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.
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.
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.
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.
Origin Of Leviathan: The God of Flesh, Hunger, and Desire - Hellraiser Bestiary Explored
What did the Leviathan do?
Generating the intrinsic evil in the entire universe, the Leviathan separates the lower world, governed by the Archons, from the realm of God. After death, a soul must pass through the seven spheres of the heavens.
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.
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 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.
Sometime during the 18th Century, he used the Lament Configuration to summon Angelique, a demon princess of Hell, having been the daughter of Leviathan. Duc De L'Isle killed a young woman and performed a ritual connecting the gateway between Earth and Hell using the Puzzle Box.
The actual title and meaning of Hellraiser is so much deeper than many realize. It's not merely about solving the puzzle box to summon the Cenobites and have them rip you to pieces, but it's the Hell you raise onto yourself; the Cenobites are merely there to help.
Does the Leviathan configuration turn you into a Cenobite?
Finally, once all five sacrifices are offered to the Cenobites, the box takes the shape of a diamond, or The Leviathan Configuration, a representation of “power.” As the reboot reveals, choosing power means turning yourself into a Cenobite, a being who draws power from the domination of people in suffering.
Hellraiser: Bloodline (also known as Hellraiser IV: Bloodline) is a 1996 American science fiction horror film and the fourth installment in the Hellraiser series, which serves as both a prequel and a sequel.
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.
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.
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.
However, while it's not unfair to read a lot of that as secondary intent, the real story behind the “Jesus wept,” line in Hellraiser is much more mundane - Andrew Robinson simply didn't want to swear.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
