The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy

by Kane, Paul

  This logical fixation is reflected not only in the layout of its Hell but also in the mathematical and geometrical precision of its own shape. Gone are the serpent’s features, the hooves and goat’s head, even the red skin, horns and wings which connote chaos. Leviathan’s perfect octahedral form is order personified. This is why the original interpretation of a Lovecraftian god would never have worked. H.P. Lovecraft’s Old Ones, like Cthulhu, were notable for their alien visages and slimy tentacles.

  Nor does Leviathan need to lie and cheat to get what it wants: the souls of the damned are there for the taking. If anything, it is the truth that this god deals in, penetrating the outer layers of human camouflage with its black light and seeing right into the very heart of a person, revealing who they truly are.

  The Devil’s Own

  We’ve examined the demons that inhabit this Hell in chapter 3, but how do these differ from more traditional demonic interpretations? Greek Diamons were merely intermediary spirits that existed somewhere between humans and gods. But in Western religion and occult lore, demons have been classified into many elaborate systems connected with Hell. The most intricate of these was devised by Johann Weyer, who estimated there to be 7,405,926 demons at the command of seventy-two princes.8 In the Christian religion, they have come to be associated with the angels that fell from Heaven with Lucifer. When the word is mentioned it immediately conjures up images of small, leathery creatures with pointed teeth and tails that populate Hell and torment humans on earth, exactly like The Yattering in Barker’s short story from the Books of Blood.

  The Cenobites are nothing like this. Sadomasochistic individuals with open wounds and butcher’s implements hanging from their black garb, it is finally revealed in Hellbound that they were once human. In the first scene of the movie we are shown Pinhead’s transformation process. The camera pans along a table of objects, a jacket, fly-brush, gun in a holster and safari hat—all of which pinpoint an occupation, as well as a rough date. It is clear from this that the person who was once Pinhead served in the army in India in the 1920s, when the English were in residence. (The additional bartering scene would have elucidated this.) We then see Doug Bradley sitting crossed-legged in long shot, solving the puzzle just as Frank did in the previous movie. His reward is a little different, for he is selected to become a Cenobite and we are witness to his bloody conversion, where the grooves are cut into his head and the nails are banged into it.

  Later on in the film—after their deaths at the hands of Channard—we see who all the Cenobites were before their metamorphoses. The Female Cenobite was a beautiful woman with long, blonde hair. Butterball was an overweight man in his forties, and Chatterer was a young boy. Nicholas Vince later wrote a first person short story called “Look See” in which he redefined his character’s back story as that of a more apposite stand-up comedian from New York in the 1930s: “Of course, now they’ve made movies of some of the Box’s stories. They’re quite good. They’ve got a lot of things right and most of them wrong. I mean, they’ve tried to say I was a kid when I opened the box—nice try, but no Kewpie Doll. But what can you expect from movie people?”9

  To some extent, this revelation takes away from the menace that the Cenobites exuded in the original film. Their air of mystery had the dual purpose of keeping us intrigued and terrified. By providing an answer to our—admittedly inevitable—question about the origins of Pinhead and his colleagues, it decreased their ability to scare us. If we can relate to the Cenobites because they were once human, we can empathize with them; they are doing these things because they have been indoctrinated into Hell’s legions by Leviathan. Granted, their worst character traits may have simply been given an outlet by the god, just like Channard; nevertheless it is hard not to feel some pity.

  On the other hand, this does give the Cenobites another dimension. Bradley has said that in conversations with Barker before the filming of Hellraiser he not only told him to think of the character as, “some lowly clerk in a corporation,”10 he also told him that Pinhead had once been a man. This knowledge hugely affected him when he initially put on the make-up and looked at himself in the mirror. “The first feeling I got was a deep sense of melancholia in the face, powerful and unsettling,” said Bradley. “The layout of the nails being symmetrical helps. It was clearly something that was done to him. The melancholy showed me he was human, once. He was, in a way he could not express, mourning the loss of his humanity.”11 It allowed Bradley to foreshadow what would happen in Hellbound and also give his character that sense of sadness which set him apart from other villains and demons. Fundamentally, what was lost was a part of the monster, but what was gained was a deeper texture to the character itself. This was a dichotomy that would be more fully explored in the next film.

  10

  THE SWEET SUFFERING

  There are no two ways about it, Hellbound divided critics and fans alike. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the first reviews from the Leeds International Film Festival (13–29 October 1988) where the movie received its UK Premiere, alongside Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow and Ken Johnson’s Short Circuit. Peter Atkins was on hand to introduce the film and answer questions, but opinion was so divided that the magazine Samhain decided to print a “Case For” and “Case Against” feature.

  In the more positive review, John Martin draws comparisons with Aliens because of the presence of Hope and the Kirsty/Tiffany storyline, but claims categorically that “Hellbound is far superior” not only to that film but to any other sequel in living memory1. He goes on to state that steps have been taken “to ensure that the poetry is not sacrificed on the altar of populism” but that it also “goes straight for the jugular,” boasting an efficient screenplay by Atkins. Martin’s only criticisms involve Randel’s “attempts to convey the subjective nature of Hell via irritating optical effects,” such as the scene where Pinhead confronts Kirsty again. “At one point ... he starts spinning around as though declaiming from inside a tumble dryer.”2 Martin ends with this meditation: “In an ideal world sequels wouldn’t be made. It isn’t, they are, they have to be judged on their merits and they don’t come any better than Hellbound.”3

  Jeremy Clarke offered his views for the prosecution and didn’t pull any punches. “Hellbound: Hellraiser II lacks all the elements that made its predecessor work so well whilst simultaneously incorporating and enlarging upon the one major flaw of the original.”4 He refers to the Americanization of the material, or, more accurately, the confusing mix of the British and American. “The sequel exacerbates this transatlanticity to an even more ludicrous degree. The first few minutes see a ‘homicide detective’ and a cop in an American uniform arrive on the scene of Frank’s demise: later scenes show an insane asylum run by Channard, who has an unmistakably British accent.”

  Clarke’s attack concentrates on the idea that if you don’t start off the film knowing exactly where you are, or which country you’re in, it makes it more difficult to suspend belief later. “No one in their right mind would buy the world of Hellbound: Hellraiser II. Not for one minute,” he continues. “Any sense of reality, character or plot have been pared away from the original.” In their defense, Atkins and Randel have always argued that the setting of Hellbound gives it a strange otherworldly quality that you can’t pin down. “It takes place in the country of the imagination,” claims Atkins5 while at the same time admitting the more pragmatic reason was that a U.S. company was footing the bill and they wanted it to appeal to American audiences.

  The movie was greeted with a similar mixed response from other magazines and newspapers. Martin Sutton’s review in Films and Filming hinted that Barker took more of a backseat this time because he knew nobody could pull off a sequel to his movie, and centers on the two main female leads: “The sequel is particularly poorer for pushing aside the raunchy, forceful character of step-mother Julia, in favour of a far less charismatic actress.... Both her blandness and stateside turn of phrase ring quite false in the context.
”6 Marc Shapiro’s review from Gorezone was more of a cause for celebration for the cast and crew. “From the opening nightmarish flashbacks through to the slick/smart sequel-in-mind ending, Hellbound: Hellraiser II plays like the movie equivalent of a slaughterhouse tour.”7

  The Phantom of the Movies also sang its praises: “Hellbound: Hellraiser II represents one of those rare cases when a scare sequel actually surpasses the original.... Hellbound may be a mite strong for fainter-hearted viewers, but hard-core horror buffs won’t want to miss what ranks as the best over-the-top terrorfest of 1988.”8 This was balanced out by Roger Ebert’s predictably negative response: “It is simply a series of ugly and bloody episodes, strung together one after another like a demo tape by a perverted special effects man....”9

  Variety, as well, was quick to judge it this way, “With marginal action and scattershot storytelling technique, helmer Tony Randel returns to the off-the-wall tale of a psychotic psychiatrist’s long struggle to get the better of something called the Lament Configuration.... Hellraiser II is a maggoty carnival of mayhem, mutation and dismemberment, awash in blood and recommended only for those who thrive on such junk,”10 while Monthly Film Bulletin drew comparisons with the original, complaining that before it can start its own story the sequel required two sets of flashbacks. But the Film Bulletin did have some good things to say: “Director Tony Randel and screenwriter Peter Atkins, working from a story by Clive Barker ... manage in the first half-hour to re-establish the boundaries of the story and the distinctive visual and aural style.... The best sequences appear early, as when the raw and skinless Julia flirts with the drawn and prissy Channard.”11

  Strangely enough, none of the reviews mention the quite blatant nods towards Hitchcock in the movie, which Randel—a massive fan—included. The first comes with the close-up on Kirsty’s eye at the start, which is a tribute to Janet Leigh’s death scene in Psycho. The scene where Julia rises from the mattress and wrestles with Browning was inspired by Torn Curtain (1966), where Paul Newman has to kill someone and it takes an agonizingly long time. The numbers on the cranes in the scene where Tiffany approaches the carnival exactly match those in a parallel scene in Vertigo (1958), and, of course, who could miss the reference to that same film when Tiffany falls off the edge of the walkway at the climax of Hellbound; the only difference is that Kirsty is able to pull her up, and Jimmy Stewart doesn’t have the same luck with that fated policeman.

  As for Barker’s reactions, speaking in an interview for Skeleton Crew he said, “Tony has a very different take on this movie to me.... There are certain things that Tony has done with II that I as a director wouldn’t have done. But they are his, and it’s very important that people see Tony’s vision through Pete’s vision and my own. I’m very proud of II. I think it works.”12

  For Atkins, the main line of assault was the fight between the Cenobites. He actually received hate mail because Channard was so easily able to defeat Pinhead and the other Cenobites. Here was the new kid on the block suddenly picking on and beating up the established gang. The writer’s rejoinder has always been that a more elaborate fight was written, but again because of money it couldn’t be filmed. He also pointed out that because the Cenobites have just recalled who they really are, they are in a vulnerable position and, consequently, at the mercy of Channard, a person who embraced his Cenobite transformation. Atkins also maintains that, at his full powers, Pinhead would definitely trounce Channard in any brawl.

  Speaking about the film in its entirety, Atkins has said, “A lot of hard-core fans of the first movie weren’t too happy but I’ve met as many people at conventions, festivals and signings who prefer the second picture as I’ve met who dislike it. The critics, too, were split in their opinions.... But the real voters are the paying customers, and Hellbound did as well financially as the first movie, which is very unusual for sequels.”13 Which was a good thing, as a second sequel was already being discussed even as Hellbound was about to hit cinemas. Yet, in spite of the fact audiences had only had to wait a year to go to Hell, they would have to wait much longer before Hell would return to Earth.

  11

  EARTHBOUND

  Like its predecessor, preparations for the making of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth were being made even before the current film had been released. In the summer of 1988, Tony Randel and Pete Atkins flew over to L.A. to have meetings with New World executives, while the finishing touches were still being put to Hellbound. The movie was again due to be a co-production between Film Futures (Barker and Chris Figg’s company) and New World. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go to plan. A host of Film Futures projects were in the planning stages, while at the same time Barker was undertaking his first big budget director’s job transferring his novel Cabal to film—with Morgan Creek financing it to the tune of $11 million. Nightbreed would reunite many members of the Hellraiser family, including Doug Bradley (now playing a prophet called Lylesberg), Nick Vince (as Kinski), Simon Bamford (as Ohnaka), Oliver Parker (as Peloquin), Catherine Chevalier (with a bigger part now as Rachel) and, of course, Bob Keen’s effects crew. It would also headline Craig Sheffer as hero Boone, who would later return to star in Hellraiser: Inferno, Anne Bobby as his girlfriend Lori, and acclaimed horror movie director David Cronenberg as a deranged psychiatrist named Decker.

  The story revolves around Boone who, believing he is responsible for several murders, seeks out the clandestine home of the monsters: Midian. There he unwittingly becomes their leader, and ultimately their savior. But the whole concept hinges on the fact that it is the human characters, such as the serial killer Decker and the brutal Sheriff Eigerman (Charles Haid), who are the real monsters, not Keen’s impressive parade of creatures. Here the monsters were the good guys, working against the usual conventions of the genre. But it was a concept not everyone could so easily grasp.

  Filming took place at Pinewood and on location in Canada, but owing to the sheer amount of make-up and other effects, plus the twenty-five sets that had to be built, the budget soon escalated (to a reported $20 million). Chris Figg resigned over disagreements with Morgan Creek, which entered into a distribution deal with Twentieth Century Fox. Fox was apparently expecting a Hellraiser-style film on a larger scale. What they got was something they’d never come across before and they didn’t know quite what to do with it. At their insistence, new scenes were filmed and the running time—originally about two and a half hours—was heavily reduced.

  But the worst part was Fox’s marketing campaign, which promoted Nightbreed as a “slasher” flick, thereby completely misleading the potential audience. The result would be disastrous returns at the box office and a disillusioned Barker. “It was the worst creative time in my life,” he later explained, “I felt there was so much I could have achieved and so many things that were getting between me doing that.... And I was painfully ignorant of the way that the politics of this business work.”1 Although Nightbreed would do well on video, its financial problems led to the collapse of Film Futures. This, coupled with New World going bankrupt, stranded Hellraiser III in its very own development Hell.

  Clive Barkers early design for Nightbreed (courtesy Clive Barker).

  The main problem was this: because Barker had signed the Hellraiser rights away to get the first film made, they still belonged to New World, which now didn’t exist. So who had the rights to make the next movie and would they even want to? The answer was erstwhile New World co-chairman Lawrence Kuppin who, together with Harry Evans Sloan and ex-Metromedia Broadcasting president Bob Bennett, formed Trans Atlantic Pictures. But there were reputedly some disagreements between Barker and Kuppin about this at the time, which inevitably led to Barker not being immediately involved in the project. Speaking in an interview with Shivers after the movie came out Barker said, “When I first heard about Hellraiser III, it was clear the production company ... didn’t want me on board for financial reasons.... I was reasonably expensive and, frankly, I knew they wanted something cheap and nasty.”
2

  Atkins was slightly more diplomatic in his explanation about Barker’s lack of involvement: “I’ve got to be careful here, any explanation must be kept vague I’m afraid. Clive and the producers, unfortunately, couldn’t come to terms about his participation in the project, meaning he has no hands-on or legal involvement with us. Of course, he’s given us his spiritual support as guardian angels on a personal level.”3 Having acquired—or inherited—the theatrical and video assets of what was once New World, Trans Atlantic planned to bring out a number of sequels to their most successful movies; this would include Angel IV, Wanted Dead or Alive II and Crimes of Passion II. The third installment of the Hellraiser saga was scheduled to be the second in their line-up to go before the cameras, following on from Children of the Corn II. There was also some interest in Hell on Earth from Fangoria Films, who would have liked a co-production deal under the aegis of Trans Atlantic, but in the end this didn’t come about.

  Nightbreed poster artwork (courtesy Les Edwards).

  Supposedly, one of the initial story ideas for Hellraiser III revolved around ancient Egypt. Back when it was still going to be a Film Futures-New World movie, Barker told Doug Bradley the idea was that the Great Pyramid was the very first Lament Configuration to raise the Pharaoh. “It was one of those great conversations you only have with Clive,” said Bradley, “and it was only after he left the dressing room I thought, well, that was great. Then I thought, no, hang on, that’s not great because he’s just told me that Pinhead will not be in Hellraiser III.”4 Luckily, with Peter Atkins scripting again and Barker refocusing this sun drenched preoccupation towards a possible Mummy remake, there was a shift towards tying up loose ends left in Hellbound regarding both Pinhead’s origins and the torture pillar we last saw emerging from the bloodied mattress in Dr. Channard’s home.