Kirsty Cotton (played by Ashley Laurence) battled Pinhead in the first two Hellraiser movies, but in the comics, she later became a Cenobite herself. Kirsty Cotton (played by Ashley Laurence) battled Pinhead in the first two Hellraiser movies, but in the comics, she later became a Cenobite herself.
Kirsty reappears in Boom! Studios' Hellraiser comic series, set roughly twenty years after the events of the third film. By issue #8, she becomes a Cenobite, a female Pinhead, as the original Pinhead becomes human again.
However, 20 years after her first encounter with the Cenobites, Kirsty agrees to take Pinhead's place in Hell as the Hell Priest after losing everyone she's ever cared about - becoming a Cenobite crafted based on his original style, and the new favorite of Leviathan.
In 2022, David Bruckner's Hellraiser reboot gained attention for its casting of actress Jamie Clayton in the iconic role of Pinhead, the leader of the cenobites. Now, Bruckner has revealed how the original Hellraiser book inspired him to cast Pinhead as a woman.
All the evidence to me shows that Kirsty and Pinhead admire and do to an extent love each other. A kind of Romeo and Juliet thing going on, but even more of a horrific way of being in love.
Merkova is a cenobite that appears in the Hellraiser comic series, primarily the ones about the Harrowers, she is the cenobite love interest of Pinhead, as shown in the series they care very deeply about each other.
On the decision to cast Clayton, a trans woman, as the character, the film's director, David Bruckner, explained: "We felt a kind of anticipation around the fans to reimagine the character. We knew we wanted Pinhead to be a woman. Jamie was just the right person for the role.
Freddy is a member of the Cenobite council and the rival of Laughing Jack. He is also the most feared and dreaded enforcer of Zalgo, even more so than Pinhead. Freddy is played by Robert Englund.
According to Hellraiser lore, the Leviathan is a god who is responsible for creating Pinhead and his pain-loving colleagues. It is likely this deity who is responsible for Voight's transformation and it is also likely that they are turning him into a new Cenobite.
We always knew that [a female Pinhead] made sense given the history of the franchise and the kinds of fans that have embraced it,” Bruckner says. “It was also a way for us to not replicate Doug Bradley's incredible, iconic performance. There had been a lot of precedent in the franchise.
Because Frank didn't actually understand and desire all that Hell was offering. Frank thought he was going to get endless pleasure on his terms. Frank was an amateur, a tourist, a dabbler.
Each of the four primary Cenobites from The Hellbound Heart were featured in the film, with appearances based upon their descriptions in the book. The first Cenobite became Butterball, the second Pinhead, the third Chatterer, and the fourth The Female.
The actor added that he had no further thoughts on Clayton herself beyond admitting that it was "an interesting casting decision." However, Bradley continued to talk about the decision to turn Pinhead female, even taking time to point out, with a chuckle, that his Pinhead did wear a skirt.
According to an interview in the book Taking Shape II, the Michael Myers (AKA The Shape) cenobite would have had his mask permanently affixed to his skin and had his arms replaced with knives.
Edward, then, is a Cenobite, which is why he has scissors instead of hands, he's so pale, and he wears black leather clothes that look very similar to the ones the Cenobites usually wear.
Candyman is a Cenobite. Both stories which Hellraiser and Candyman are based off of are by Clive Barker. Each character only causes mayhem when they are summoned. To top it off all they know after their deaths are pain and pleasure.
The use of nails and pins evolved out of one of Barker's short stories called The Forbidden, which featured a board hammered with nails at specific intersections of laid out squares. This aesthetic would resurface for the Pinhead character years later.
Even citing the origins of the original 1986 book, The Hellbound Heart, would back this up. In their introduction, the writing specifically goes out of its way at first to not assign the Cenobites a gender, with only the fourth creature finally being designated as female — "Not a he now saw: but she.
Hellraiser director David Bruckner recently explained to Jake's Takes: "We reached out to Doug, we wanted to have him cameo in some way in the movie but, in the middle of a pandemic, I don't know, he also respectfully wanted to leave his legacy with the character and you can't argue with that.”
Unfortunately, Riley can't escape her dark fate, which stems from her addiction and her brother Matt being accidentally sacrificed to the box when she got high early on in the movie.
