What to know before seeing the newest Hellraiser film
The next Hellraiser is finally out of development, um, hell. Prepare to dim the lights and put the kids to bed early. It almost seems as though its distinctive brand of sexually explicit body horror never actually went away. The franchise has been slowly moving forward since the original movie debuted in 1987, revenue be damned, adding additional films and lore without ever having a massively profitable excursion.
The latest movie increases the overall number of sequels to an even 10 for those who aren’t keeping count (which, unless you’re a die-hard fan, is most of us). Then there are the fan films, comic books, games, Halloween costumes, and mazes at theme parks. Even an HBO programme is under development. Alongside Jason, Freddy, and Michael, Pinhead is among the most iconic horror villains of all time. But how much do you actually know about the franchise’s mythology? Hellraiser premieres on Hulu on October 7 and if you don’t have time to watch all 10 of the predecessor movies, which we do not advise, this helpful primer should get you up to speed.
An overview of Hellraiser’s filmography
The Hellbound Heart is a novella by Clive Barker that was published in 1986. He would make his directing debut on the Hellraiser adaptation just one year later. Although it didn’t become popular right first, especially with critics, the movie gained a devoted cult following among horror enthusiasts, with some crossover from the fetish scene. That was sufficient to warrant a follow-up, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, which was released the following year and continued where its predecessor had ended.
A character addressed Pinhead by name onscreen for the first time in 1992’s Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth, which came after a few years. Hellraiser: Bloodline, released in 1996, marked the end of the franchise’s theatrical run. Although the director, who desired to stay secret, received an Alan Smithee credit for the production, it was also significant for a few important factors. For starters, it follows the development of the notorious puzzle box that serves as the focal point of the plot across three different eras: the 18th century, the year 1996, and the distant future. Another thing is that it has some extremely bad hairstyles and Adam Scott in a supporting role. The final Hellraiser movie to hit theatres was this one.
Like other enduring franchises, Hellraiser has experienced a period of declining returns. There were four direct-to-DVD sequels made in the 2000s, but none of them significantly expanded the backstory. In order to film in Romania, the seventh and eighth movies—Hellraiser: Deader and Hellraiser: Hellworld—were actually made back-to-back. After the ninth movie, Doug Bradley, who had played Pinhead since the beginning, left the role and was later replaced by drab imitators. Hellraiser: Revelations, the ninth movie, was filmed on a tight budget and only had one screening in 2011—for the crew who worked on it. At the time, it was said that Dimension Films merely made it in order to keep the franchise’s rights. There was another attempt to revive it with a 10th film, Hellraiser: Revelations, but that one got lost in the executive shuffle following the departure of convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein from Dimension’s parent company Miramax. In the end, Lionsgate released Revelations in 2018 on home media and on demand.
This brings us up to date with the most recent movie, Hellraiser. Although it uses some of the same themes as The Hellbound Heart, it is neither a remake or retelling of that narrative despite the title. This time, they’ve also switched things up by casting Odessa A’zion as the main female character and reinventing Pinhead as a woman (Jaime Clayton).
So who exactly is this Pinhead guy?
He is the head of a group of evil beings known as Cenobites, and his official name is the Hell Priest. The term “Pinhead” was first used by the original makeup crew during the making of the first movie, and it stayed (much to Clive Barker’s dismay).
We learned in Hellraiser II that Pinhead was originally a British soldier fighting in World War I before he was transformed into the iconic Cenobite persona now inseparable from the franchise. In Hellraiser III, he briefly split into his two personalities—the human Elliott Spencer and the demonic Hell Priest—before being brought back together and sent back to hell. Sometimes his humanity shines through, but most of the time he just wants to drag them into his little hell and torture them there forever. The position of Hell Priest is one that is passed down, and there may have been others before Spencer assumed it in the early 20th century, according to the comics and Barker’s earlier writings.
David Bruckner, who directed the new movie, didn’t even try to compete with the original since he knew his version couldn’t. Bruckner writes that Doug Bradley’s portrayal of The Hell Priest “may be the most famous performance in horror” in the production notes for the movie. It would be foolish to try to imitate his style.
We don’t yet know the human origins of this version, but she is intended to give off a sense of dangerous sexuality, which fits with the thematic connection between pain, pleasure, and punishment that run through the series.
The Cenobites are who or what?
In essence, cenobites are hellish devils who enjoy sadomasochism. Like their leader Pinhead, they were once human before becoming so deranged by their sadomasochist cravings that they are unable to tell the difference between pleasure and pain. They also lack a vocabulary of safe terms. They all have unique appearances due to various and unique techniques of bodily modification.
The Cenobites worship a being known as Leviathan and live in their own maze-like section of hell. Only those unfortunate or stupid enough to solve the Lament Configuration, a complex puzzle box, can bring them into our dimension. Sometimes they stay to cause havoc, and other times they take humans back with them to their realm where they put them through gruesome trials to see how far they might push them. This might theoretically continue forever because they are immortal and exist outside of the mortal realm.
Some of the Cenobites that will appear in the new movie include:
The Chatterer is a tall, lanky monster with exposed, bleeding muscle and sinew, as well as a drawn-back mouth with no lips and no eyes. On the back of his head, a little motor drives his chattering mouth.
To give the Weeper the unsettling appearance of spiky heels, dagger blades have been inserted into her feet.
The unknown woman in the original that fans dubbed “Deep Neck” due to the enormous hole in her throat served as the basis for The Gasp.
The reason the Asphyx has skin stretched over its face is because it cannot breathe. Its arms are chained, and its head is surrounded by pearl piercings. It is slightly bowed.
The Mother has a noticeable baby bump that complements her razor-tipped fingers and the thin layer of skin that has been removed from her head and is draped over her eyes.
The names of every employee at the prosthetics FX workshop are written in ancient script on The Masque’s back and down his chest. With the help of visual effects, the back of his head was removed, leaving just his expressionless face hanging from a wire frame.
One riddle you don’t want to figure out
If Pinhead is the first image that most people think of when thinking of the Hellraiser series, then “the box” would have to be a close second. The well-known puzzle box, also known as the Lament Configuration or Lemarchand Configuration, is a crucial part of every Hellraiser tale. The key is what unlocks the entrance to the Cenobite dimension and calls them to our planet.
The box was initially created by an 18th-century toymaker based on plans provided to him by a wicked French aristocrat, as we learned in Hellraiser: Bloodline. Since then, it’s been calling forth devils. Once called, they can only be driven away by turning the box back around to its initial position. Of course, eventually the box finds new owners, and the cycle starts all over again.
There are just two ways that the box has been configured in the past. There are six distinct stages in the new Hellraiser, each with a unique symbolic meaning. However, moviegoers will have to wait to see the movie to learn how those arrangements look and what they stand for.
That should be sufficient background knowledge to familiarise you with the Hellraiser universe before the upcoming movie’s October 7 release. We offer no guarantees that we can adequately prepare you for the horrors that lie ahead.
The director wants you to be aware of the following.
The key components of the Hellraiser franchise are discussed by David Bruckner.