Saw this film for the first time ever a couple of days ago. I've never read the book or have seen the other installments...yet. This film is classified as a 'British film'. Julia and other characters have British accents except Kristy, Larry and I think Kristy's boyfriend. They mention Brooklyn a few times, Kristy and her bf were at a subway station at one point and some dude later in the film is wearing a Yankees cap. Does this take place in England or New York?
shareThe cast and crew were mostly British and it was filmed in London, but New World Pictures had a couple main characters and a bunch of minor characters and extras dubbed with American accents. This was done to make the movie more appealing to American audiences. I know for sure that Andrew Robinson and Ashley Laurence are American though, but there might have been one or two others in the cast, and I believe the trio of passersby that stood over Kirsty after she fainted were added in as part of the Americanization of the movie.
While all the characters are English in the Hellbound Heart and none of them are ever said to have lived in America, in Hellraiser, Larry, Julia, and Kirsty lived in Brooklyn before moving to London in an effort by Larry to save his marriage, believing that Julia would be happier back in her home country. Of course, this line was screwed up by the confusion of countries caused by New World. Why would the obviously English Julia be on her "own turf" as Larry said if they're still in America?
Also, they screwed it up by dubbing over Kirsty's boyfriend. The conversation about Julia being uptight and proper did not really make sense when kirsty compared him to Julia when they made him American.
shareExactly. The whole thing was a hatchet job without much rhyme or reason. If they were going to dub characters to be American, they should have at least been consistent about it. I'd like to see the original undubbed version someday.
shareI'm pretty sure it takes place in New York, even though it's not that clear in the movie because of the number of English actors and it being filmed in the UK, resulting in some British stuff appearing in the background of certain scenes. The majority of characters speak with American accents, including most of the minor characters such as the movers and the staff at the hospital.
Sequels make it clearer that its the US, as well.
-Sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come