A little over two decades ago, Doug Bradley was cast as a nameless menace in a small horror film called Hellraiser by then first-time director Clive Barker. Little did Bradley know that his alter-ego “Pinhead” would become an iconic name in horror alongside Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and Leatherface. We caught up with Bradley to talk about all things Hellraiser, which is being released for your sinful pleasure in an all-new 20th anniversary edition DVD on October 23rd.

Hellraiser came out 20 years ago. How well do you think the film has stood the test of time?

Evidence suggests that it is standing the test of time inordinately well. I did see it again a couple of years ago and apart from obvious things like 1980s haircuts--ooh big hair, big hair—it didn’t seem to me that it really aged. I think partly because the ideas that Clive Barker is addressing in the film are timeless ideas. The Cenobites look like a fairly timeless kind of image to me as well. I’m aware that there’s a new generation finding the film when I’m at conventions and signings. I’m now getting people saying, “Could you sign this for my dad? He’s a huge fan.” My feeling is that there’s more interest and enthusiasm for the film now than there was then.

When you were making Hellraiser, did you ever envision yourself or Pinhead becoming this huge horror icon?

And why would I? [laughs] There I was playing a guy buried in latex with no name. I think if they paid me any less for that film I would’ve been cast as an extra. And I think I’m on screen less than 10 minutes, not one of the featured actors. When the first movie was released, I had no part in any of the publicity for it. I’ve spoken to a lot of fans subsequently who said when the first film came out, they kept showing clips of Pinhead. Claire Higgins, Ashley Laurence and Andy Robinson would get interviews, and that was all great, but people were all saying—“Where’s the guy with the pins? We want to hear from him!” But you know, as an actor as well you don’t approach films thinking ‘Hey, this is my meal ticket.’ You really don’t. It would be the kiss of death if you did. But certainly, if you’d said to me that 20 years from now you’ll be in a hotel room in North Carolina, being interviewed about the film, I would’ve said,“what?!” [laughs]. I would not have known where you were coming from with it. I knew we were doing something good, interesting and exciting, but I really didn’t see it taking off the way it did.

You’ve played Pinhead a total of eight times now. Did you ever get tired of playing the part or sitting through that make-up process?

Playing the part, no. The make-up process, yes. I’ve had my moments, particularly the first day back on Hellraiser. I’m always happy to be back on the movie set. There are old friends to say hi to, new friends to meet and lots of handshaking. I feel very relaxed and at home as soon as I’m on the soundstage. That’s all great and then there always comes the moment where I hear [make-up artist] Gary Tunnicliffe’s voice behind me, clearing his throat quietly and saying, “Ahem, Doug, I need to get started.” And that’s when I suddenly have to retie my shoelaces and go to the restroom and go speak to the production office about something, and then I go into a whole series of displacement activity—anything to avoid having to put my rear end in the dentist chair. Then I walk into Gary’s make-up room. I see the pieces of latex sitting on a fake head, looking back at me—and the rows of parts and glue and paint, the brushes—and it all looks a bit too much like an operating theater to me. Day one, I can’t get past the misery of it all because there is misery involved in the make-up, there’s just no getting around it. Getting the make-up on is misery, wandering around in the costume is misery, taking it off is misery, picking bits of glue and make-up off the back of your ears for days afterwards is misery. Whenever I’m in front of the camera with the make-up on, it’s no problem. That’s the whole point. We’re working and that’s fine. It’s when you’ve got maybe three or four hours of downtime while they’re shooting a scene you’re not in—that’s when you start to go out of your mind.

Hellraiser also spawned a series of comic books. Aside from the films, did you ever engulf yourself in all of the Hellraiser mythos?

I was a fan of horror films when I was a teenager before I even knew I wanted to be an actor. So, even if I had never been an actor, I would’ve probably been buying those Hellraiser comics and reading them. I would’ve been a fanboy geek. In fact, I wrote an introduction for Marvel’s collection of Hellraiser comics, way back--early ‘90s I think when the first lot of those stories came out—which I thought were wonderful. What I thought was exciting about it was the way the writers took the mythology and just ran with it, in all directions. Pinhead, the Cenobites or even the lament configuration weren’t necessarily involved. People found all kinds of ingenious ways of re-creating the notion of a puzzle solved or some kind of secret or series of things that triggered the equivalence of the lament configuration. I thought it was very exciting.

Wasn’t there talk of a Hellraiser TV show?

There was talk a long, long time back of a TV series. I thought a TV series approached the same way as the comics would’ve been great. That seems to resurface from time to time as an idea, but it’s never come to fruition.

Right now there’s talk about a Hellraiser reinvention to be written and directed by someone other than Clive. How do you feel about a remake and a possible new incarnation of Pinhead?

I just saw that announcement about an hour ago [laughs]. I have no idea whether anybody intends I will be involved in it, but I will do it again like a shot. If it involved taking different beats with Pinhead, that would also be fine by me. I think there are lots of areas that we never looked and never went to. History is not on my side with remakes that don’t intend to use original cast. You know, if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen—and I wish it absolutely nothing but good, if I’m involved or not.  I’m not the biggest fan of remakes. I saw The Omen remake on a plane because I wouldn’t have gone near a cinema to see it otherwise, because the original The Omen is one of my all-time favorite horror films. And I thought it was weird—it was like watching The Omen through a fog—it was a bit like The Omen, but it wasn’t. It was like meeting your best friend who’s been taking over by something ghastly. It’s familiar and almost behaving like your friend should behave, but keeps on not being that thing. I also saw Rob Zombie’s Halloween the other day, which was—you know—Rob did a great job with the movie but it’s not a patch on John Carpenter’s original. But maybe these iconic figures we’ve created now are almost like a cannon of work. You know, like theater revisiting Shakespeare—another actor gets to give his Hamlet so maybe we will have another actor giving his interpretation of Freddy Krueger every four or five years or something.

Well, we hope you’re involved in the remake. But after all is said and done, we will always have the original Hellraiser forever preserved on this new DVD.

That’s the thing. The fans are being absolutely wonderful and it’s quite humbling to hear the things they say to me. I try to be hardheaded about it. They say, “It has to be you, it won’t be Pinhead if it isn’t you. It won’t be a Hellraiser film is it isn’t you.” And I say to them, “Well you’re very kind and thank you very much for that, but does Sean Connery and James Bond mean anything to you?” I’m sure people were saying that back when they announced they were going to recast James Bond. Last time I looked, it hadn’t hurt that franchise too badly. And they say to me, “Well, if you’re not in it, we won’t go and see it.” They talk about starting online petitions and writing campaigns to Dimension Films and I say, “Well, you do what you want to do.” You’re right that it won’t be the same if I’m not in it, it will be different and you say you won’t go and see the film—I’m telling you now, you will—I will. If I’m not in it, I’ll go and see the film. Let’s not pretend otherwise. I don’t want to talk myself out of a potential job--I’ll bite their hands off if they offer it to me. I’ll work as hard on doing a remake as I did making it the first time around. There’s a lot of blood to go under the bride between now and then I think.

What’s this mean for the current string of Hellraiser movies? Will there be a ninth film in that series?

Nobody’s told me about that one way or the other. I’m assuming that the existence of the remake means the series as it stands is done. But that’s just an assumption on my part. I can’t imagine that they’re going to remake the first movie and then go make a Hellraiser 9.

Back when Freddy vs. Jason came out, there was talk that Dimension was toying with the idea of a Pinhead vs. Michael Myers movie. What happened with that?

I had talked to Clive about it. My understanding was that Clive was going to write it and John Carpenter was going to direct it. It was the late [producer] Moustapha Akkad who decided he didn’t want the movie to be made. But it would’ve been interesting to find out how that would’ve worked. Pinhead likes a good conversation—and that’s a bit of a problem when it comes to Michael [laughs].

Clive has talked about killing off Pinhead in his upcoming, long-talked about The Scarlett Gospels novel. Has he talked to you about the death of Pinhead?

I’m aware of it. He first mentioned it to me two years ago. And there are internet rumors swirling that I’m furious with Clive for doing it, which is like most internet rumors—absolutely false. In fact the opposite is true—I can’t wait to read it. As I say, I’ll be at the front of the queue to get a hold of it.