Oh it hurts so good! Ok, this is the scenario; you have the lamentation box in your hands, your heart pounds, your fingers shake! You can either summon up the ultimate demon to take you on a pleasure trip to heaven or hell, then again, you can play it safe and sit the box down and walk away…
Maybe, you figure, WTF and turn the puzzle pieces… A few moments later a cenobite appears; he is pasty white, has black soulless eyes, and a hundred nails sticking out of his face! He says; “The Box, you opened it, we came, now you must come with us! Come taste our pleasures!” Before you can even say “Uhhhh, maybe not so much?” He sucks you into an enter-dimensional portal and you may as well kiss your ass goodbye… Yep, that’s Hellraiser… What millions upon millions of fans love to shiver at, fantasize about, and are slavishly addicted to even after all these sequels. Yes, you guessed it! I am one of them.
The first three Hellraiser films were so terrifying they set a very high bar for future horror films. Hellraiser has a level of intense Sadomasochism, dominance, bondage, painplay, dubcon, you name it, but they cleverly mixed it with extreme horror/fantasy. What could be kinkier or more horrifying than demons that promise paradise but at the cost of your body and soul?
The newest Hellraiser movie directed by David Bruckner in 2022, has a new twist on Clive Barker’s 1987 classic and it portrays a young woman struggling with addiction, it also has a variation of the standard male Pinhead to a rather sexy cenobite played by Jamie Clayton. The original cenobite Pinhead, portrayed by the immortal Doug Bradley is actually my favorite. As a traditionalist, I find him mesmerizing in the part.
Doug Bradley fun facts: Doug Bradley is an English actor and author best known as his lead roles as cenobite Pinhead in the Hellraiser series. He played this role in the first eight Hellraiser films, as well as playing captain Elliot Spencer in two of the films, Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 1988, and Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth 1992. He also is starring in the upcoming animated film Dagon Troll World Chronicles completion date 2025. He plays the creature that doesn’t exist Goeyre Heddagh a forest demon in the film.
In the world of Labyrinth and Leviathan, Pinhead is the most disturbing, powerful, and supernatural cenobite. He can summon hooks and chains to mutilate his victims after tearing them apart. Of all the cenobites in the extra dimensional realm, the Chatterer, Butterball, Deepthroat, I think I would least like to meet up with Pinhead in any dimension.
It is awesome to know that Clive Barker’s shocking, disturbing, and horrific series which started back in 1987 is still going strong after eleven movies. If you are much of a Hellraiser fanatic like I am, you will freak out when I tell you that I recently approached Mr Bradley through his agent about a part in my own animated noir horror masterpiece film Dagon Troll World Chronicles as the Creature that Doesn’t Exist Goeyre Heddagh, and he said yes! He will be taking his rightful place next to my other legendary star Tim Curry who is now starring in our upcoming film as well.
Mr Bradley also autographed a lamentation box that I keep in a little glass case. Yes I love the Hellraiser series, and Pinhead who is my favorite demon. I hope this article has satisfied my fellow Hellraiser fans thirst for blood and information. Stay thirsty my friends! For now, all good things must come to an end, so no tears please, its a waste of good suffering…
