The Cenobites are extra-dimensional beings who are mutilated and brainwashed into torturing humans for all eternity in the Labyrinth. All Cenobites were once human, with the exception of Angelique, the daughter of the demon god Leviathan.
Attributes. The Hellbound Heart says the Cenobites are also known as "The Order of the Gash". Cenobites were once human, having transformed to their current state in their pursuit of gratification.
Cenobites are different from a lot of demons in fiction by the fact they have human origins—almost all Cenobites started existence as a human being but became transformed into Cenobites upon losing their sanity and soul to depravity.
Pinhead is one of the leaders of the Cenobites, formerly humans but transformed into creatures which reside in an extradimensional realm, who travel to Earth through a puzzle box called the Lament Configuration in order to harvest human souls.
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.
Origins, Biology and Types of Cenobites in Hellraiser
Is Michael Myers a cenobite?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hellraiser was initially banned in Ontario by the Ontario Film and Video Review Board. By a 3-2 majority vote, the film was deemed "not approved in its entirety as it contravenes community standards". It was banned because of its "brutal, graphic violence with blood-letting throughout, horror, degradation and torture".
Judgment is the first Hellraiser film to include heaven in its mythology. According to Tunnicliffe, he took influence from The Scarlet Gospels, stating "I am in no way religious, but if you are writing a story that acknowledges the existence of Hell, then you have to acknowledge the existence of Heaven.
The angel Jophiel is a character introduced in 2018's Hellraiser: Judgment. Once the angel who guarded the Garden of Eden, it was she who banished Adam and Eve from Paradise after their fall from grace. She is introduced as a minor antagonist; manipulating events upon God's will.
In in the original text, the Cenobites are unnamed and are described as asexual beings who have been marred and modified so horribly, they bear little resemblance to the human form. Barker is surprisingly vague in describing the Cenobites in great detail.
In the first Hellraiser movie, Pinhead said as much when he arrived and announced they will "tear your soul apart." This Hellraiser quote was not a threat by these demonic beings.
The most straightforward is to reverse the Lament Configuration. In doing so, it will send him back to his world. Pinhead also abides by a strict code, and if a person summons him because they were forced, he won't go after the victim.
Gay horror director Clive Barker didn't originally write Hellraiser's villain as male, but the Hollywood films made it so. Hulu's recently released remake of gay director Clive Barker's 1987 horror film Hellraiser features transgender actress Jamie Clayton as the film's iconic villain Pinhead.
1987's Hellraiser was writer/filmmaker Clive Barker's most famous creation. His macabre tale of demonic creatures ("Cenobites") who come for people's souls to take them back to an eternity of sadomasochistic pain became an instant horror classic.
In the final scene, Voight's body is ripped and torn into new shapes so that he resembles a Cenobite himself. Of course, there are many ways that this could be interpreted. Voight's transformation could be seen as a metaphor for the corrupting nature of power or the cycle that turns victims into persecutors.
Leviathan, also known as the God of Flesh, Hunger and Desire, is the overarching antagonist of the Hellraiser franchise. It is the "deity" residing inside the extra-dimensional world known as the Labyrinth who is the overlord ruling the Cenobites, including their masters Pinhead and the Engineer.
“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. [Clive Barker's] original book that it's based on, The Hellbound Heart, was suggestive of a female Pinhead, and the comic books also explored the idea.”
Frank Cotton was uncaring about anything but his own pleasures, and Leviathan is about imposing his version of Order upon everything, not lust or pleasure seeking. Frank would not have qualified if he'd tried to petition to become a Cenobite.
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.
