Concept and Design. Barker drew inspiration for the cenobite designs from punk fashion, Catholicism (the overall design is a modified cassock, the traditional garment of a Catholic priest until the sixties) and by the visits he took to S & M clubs in New York and Amsterdam.
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.
What is the purpose of the Cenobite in Hellraiser?
The original Hellraiser, written and directed by Clive Barker as an adaptation of his novella The Hellbound Heart, introduces audiences to the Cenobites: a group of interdimensional beings devoted to performing sadomasochistic acts on themselves and anybody who summons them.
Dr. Channard - One Of Most Sadistic Cenobites In The Hellraiser Universe – Explained
Is Freddy Krueger A Cenobite?
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.
In the Hellraiser film series, Pinhead was once British soldier Captain Elliott Spencer, who became disillusioned with life and humanity during his experiences during World War I, leading him to summon the Cenobites and join their ranks.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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 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 six configurations of the box represent its six gifts: Lament ("life"), Lore ("knowledge"), Lauderant ("love"), Liminal ("sensation"), Lazarus ("resurrection") and Leviathan ("power").
She solves the puzzle box, and they are sent to Hell. The box transports Joey iinto limbo, where she comes face to face with an apparition who appears to be her dead father. The apparition tells Joey to give him the puzzle box, only to be revealed as Pinhead in disguise.
Merkova is a cenobite that appears in the Hellraiser comic series, primarily the ones about the Harrowers, she is the cenobite love interest of Pinhead, as shown in the series they care very deeply about each other.
