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. I have been brought in by the space agency involved as a kind of theological-slash-spiritual advisor to the whole thing.
“As Archbishop Jenkins himself says, ‘When you’re dealing with these kinds of big issues, who better than a man of God to be involved in the process?’ So I’m sending this guy off to an observatory to find out what’s going on. I’m a man of the cloth. Am I necessarily on the side of the angels? Who knows? You’ll have to see the movie to find out,” he teases.
“It’s a well-written, well-directed, well-performed movie. Jon Bennett and Cassandra Schomer, who really play the two leads in the movie, have done an outstanding job.” He’s especially impressed by Schomer’s performance as a mute nun. “She is completely silent in the film and has a lot of acting to do and a lot of communicating to do, and she does a great job.”
Bradley didn’t know of the Hellraiser inspiration when he signed on the project. “That element of the homage to ’80s movies, I was completely unaware of when I was initially reading the script and then when I was filming. I was not around any of the stuff with the creature.”
The creature in question is a Cenobite-esque monster dubbed The Necronaut. “Great performance by Bo Shumaker, who’s now officially joined the special effects makeup brotherhood,” he praises. “I have inducted him into the union!”
Beyond Thorns, Bradley has no shortage of recent and upcoming horror roles — including playing another man of the cloth in The Exorcists, currently available on VOD. “I honestly think it’s better than The Exorcist: Believer. You might think that wouldn’t be too difficult. I couldn’t possibly comment,” he smirks wryly. “But I think it’s really good and it holds up.”
He also has something brewing with shock-rock icons Gwar. “I think I’m going to be doing some work with Gwar, which is pretty cool, I won’t say much more about that, but it sounds like an interesting project. Let’s put it that way.”
Bradly appears as a wise grandfather in the recent The Barn Part II, plays a police captain in the upcoming Thy Will Be Done, in April will assume the role of another exorcist in The Demonatrix, and recently signed on to do voiceover work for a music video for the synthwave act Gunship.
In his down time, he continues to update his YouTube channel with readings of horror novels, short stories, and poetry. “They get tremendous, quite moving responses from people. It’s beyond anything that I expected from what began just as a kind of lockdown exercise, but I’m keeping going with that.”
Thorns opens in select theaters in Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, and California on February 23 with an expansion aimed for later in the year. Bradley stresses the importance of supporting independent filmmaking now more than ever.
“If you can get out to the cinemas and support this, I think as well as going to see a horror movie that you’ll enjoy, you’re also going to be striking a little bit of a blow for the little guy.”
