of Hell. That stiff is cool and really fascinating.

But for me, I love the idea of just regular people piercing the veil of reality, so to speak, and interacting with these forces that are beyond their comprehension, but their story is still very much rooted in the mundane wants and needs that people have. Even if it’s just like, ‘I want this person to like me’, or ‘I want this job or whatever, and I’m going to use demons from Hell to get it.’ I think there’s something really fascinating about exploring that.

And then, just because modern society has become so craven, and people have become so awful, there’s a real interesting way to explore contemporary sociological issues, political issues, or whatever using Hellraiser. Because if I had my way, I would just keep trying to touch the third rail until they basically said, ‘Hey, we can’t release this.’”