A Hellraiser remake has (rather appropriately) been in development hell at Dimension for years. Martyrs director Pascal Laugier was attached at one point, but the project still foundered. Now though, comes the surprising news from Bloody Disgusting that a new Hellraiser in the original series is on the way, in the form of Hellraiser: Revelations.

The first Hellraiser, was, of course written and directed by Clive Barker in 1986: the story of Kirsty, a mysterious puzzle box, the demon Cenobites and a Faustian pact. It introduced Doug Bradley's iconic PInhead to the world, and spawned seven sequels which increasingly appalled Barker (apart from part six, Hellseeker, which he quite liked). The last one was the completely dreadful Hellworld (made back-to-back with the not-so-bad Deader in 2005). And the rest was silence.

Bradley returned as Pinhead for every instalment (although sometimes in little more than a cameo), but BD have been told he won't be part of the stand-alone Revelations. Arguably, having to crowbar him into every film was sometimes a hindrance anyway: the comics and some of the sequels settled on the idea that it's the puzzle box that's the 'star' linking all the disparate stories. But it's a brave and possibly foolhardy team that wouldn't put the piercing fetishist in their Hellraiser. For better or worse, it'd feel like Elm Street without Freddy.

The Revelations screenplay is by make-up FX artist and long-term Hellraiser fan Gary Tunnicliffe (he worked on Wolverine and Drive Angry, and he's currently on Scream 4), and the director is Victor Garcia (Mirrors 2, Return to House on Haunted Hill). The budget is low, but we're promised that won't stop the film going "balls to the wall". Shooting starts in September.

For our sins, we always hoped for more Hellraiser. But if the series teaches us anything, it's that you should be careful what you wish for...