Pinhead (Hellraiser)

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Hellraiser character
Pinhead
Gender:	Male
Race	Cenobite
Location	Hell / The Labyrinth
Enemies	Decadent hedonists / those who summon him with the Lament Configuration
Portrayed by:	Doug Bradley

Pinhead is a fictional character in Clive Barker's Hellraiser universe. He is portrayed in the movies by actor Doug Bradley.

In the original film, Pinhead did not have a name; he was simply credited as the "Lead Cenobite". Pinhead was a name coined by the make up crew that applied the prosthetics on Bradley to distiguish the cenobites.

Contents 1 History of the character 2 Character details 3 Powers and abilities 4 Personality 5 Pinhead: Ruler of Hell? 6 Other appearances 7 Trivia 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History of the character

Pinhead was not always a Cenobite, but was in fact once human. Pinhead originated as a one Captain Elliott Spenser, who was born into the middle class British society of the Victorian Era circa 1887. He joined the British Expeditionary Force, eventually rising to the rank of Captain and served during World War I. Spenser was a charismatic and eloquent man, who could feel a great empathy and compassion for those around him. These are factors which no doubt assisted in his mental breakdown which he suffered after the Battle of Flanders in 1916. Spenser did not believe he had a right to live after watching many of his comrades perish in horrific circumstances. He had also lost faith in the human race after seeing what inhumanity one individual was capable of doing to another. He had also lost faith in God, whom he believed had failed humanity after previously being fairly religious, claiming "God fell at Flanders too".

Whilst other survivors of the war turned to religion, philosophy, music, art, and poetry, the disillusioned and jaded Spenser wandered the world and became something of a hedonist - turning to the baser methods of gratification for satisfaction and pleasure. These included opium, alcohol, and sex; however these were not enough, the sensations were never strong enough and Spenser was always after a larger high, leading to his dabbling in the Occult, Satanism and black magic. By his own definition, he had become "an explorer of forbidden pleasures". He had indeed become a lost soul; descending deeper and deeper into madness and eventually sadomasochism, beginning to see pain as a source of pleasure as the two sensations became indivisible. His transformation into Pinhead, a.k.a. "Lead Cenobite", "The Angel of Suffering" or "The Dark Prince of Pain", came about through his opening of the Demonic Lament Configuration, which he picked up from a market in India in 1921.

In the Hellraiser comic book series, Pinhead is depicted as being the latest incarnation of the Cenobite spirit Xipe Totec, an entity derived from Aztec mythology.

[edit] Character details

The character of Pinhead presented something of a departure from the horror movie villains who preceded him. Unlike Leatherface, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, he can and does speak. However, he speaks very little and is rarely comical, as Freddy Krueger or Chucky are. When he does indulge in humor, it is notably dry.

Another difference between Pinhead and other film killers, supernatural or otherwise, is his need to have been purposely summoned, as The Lament Configuration must be opened for the Cenobites to enter the (real) world. Pinhead kills not indiscriminately, nor for vengeance; he kills because he was conjured from Hell by the opener of the puzzle box.

The act of opening The Lament Configuration is not in and of itself reason to be killed: in Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Pinhead stops the Cenobites from killing Tiffany, an emotionally traumatized girl who opened the box only after being manipulated by Dr. Channard. “…it is not hands that call us, it is desire…” Later on in the film Pinhead is killed off by Dr. Channard who is then already a cenobite himself.

Pinhead's other difference from typical horror killers is his ability to be reasoned and bargained with. In both: Hellraiser and Hellraiser: Hellseeker, the character Kirsty bargains with Pinhead to offer him more "souls" in exchange for her own (in particular, her human adversaries), thus ending with him sparing her life.

Pinhead does not kill quickly; he and the Cenobites are well-versed in torture. Death does not end the suffering of his victims, either, as the victims are brought to Hell/The Labyrinth, where, Pinhead says, "We have an eternity to know your flesh."

[edit] Powers and abilities

Pinhead is an extremely powerful being, and as such, has access to several supernatural abilities. He is nearly physically unstoppable and invulnerable. Pinhead is also very strong; although, he rarely engages in physical combat, instead letting hooks and chains do the combat. His favorite attack form is creating chains with hooks attached to perforate opponents and savagely mutilate them, often pulling them in several directions to rip them apart. These chains are subject to his total mental control and he may direct them any way at will. The chains may even change shape after having attached to a victim.

His magics are also used for creating objects out of thin air, teleporting, creating explosions at distances and fooling opponents with illusions. Pinhead knows a lot about magic rituals and the rules about magic. To give him an additional edge over his opponents he also has the ability to read their minds. Still, he is very charismatic, and thus he easily terrifies hordes of humans and yet can persuade anyone to do nearly anything.

In Part 3 and 4 he creates Cenobites from his victims; these are often physically manipulated to resemble something related to their human lives and they may be granted several new abilities in the process. He is rarely without an entourage of such beings.

It is not known if his power exceeds other Cenobites, but it is presumed so. He spent time as the leader of the Cenobitic order. However, whether his power helped him attain that rank or the rank granted the powers is left unsaid. It is known that he was once killed by the Channard Cenobite after betraying Hell.

When the Pinhead character's unhuman evil (Unbound Pinhead) manifests in the world in Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, it seems to have nearly unlimited and highly versatile powers; He could telekinetically control vast areas, transmogrify matter, create and control fire, animate objects, and the like. His human side suggests that he is no longer bound by the rules governing other Cenobites (suggesting others among them might have such power).

[edit] Personality

Pinhead is a obsessed with pain and exploring the limits of the flesh, calmly observing his "experiments" as they suffer under the ministrations of he and the other members of his Order.

Elegant in his priestlike robes, he speaks to summoners in hypnotic, seductively eloquent tones. Humans are merely living canvases to him, their flesh clay to be reconfigured. He very rarely speaks to his subordinates and if he does it is issuing an order. Only Cenobites of equal ranking as himself, as for example a Cenobite Princess, may be spoken to as an equal.

[edit] Pinhead: Ruler of Hell?

Since the first film, Pinhead's role has varied with each installment. In the original Hellraiser, Pinhead was simply named "Lead Cenobite" and was part of a collective group whose purpose was to give pleasure and pain to those who opened the Box. They were not "evil" as such, simply a force that existed to explore experience. The second film followed this but the third film radically changed the original concept, making Pinhead and the Cenobites into typical Hollywood monsters. In the fourth film he is presented as a demon of Hell who wants to take over Earth and by the fifth he is simply out to torture those who solve the box. The seventh film goes back to the originals, with the Cenobites being responsible for pleasure and pain, but still borders on the demonic portrayal of the middle installments. In the Hellraiser comic book series we see that Leviathan might be considered the overlord of the cenobite world.

[edit] Other appearances

• Doug Bradley once made a cameo appearance, in full Pinhead makeup, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where Pinhead expressed an interest in Leno's hangnail.
• Pinhead was also featured at the 1992 MTV Music Awards. However, he couldn't convince David Spade (who was the doorman) to let him in.
• Pinhead (not Doug Bradley, a fake one) appeared on Spike TV's Scream Awards to introduce My Chemical Romance.
• Pinhead appeared on an episode of Robot Chicken in which he and other slasher movie killers are portrayed in a spoof of Big Brother, the reality television series.
• Pinhead appeared in The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror V segment "The Shinning" as one of the "ghouls" attempting to corrupt Homer.
• A Pinhead look-alike named Python is seen in the Playstation Portable game "Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops".
• In the videogame The Suffering: Ties That Bind, if Torque looks thouroughly through the building where he meets Ranse Truman, he may find a shelf with a severed head on it; the head has nails partially driven in, like Pinhead's.
• An episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy has them solve a sort of Rubik's Cube that summons Pinface, Grim's former neighbor who has bowling pins sticking out of his head.
• In the Playstation videogame Thrill Kill, "Tormentor", one of the characters, looks pretty much alike, but without the nails.

[edit] Trivia

• Clive Barker has voiced his intention ^[1] to kill off Pinhead in a future short story, saying: "I want to give Pinhead a good send-off. I want to do it right. If we are going to get rid of the old guy, let's do it with some style."
• Pinhead and the Cenobites are referenced in the song "Whatthefuck!?!?" by the Horror Rap duo Twiztid, who are known to use horror and slasher villains as part of their iconography. The lyrics are as follows: "Leaving competitions tangled in chains, like I was pinhead. A cenobite, living at night, afraid of sunlight."
• Pinhead, and his preference for "ripping out veins with hooks and chains," is also referenced in the song "Runnin' Up on Ya" from the Same As It Ever Was album by Irish-American hip-hop group House of Pain.
• One draft of the horror film Freddy vs. Jason, as revealed in Crystal Lake Memories, involved Pinhead appearing at the end of the film, where he stops a fight between the two title characters: "Now, gentlemen, what seems to be the problem?"
• In Bride of Chucky, Chucky asks: "Why does that look so familiar?" after shooting nails into a victim's head.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site for Doug Bradley
• Revelations - The Official Clive Barker Resource Constantly updated news and archive of fascinating comment.

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Classic:	Creature from the Black Lagoon | Count Dracula | The Fly | Frankenstein's monster | The Invisible Man | The Mummy | Count Orlok | The Phantom | The Wolf Man
Modern:	The Alien | Norman Bates | Chucky | Ghostface | Freddy Krueger | Leatherface | The Living Dead | Hannibal Lecter | Regan MacNeil | Michael Myers | Pinhead | Kayako Saeki | Damien Thorn | Jason Voorhees | Sadako Yamamura