Or at least, that\u2019s how I preferred to think of it when I was a pretentious kid*. Certainly, when it came to the first run of Hellraiser <\/em>movies\u2014Hellraiser <\/em>(1987) and Hellbound: Hellraiser II<\/em> (1988)\u2014I was fascinated by their mix of the gothic romance, eldritch weirdness, queasy body horror, and genuine erotica so unlike what you found in other horror franchises, which relied on more traditional kills and T&A. But, if I\u2019m being fully honest, while those elements got me to dive into the literary oeuvre of the original film\u2019s writer and director Clive Barker, a lot of that stuff\u2014particularly the themes revolving around BDSM\u2014 went over my head. When it came right down to it, I kind of just liked how cool Pinhead looked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back, the same seems to be true of much of the franchise\u2019s fanbase, as there\u2019s nothing else that can explain the defense of any of the movies outside of the first three (and Part III is only defensible as dumb fun), or the impassioned opinions, both pro and against, regarding the gender swapping of the character in David Bruckner\u2019s new reboot. Because here\u2019s the thing I\u2019ve realized after all these years: for as good as those first two Hellraiser<\/em>s <\/em>are (and I do consider the first one to be among the best horror movies ever made), Pinhead is kind of boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not to take away from the character’s design, which is as startling, nightmarish, and original now as it was when it debuted 35 years ago, or the regal performance of actor Doug Bradley. But the more the movies zeroed in on him, the more obvious it became that he just isn\u2019t that interesting beyond those two components. Granted, this is true of just about every iconic movie character, as evidenced by the dire examples of filmmakers delving into their origins and \u2018mythologies\u2019 (see: both Rob Zombie and David Gordon Greene\u2019s atrocious spins on Halloween<\/em>). But whereas those franchises have no choice but to center their villains, Pinhead was never meant to be the focus of Hellraiser<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first movie, as well as Barker\u2019s original 1986 novella, The Hellbound Heart<\/em>, is centered on the murderous love affair between hedonistic drifter Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman), who\u2019s returned from imprisonment in hell and needs human blood to fully bring himself back to life, and his prim but extremely horny sister-in-law, Julia (Clare Higgins), who is willing to slaughter however many sad sack losers (her own husband included) it takes to make her secret lover whole again. The Cenobites\u2014an interdimensional race of surgically-disfigured monsters summoned by the solving of an ornate and magical puzzle box, who refer to themselves as \u201cexplorers in the further reaches of experience\u2026demons to some, angels to others\u201d\u2014only appear a handful of times throughout the story. Pinhead isn\u2019t even called Pinhead; he\u2019s known only as Priest or Lead Cenobite in the script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much the same is true of the following year\u2019s sequel, Hellbound<\/em>, for which Barker wrote the story and served as executive producer, but did not direct. Here, it\u2019s a returning Julia and her new lover, the obsessive Dr. Channard (Kenneth Cranham), who are the main villains. While Hellbound<\/em> greatly opens up the mythology surrounding the Cenobites\u2013including revealing their human origins, exploring their labyrinthian homeworld, and actually showing the all-powerful God they serve\u2013they\u2019re still mostly kept as background players. The movie even goes so far as to kill them all at the start of the third act in a rather unceremonious manner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the second Hellraiser <\/em>was released so soon on the heels of the first, the filmmakers weren\u2019t able to calibrate the story around the huge popularity of Pinhead and the other Cenobites, intending instead to make Julia the face of the franchise. Only after the second installment came out, and fans expressed dismay with how they were dispatched, was this plan revised. By the third film, 1992\u2019s Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth<\/em>, Pinhead was back and very much the focal point of the story. He\u2019s also a totally different character from the first one, slaughtering innocent victims at random in a variety of high-concept ways, with no shortage of cackling or puns. Basically, he\u2019s been turned into Freddy Kruger. In the fourth movie, they send him to space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The movies, including some of the six DTV sequels\u2014which, like every horror franchise, no matter how bad, has its fair share of defenders\u2014continue to explore the mythology surrounding Pinhead, the Cenobites, Larmachand\u2019s Box and the Lament Configuration, the god Leviathan and so on. So too do the copious amounts of literature that\u2019ve come out over the years, including two separate comic book series, one of which Barker wrote, as well as his official sequel to the original novel, 2015\u2019s The Scarlet Gospels.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s funny about all of this is that for as hungry as fans are to delve into the mythology of the franchise, Barker and co. have never seemed interested in making it cohesive. In The Hellbound Heart<\/em>, there is no Pinhead; or, rather, there are three different cenobites, one of whom has pins stabbed through their face and skull, who served as the basis for the character in the movie. Two of these characters are female\u2014or at least androgynous\u2014which makes the backlash to the casting of Jamie Clayton in the 2022 version all the dumber (although, speaking only personally, I\u2019ve seen far more people complaining online about this supposed backlash than I have actual backlash). However, while the comic book series takes its continuity from the films, The Scarlet Gospels<\/em> discards seemingly everything that came before it. There, Pinhead\u2014who is even referred to by that name as an insult\u2014is mostly the character as we know him from the films, but shorn of his human origins. Meanwhile, the larger cosmology that Barker introduced in Hellbound<\/em> has been completely scrapped and replaced by one that more closely resembles Judeo-Christian mythology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the one hand, I appreciate Barker\u2019s willingness to disregard canon if it gets in the way of the story he feels like telling, as the modern-day obsession with world building has been extremely detrimental to the actual quality of stories being told. On the other hand, this just shows that he and the producers should have stuck to their guns when it came to their original plans for the movies. The character of Julia is inherently more fascinating than Pinhead, her motivations and developing personality far better able to sustain an actual narrative. Also, as good as Bradely is as Pinhead, it\u2019s Higgins, by far, who gives the best performance across any of the films. Today, fans of the movies have recognized this, and regularly give Julia the character and Higgins the actor their proper due; it\u2019s only too bad it took so long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/hellraiser-87-scaled-1024x516.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/crookedc-01.svg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n