Gursharan Singh wrote over two hundred drama scripts. Many of these were original plays, others were based on short stories, novels and even poems from contemporary writings. In 2010-11, writer and artistic director, Kewal Dhaliwal, published seven volumes of Gursharan Singh’s collected plays and released them in Chandigarh in the presence of Gursharan Singh. We discovered a few more scripts after the publication of these seven volumes. These will be brought out in another volume in the coming year. The seven volumes are being added with much gratitude to Kewal Dhaliwal, who is also a member of the Trust.
When the rights were set to lapse again in 2016, producer Michael Leahy approached Tunnicliffe. The mandate? Make another cheap, fast sequel. Tunnicliffe, a veteran of Hellraiser III , IV , and Bloodline , had a different idea: “If we have to do this, let’s at least make it weird and horrible in the way Barker intended.”
Crucially, Pinhead is not the main villain. He appears in only three scenes. The real antagonist is a new creation: (Tunnicliffe himself). 3. The New Mythology: Heaven, Hell, and the Stygian Inquisition Judgment abandons the Frank Cotton/sexual transgression origin almost entirely. Instead, it introduces a sprawling, quasi-biblical bureaucracy of pain. hellraiser judgment 2018
In that light, Judgment looks like a dying gasp—a weird, angry, ugly little film made by people who knew the franchise was about to be taken from them. Tunnicliffe has admitted he made the film he wanted to make, knowing it would be divisive. When the rights were set to lapse again
Critics hated it. Gorehounds cheered. The “human” story follows Detective Sean Carter (Damon Carney) and his partner, Christine (Alexis Peters), hunting the “Preceptor”—a serial killer who drains his victims’ blood and writes scripture in it. Tunnicliffe, a veteran of Hellraiser III , IV
If you want elegant S&M poetry, watch the original. If you want to see a Cenobite with a ledger book force a priest to drink his own dissolved flesh while arguing about Exodus 20, Judgment is waiting for you. Just bring a shower. ★★☆☆☆ (but a high two stars for pure, unfiltered audacity)
Taylor’s Pinhead is not Bradley’s. He is less regal, less poetic, and more tired. This Pinhead sounds like a bureaucrat who has been processing human suffering for eons and is simply going through the motions. It’s a controversial take, but one that fits the film’s theme of cosmic, soul-crushing administration.
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