In the second film Hellbound: Hellraiser II, written by Clive Barker, the home of the Cenobites is revealed as a labyrinth-like dimension (possibly a part of the Christian Hell or a different place that inspired some myths of Hell) ruled over by a demonic entity called Leviathan, the creator of Cenobites.
The Cenobites are extradimensional beings who exist in an extra-dimensional realm and are present in Clive Barker's writings The Hellbound Heart, The Scarlet Gospels and eleven Hellraiser films. They are also mentioned in passing in the novel Weaveworld by the character Immacolata, who calls them "The Surgeons."
The overall plot of the franchise focuses on a puzzle box, the Lament Configuration. It opens a gateway to the Hell-like realm of the Cenobite lifeforms. The Cenobites are an order of former humans who have become monsters who harvest human souls to torture in their sadistic experiments.
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.
Origins, Biology and Types of Cenobites in Hellraiser
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.
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 Leviathan configuration takes the form of an eight-sided diamond with sharp points and represents the final form of Hellraiser's puzzle box. Upon completing this formation, the holder of the box can gain the gift associated with any of the six configurations.
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.
The Cenobites are disfigured, sexless, sadomasochistic entities tasked with capturing whoever solved the riddle of the demonic puzzle box known as Lament Configuration and submitting them to extreme physical torture, an act meant to reveal all of the hidden pleasures of intense pain.
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".
“We were never afraid of it. 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.
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.
When a person solves one of the many boxes (Carborro, the Lament Configuration, etc), a small group of Cenobites arrives. If Leviathan, god of Hell, believes the person is worthy to become a Cenobite, they are taken to Hell to be made a Cenobite in a Cenobite Transformation Chamber operated by the Engineer.
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.
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 Hellraiser reboot movie includes a female version of Pinhead, but this change to Hellraiser movie tradition actually closer to the character's original depiction.
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.
The Lament Configuration Box is a cubic puzzle that people need to solve to summon the Cenobites. Since the Cenobites come from a dimension of unbounded pleasures and pain, people solved the Lament Configuration Box hoping to experience things unknown on Earth.
So the point of “Hellraiser” is to understand three things: Your actions have consequences. They can be good or bad and can affect people in good or bad ways. The first thing you never do is do something without thinking about what could happen.
In the mythos, only those who are so obsessed with solving a puzzle that can open a gateway (or 'Schism') can be considered. Those who have a taste for the outermost reaches of human experience and have no moral limitations for what they will do to achieve those desires would even be considered to become a Cenobite.
Leviathan is obsessed with law and order, and views the human realm of flesh as chaotic and wrong. It uses the Cenobites as its foot soldiers in the war against chaos and flesh. The Labyrinth which it presides over represents the maze of the mind.
The six configurations of the box represent its six gifts: Lament ("life"), Lore ("knowledge"), Lauderant ("love"), Liminal ("sensation"), Lazarus ("resurrection") and Leviathan ("power").
