Hellraiser is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, and produced by Christopher Figg, based on Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart.

What kind of creature is Hellraiser?

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.

What subgenre is Hellraiser?

Clive Barker's classic horror film Hellraiser often gets lumped in with the 1980s slasher crowd, but it really shouldn't be, and here's why. Not that being associated with the slasher sub-genre is anything to be ashamed of.

What type of horror movie is Hellraiser?

Hellraiser, the supernatural body horror film that was genre author Clive Barker's feature directorial debut, premiered at the Prince Charles Cinema in London in September 1987.

What is Hellraiser race?

The Cenobites are fictional extra-dimensional, seemingly demonic beings who appear in the works of Clive Barker.

Movie Spoiler Alerts - Hellraiser (1987) Video Summary

What ethnicity is Pinhead?

The character's past, which is alluded to in Hellbound, is expanded upon in the third film Hell on Earth. It is revealed that Pinhead originated as Elliott Spencer, a captain in the British Expeditionary Force suffering from PTSD and survivor guilt.

Was Hellraiser a human?

Hellraiser's Pinhead Was Once a Human Named Elliot Spencer

Channard, who had himself recently been turned into a Cenobite.

Is Freddy Krueger A cenobite?

Freddy Krueger is the main antagonist of Nightmare on Elm Street and a major antagonist in the Gray Chronicles. 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.

Why is Hellraiser so disturbing?

Parents need to know that Hellraiser is extremely gory. Killing and mutilating befalls both humans and animals (rats), with bloody death by knife, hammer, and hooks. Nightmare imagery includes a vampire-like man without skin cannibalizing others to regenerate, and the cyborg-like demons called cenobites.

Does Hellraiser count as a slasher?

Pinhead is not a slasher, however. The Hellraiser films go beyond slasher tropes, with a human carrying a knife gutting his victims.

Is Hellraiser a masochist?

The tortures in Hellraiser are indeed extreme and unending. Frank is tortured because he willingly wants to explore the extremes of pleasure that he believes to be found in pain. He, as a sadomasochist, exists in a symbiotic relationship with the dominant sadomasochists (the Cenobites).

Is Hellraiser genderless?

For one, Barker portrayed all the Cenobites as androgynous demons in his prose, with none having an apparent binary gender identity. In today's terms, they would probably be best described as gender-fluid.

Who is the Cenobites God?

They are revealed to be former humans who have been converted into Cenobites by the supernatural power native to their home dimension; the source of that power is shown to be a deity named Leviathan ("the god of flesh and desire"), which appears as a massive, rotating lozenge with patterns of LeMarchand's box on its ...

Are Cenobites actually evil?

Usual Personality of A Cenobite

Athough not truly malevolent, the Cenobites of the first film were nevertheless merciless forces of nature.

Why are Cenobites deformed?

The Hellraiser franchise revolves around a mysterious puzzle box with the ability to summon a group of extra-dimensional demons known as the Cenobites. These beings are former humans warped by their own ambitions into sadomasochistic abominations that can no longer distinguish between pain and pleasure.

Who is the weakest Cenobite?

After killing J.P. and releasing Pinhead, Terri was turned into the Cenobite known as Dreamer. It was one of the worst Cenobite designs, particularly because Dreamer had no real powers in comparison to her brethren. She was also far more human in appearance than the rest, which didn't add much to her own malevolence.

Is Hellraiser lgbtq?

Hellraiser has since become a queer horror classic for numerous reasons, according to Riley Wade of Horror Obsessive. The work's gay author/director has been hailed as a master of the counter-cultural “splatterpunk” literary genre.

Why is Pinhead a woman in Hellraiser?

The original book that it's based on, The Hellbound Heart, was suggestive of a female Pinhead, and the comic books also explored the idea. There's also plenty of fan art, wonderful works that all theorized the possibility of Pinhead as a woman. So it only felt appropriate to us.

What is Hellraiser a metaphor for?

The real meaning of it is the Hell one raises on themselves. Frank raised his own Hell with his mortally wayward lifestyle and choices, and feeling he exhausted himself he sought the next step in his extreme quest.

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.

Is Edward Scissorhands a Cenobite?

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.

Is Candyman a Cenobite?

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.

Which Hellraiser is bloodline?

Spanning several generations, this final bloody entry in Clive Barker's horror tour de force acts both as prequel and sequel to the original Hellraiser films.

Is there a heaven in Hellraiser?

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.

Who is the most powerful Cenobite?