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Doug Bradley returns to familiar territory in Thorns, a Hellraiser-inspired movie that melds themes of religion and science with practical special effects. The horror icon was intrigued by the script and his mysterious character, Archbishop Jenkins.

“The script catches you or the script doesn’t catch you, and there was a lot about this that did straight away. It’s an interesting story; the interface here between science and religion, between exploration of outer space and inner space. It’s an apocalypse movie, basically,” Bradley explains to Bloody Disgusting.

“But at the same time, [director] Doug Schulze always says that he sees the movie as a kind of a retro homage to movies of the ’80s and to makeup effects movies.”

In his own words, Bradley describes the plot: “There is a satellite out in space that has gone rogue and is transmitting peculiar signals back to Earth, which is having strange effects on people.

Stars: Jon Bennett, Cassandra Schomer, Bo Shumaker, Doug Bradley, Pamela Martin, Lillie Angel, Brigid Casey, Elly Schulze | Written and Directed by Douglas Schulze

The people behind promoting Thorns knew exactly what they were doing. A lot of the imagery I saw showed a ‘monster’ of sorts wearing mainly black and with a crown of thorns covering their eyes. Definitely inspired by Pinhead and the Hellraiser movies but they also managed to get Pinhead himself – Doug Bradley – on board to star in the movie. And you know what? It worked because that was why I wanted to check Thorns out.

The story sounds much more bizarre on paper than it actually is on screen. An ex-priest who now works for NASA (I’m guessing that doesn’t happen too often in real life?!) is sent to a remote observatory that has gone silent since receiving a radio signal from outer space.

Thorns: "Something terribly wrong is happening inside NASA’s Iron Mountain observatory. It received an image from a deep space probe from what appears to be the edge of the solar system. On screen an eclipsed planet of unknown origin. Could this be the fabled 9th planet mankind has been searching for? An eerie signal transmits over the speakers, a rhythmic drone possibly a signal from the planet? But wait, something more. Deep within the signal, a faint sinister chatter. It sounds demonic. Have we discovered life across the galaxy? Down the hall, a distraught scientist, Dr. Malik. sits on the cold restroom floor looking unkept and unshaven. He hasn’t slept in days and appears deeply unnerved. Voices in his head motivate him to the mirror where he looks deep into his eyes. Wait, what is that? Something crawling in his eye? A black shape slithers across his sclera.