Kirsty Cotton (also known as Kirsty Singer in the novels) is the main protagonist of the Hellraiser franchise, being featured in only 4 out of the 11 installments. She is the daughter of Larry Cotton and the niece of Frank Cotton. She was one of only two characters to face the Cenobite, Pinhead and outwit him.
Pinhead then forcibly turned Angelique into a Cenobite as punishment for her failure to manipulate John. In 2127, the Cenobites were summoned to the space station Minos by Paul Merchant (Le' Merchant's descendent in the future). The Cenobites managed to kill off all the officers except Rimmer.
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.
But the love, or unrequited love I see even more special is that of Kirsty Cotton and Pinhead. From their first meeting it was obvious that Pinhead had a soft spot for her, by making a deal with her to leave her alone for her Uncle who escaped Pinhead and his Cenobites.
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.
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.
In The Hellbound Heart, Pinhead is described as an androgynous being with a feminine voice. In 1987's Hellraiser, the character is portrayed by English actor Doug Bradley, who went on to reprise the role in seven subsequent Hellraiser films.
The Cenobites are a monastic order in service to their god Leviathan. Leviathan rules an extra-dimensional realm called The Labyrinth. In the movie it is depicted as a giant living Lament Configuration, but presumably a god can take many forms.
Doctor Channard, having been transformed into a cenobite, begins regretting his previous reluctance, meaning that he was still aware of his former human self. Subsequently, cenobites revert back to their initial human form after being killed by one of their own.
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 remade in a Transformation Chamber operated by the Engineer.
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.
Roland seemingly gets pulled into the Cenobite realm after he chooses the Leviathan configuration. In Hellraiser's closing scene, a powerful invisible force strips his skin and puts needles in his throat, which indicates that he, too, has been turned into a Cenobite.
While Pinhead isn't a villain in the first two Hellraiser movies — he's a neutral representative of Hell — he switches to being an unequivocal, full-blown bad guy in Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth. This is due to Pinhead being killed by Dr.
Nothing is known of her early life, but since Cenobites were human in their past lives, Pinhead most likely lived a human life before solving the Configuration Box herself, becoming a cenobite and serving the god Leviathan of the Labyrinth, hence no longer remembering her past life as a human.
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.
Larry Cotton is the father of Kirsty Cotton who appears only in Hellraiser and is portrayed by Andrew Robinson. Larry was originally the husband of Kirsty's mother, who had died, and married to Julia. He was most caring about his daughter Kirsty.
In the 1987 film, Frank Cotton is torn apart and has his spirit brought to Hell by the Cenobites. Subsequently, Frank's brother accidentally spills his own blood on the exact spot where Frank died. This seemingly has the effect of bringing him back albeit in need of some flesh.
In the Hellraiser franchise, the cenobites showcase the alien beauty of the demons in Barker's chilling, carefully-crafted world, featuring interesting designs that intertwine flesh, leather, and metal to personify the combination of pain and pleasure that they represent.
+++SPOILER+++The Six Configurations+++SPOILER+++ The configurations that get fleshed out in the movie are Lament/Life, Liminal/Sensation and Leviathan/Power. I am pretty sure that Lazarus/Resurrection is a callback to the first two movies. Matt would've returned as a skinless zombie, like Frank or Julia.
Each configuration has a name that represents a different desire: Lament ("Life"), Lore ("Knowledge"), Laudarant ("Love"), Liminal ("Sensation"), Lazarus ("Resurrection"), and Leviathan ("Power").
