Doug Bradley was approached to reprise his role of Pinhead, but became hesitant when told that there would be no second draft of the script, which he believed was neither good nor bad, just "not finished" ("the ink is barely dry on the script.") He also mentioned that he was never officially approached by Dimension Films or the director, he only had private conversations with individuals involved in the project. Bradley ultimately declined, after being told that his salary from previous films would be, in his words, cut down to "the price of a fridge" (possibly referring to Ashley Laurence's statement that her pay for returning as Kirsty in Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002) was only enough to make a payment toward a new fridge). He later referred to the film as "a cinematic ash can copy" (a low-quality film made only to maintain license rights).
An ad copy for the DVD and Blu-ray releases hailed the film as coming "from the mind of Clive Barker". In response, Barker, who has had no official involvement with the series following Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), posted a profanity-laden message to his Twitter feed: "Hello,my friends. I want to put on record that the flic out there using the word Hellraiser IS NO FUCKIN' CHILD OF MINE! I have NOTHING to do with the fuckin' thing. If they claim it's from the mind of Clive Barker,it's a lie. It's not even from my butt-hole."
Prior to this film, there were many longstanding rumors of a 3D-remake of the original Hellraiser (1987), and series creator Clive Barker was reportedly among several writers to have written a draft and submitted it to the studio. However, these plans were put aside when this ninth film was quickly rushed into production after Dimension Films realized that due to a contractual stipulation, they could lose the rights to make Hellraiser sequels; unless they produced a sequel to 2005's Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) within a certain time frame, the franchise rights would revert to the previous owners. Consequently, the entire production time was roughly three weeks including an eleven-day shooting schedule, on a budget around $200,000, based on a rough draft written by longtime series makeup/special effects artist and second unit director Gary J. Tunnicliffe.
The first 'Hellraiser' movie without Doug Bradley as Pinhead. Although director Víctor Garcia assumed that Bradley ultimately declined because of severe time constraints (he was required to come from the UK to the USA and prepare for the role in less than 3 weeks), Bradley himself named the extremely rushed production timeline and low budget as reasons not to return ("it is scheduled to be in front of the cameras in two weeks time and in the can by the middle of next month. The minuscule shooting schedule is more than matched by the budget"). He ultimately felt that this was "[no] serious attempt to revive the Hellraiser franchise", and was replaced by Stephan Smith Collins.
The first Hellraiser movie since Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002) to use an original script. Hellraiser: Deader (2005) and Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) started out as unrelated horror spec scripts owned by Dimension Films that were hastily rewritten as Hellraiser movies due to time and money constraints. Despite claims to the contrary, Hellraiser: Inferno (2000) and Hellseeker were both originally conceived as Hellraiser movies, although some earlier concepts were explored and rejected, or the screenplay heavily re-written. The script for Revelations was written as an homage to the first film by makeup/special effects artist Gary J. Tunnicliffe, who has been on board the franchise since Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992). Tunnicliffe was also supposed to direct, but had to be replaced by Víctor Garcia due to scheduling conflicts with Scream 4 (2011). He would eventually make the next film, Hellraiser: Judgment (2018).