Pinhead's background (spoilers likely)

Can someone tell me how Pinhead got so powerful?

I’ve never read any books, so perhaps the books have the answer to my question. I only remember the vague background info on him from the movies - He was a WWI captain (kinda shellshocked) who solved the Lament Confirguration (puzzle box) and was ouchified into “Pinhead.”

I thought he was just one of the “victims” of the Puzzle Box. But in the movies he seems to be the one in charge of the Cenobites and “Hell”. The last movie in particular made it clear that he was the one collecting souls as the Dark Prince of sorts.

So how did he end up in charge?

The Hellraiser website says:

So how did it “becomes his domain”?

BTW - Did you know you can buy a Pinhead bobblehead? Cool!

Addendum to my question:

At the start of Hellraiser III a guy buys a creepy statue with Pinhead trapped inside…

…was Pinhead trapped in the statue at the end of Hellraiser II (I don’t remember), or was this just some unexplained contrivance.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
At the end of the second movie Pinhead and his chronies got their butts handed to them by some evil doctor. They came for the doc but then instead of running away he embraced them and became really really powerful. He dispatched Pinhead and the rest of the cenobites, but then the good guys killed him off. That is where the movie ends so I think Pinhead was too powerful to be killed and instead was made prisoner in a lousy statue.

As far as to why he got to be so strong - probably because he like the doc did not fear but embraced whatever it is that came out of the puzzle box when he solved it. I haven’t read any of the books but watched the first six movies of the series so my theories are only that good.

Hijack - which movies are your favorite? My order is: 1,4,2,5,6,3

Ah, so the shrink pretty much stuck him in the statue. It’s been so long I don’t actually remember the end of H2. Although I presumed that Kirsty and the Oh-Shit girl manage to get outta hell and tirumph over shrink baddy.

I’m in the same boat. But I can’t remember anything that would make Pinhead “special”. I don’t particularly want to rent H3 again, though I’ve been considering it just to figure out the mythos. From what I understand, originally Pinhead was just one of the cenobites. Nothing special. But fans reacted to him so much that his part grew. In fact Julia (Kirsty’s evil aunt) was going to be the Big Bad, but the actress who played her said (during the shooting of H2) “just so you guys know, I am not going to be a female Freddy Krueger.” So Pinhead got to be the major Big Bad. I’m kinda guessing they hadn’t really planned on creating a real history to him.

Hijack answer - I can barely keep track of the ones I’ve seen. I remember 1, 2 and 3. And I recently saw 5 and 6. The sixth one is quite a bit like #5, but Kirsty’s back in a small role, which is neat. I think it’s 4 that I missed and I haven’t found 7. I think 8 is still in post-production and I am astounded that there are so many.

I think I like them in the order of 2, 1, 3, 5, 6. Three gets better marks from me only because of Terry Farell and because of Pinhead biographical info. Five beats six only by a hair because Craig Sheffer (who reminded me of Angel throughout to the point of distraction – kept expecting him to vamp out) was a bit more pitiful as a father and husband. THe Oz guy, was just a husband and not quite so guilt-ridden IMHO.

I’ve read The Hellbound Heart, the novel the first film is based on, and read nearly every issue of the Hellraiser comic (Plus the annual Book Of The Damned, and the summer specials, and the Christmas special), The horrible Harrowers comic, as well as the Pinhead miniseries.

What 5 and 6? IIRC

Hellraiser

Hellraiser II- Hellbound

At the end of this Pinhead, or at least parts of him, is incorporated into a spiked ornamental column.

Hellraiser III- Hell On Earth
At the beginning, we see the small, stone column covered in some kind of liquid and transformed into the pillar of souls statue seen in the rest of the film. Eliott Spenser, the soldier who became Pinhead, contacts a woman through her dreams and reveals that he and Pinhead have become seperated. Pinhead is no longer bound by the laws of Hell or any vestige of conscience. They are rejoined and sent to hell at the end of the film.

Hellraiser IV- Bloodlines

Starts with the tale of how LeMerchand made the first Lament Configuration and traces his descendants through the centuries.

Note that the Cenobites’ popularity is shown through the fact the credits of the first film give descriptions of them rather than names. The credits of the second film give all but the female cenobite names. IMHO Pinhead became popular partly due to the fetish part of his nature- body piercing, leather, sadomasochism, and partly due to his speeches. Jason, Leatherface, and Michael Meyers only grunted occasionally. Freddy and Chuckie spoke mostly in cliches and bad puns. Pinhead spoke with an odd mix of cold detachment and hot passion, and in marvellous sermons.

The comics, especially (obviously) the Pinhead miniseries, do explain how Pinhead became so powerful. Several articles on the 3 suggest that originally this was also to be shown in that film, but was dropped. Where Leviathan came from or how, is unknown. But, it is a being of perfect order. The abundance of chaotic life on a primal earth, broke the barrier between our dimensions. In order to defend itself, Leviathan made a servant of certain ape. He taught others how to make fire, build tools, and how to become strong by imposing order on the world. Somehow, this protoCenobite died.Leviathan recaptured the part of itself it had given the ape and put it into a new vessel. Other cenobites are simply humans who have been remade. Their forms and abilities are based on who they were in their lives as humans. Pinhead is more than this. Part of him is Spenser remade. But he is also the most recent vessel of the fragment of Leviathan which was placed in the first Cenobite. This is why the other Cenobites follow him and why he can command the hooked chains of Hell with his thoughts. He is the favored son of the Lord Of The Labyrinth.

Before Pinhead were- A protohuman Cenobite with small bones piercing his scalp, Bel Alla a Sumerian warrior, Xipe Totec a Mayan warrior priest, A Cardinal whose name escapes me at the moment, an unnamed Cenobite with large gears piercing his skull, and Arrowhead a Cherokee whose face was pierced with (you guessed it) arrowheads. Presumably after Pinhead, Leviathan will place the fragment in a new human host.

Some Cenobites worship Pinhead as a god in his own right. He feels that this is blasphemy and “There can be only one god in Hell.”. He prefers that other Cenobites call him master, or other titles. There are rumors that he will destroy any Cenobite who calls him Pinhead.

I have an almost-complete collection of the Hellraiser bookshelf-format comics from Epic. (But not the Pinhead series.) The various writers hewed to a fairly well-developed shared mythology about Leviathan and his way. The part that always perplexed me was the essential connection between order and suffering. In our human life on Earth, suffering sometimes results from excess of order, but, even more often, suffering results from chaos. Besides, this seems at odds with the doctrine as developed in H2, when Julia describes Leviathan as “the god of hunger, flesh and desire.” Not order. Rather the opposite of order, in fact.

Five is about a detective that is trying to solve a murder he opens the box early in the movie and the entire rest of the movie is one long boring mindgame with very little cenobite action
Six was about…er I kinda forget the non spoiler part of the movie butKristy arranges for her husband and all the women he was fucking to be taken by the box so Pinhead will leave her the hell alone already this is a big step up in the series. I also liked some of the deleted scenes where Pinhead claims when he defended her in the second movie he was doing it to have dibs on her soul not because he was a nice guy.

WHAT THE HELL?

When I saw Faldureon mention a fifth and six Hellraiser film, I assumed he was mistaken.

When Eats Crayons commented on movies 5 and 6, I assumed that either they had both mistakenly thought two unofficial Hellraiser rip off films were canon, or were just joking.

But the IMDB lists the other films. How the hell did I miss these? Were the released in theaters in the US or did they go straight to video? I remember no ad campaign or merchandise for 5 and 6. Apparently, some of the figures now being sold (the wire twins, possibly others) which I had assumed were invented just for the current toy line (the same way Clive invented the Tortured Souls characters for McFarlane toys) are from movies 5, 6, and possibly 7.

I didn’t even know 5 existed until my (now ex) girlfriend brought it home one day saying “Isn’t this that show you like?”

When I was returning 5 I went and looked and I’ll be damned 6 was sitting on the shelf. I’m 100% certain it never came to local theaters here I have no idea if it was shown elsewhere or straight to video (I’d bet on the latter though)

I haven’t read it, but this site seems to have a lot of information.

The IMDB has the little “(V)” next to the titles which I think means that they are stright to video releases that never had theatrical releases.

They are Hellraiser: Inferno and Hellraiser: Hellseeker

Aside from 6 possibly setting Kirsty up for some future storyline (Pinhead suggested that her soul has been owed to him since Hellrasier 1 and that he’ll keep reappearing until he gets what he wants) it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with actual canon. They are just “creepy movies” that happen to feature the Cenobites.

The next one Hellraiser: Deader looks equally blase, the description says: “A journalist uncovers an underground group who can bring back the dead and slowly becomes drawn into their world.” So looks like a generic slasher flick.

I don’t think Barker or any of the original writers are involved with the franchise anymore. So I’m guessing they’ll keep making these knock-offs.

While trying to Google answers to my OP, I came across a website entry by Peter Atkins who had collabrated with Clive Barker and Tony Randel as a writer on previous Hellraisers. He indicated that they had stopped contributing to the series after Bloodline which they all though got kinda stinky. Tony Randel had been fired and replaced on H4 and in the end they used the DGA-approved pseudonym “Alan Smithee” for the director’s name. A few other people came and went and Peter Atkins said that he wished he had been lucky enough to have a pseudonym as well instead of sole writing credit for the H4.

As to how Pinhead came to be the central figure, basically the actor Doug Bradley and Clive Barker are long-time friends.
www.dougbradley.com

BTW, I forgot to say it earlier, thankyou thankyou thankyou, DocCathode for providing the literally mythos.

I still have one question: Was there any reason why Spencer was “chosen” in particular to be the vessel of the Leviathan Bits? Or was it just that he was in the right place at the right time when Leviathan needed a new vessel?

:smack: That should’ve siad “literary mythos”. sigh I’m doing work as well and not paying attention.

Actually now that DocCathode has provided some background I am rather curious - how the hell did some stupid powertripping shrink dispose of Pinhead so easily in H2? If Pinhead was just a part of the cruel and unfair universe unseen by normal humans (kinda Lovecraftish) I could see why he could be put into a statue by any old masochist. But now that I know he is part Leviathan it seems weird for him to be done away with so easily.

Oo! Oo! I know this! I know this!

The shrink, Channard, was really, really adept at mindjobs. He kinda got the Cenobites to re-acquaint themselves with their humanity. Like, “hey, remember how great it was when you were normal folks?” It caused enough existential confusion for Baddy Channard Badass to get the upper hand (and may have led to the appearance of Pre-Pinhead Spencer in H3).

Eats_Crayons I gotta hand it to you the explanation you provide is waaay better than anything I expected, especially the little H3 tie-in. How did you come up with that? I knew that shrinks could play evil mind games but my imagination never went far enough to allow for the possibility of mind-screwing with the cenobites.

Ok I now know for sure exactly what I am doing this weekend, haven’t watched the movies in ages.

It is because I am stupendous! I am truly, truly brilliant! I am - oh, heck, I cheated. I found an FAQ at PitOfHorror.com when I was looking for Pinny’s bio.

However, it makes total sense that it carried over into H3, where

Spencer was practically a good guy interfering with Pinny’s plans!, so it appears that the human element is not totally destroyed once you are turned into a Cenobite. That or Pinny’s self-doubts really confused his minions so they got their asses more readily kicked.

So, if there’s some inconsistency between the Hellraiser movies and the Hellraiser comic books, which one is “canonical”? I guess it would depend on whether Barker was involved – I don’t know whether he contributed to the comics at all, and I think he had nothing to do with the movies after the second one.

Clive Barker, Tony Randel and Peter Atkins used to team up to develop the movies (the article I mention above discusses a few rejected ideas for H3). So I’d take their stuff as canon with Barker’s stuff overriding any inconsistencies.

None of them seem to have control over the film franchise though, and based on the last two I saw, and the info for the next one, they will be following a formula:

Person opens box, experiences a hallucinogenic reality that they really don’t like much, then - surprise! - Pinny shows up for a cameo and the grand reveal: “You’ve been dead/in hell/possessed/figment-of-my-imgination all along! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Based on the limited scope of ideas there, I’m inclined to go with comics for canon, like the stuff Doc told us.

BTW - I rented H4: Bloodline tonight. Pinny was a little too chatty (getting dangerously close to Freddy), it kind of lacked the atmospheric creepiness, but at least it wasn’t all “spacey”. When I hear that it took place aboard a space station, I thought it would be “Pinhead in the twenty-second and a half cennnntuuuuury!” (Best read in the voice of Daffy as Duck Dodgers).