The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy

by Kane, Paul

  In New York, Angelique recruits another volunteer to help her. Bumping into overweight, balding businessman Sharpe at the unveiling of John Merchant’s new building, she entices him to the basement—just as Julia did before her, except they are descending instead of going up into an attic. Their conversation harks back to the most famous villainess of the series. “Do we really need to know each other’s names?” she says when he asks hers. “Oh, a mystery woman, huh?” Sharpe concludes and follows her eagerly down the stairs. When they reach the basement, she asks directly, “Do you like games?” and gets him to close his eyes while she searches for the box—punching a hole in one concrete support to free it. This signifies that it is “Time to play another game.” Sharpe is the one who plays with the box now and his reward is to be dragged into Hell by a hook and devoured by the Chatter Beast, his departure signaling the grand entrance of Leviathan’s favorite son, Pinhead.

  More subtle is the game Angelique plays with John, the art of seduction which we will discuss more fully later. In reference to this, Pinhead says to the architect, “Isn’t that the game you’ve been playing?” “This isn’t a game,” protests John. “Oh yes,” Pinhead assures him, “this is a game.” The very fact that Pinhead then affects Jack’s voice and calls out “Daddy!” should be enough to prove that this is child’s play. It also foreshadows the use of this trick on the space station—the Cenobites calling out in distressed childlike voices so Parker will free them. John’s recreation of the Elysium design on his monitor, which he shows to Angelique in his office, is tantamount to a computer game, one where only logic and skill can sustain the Configuration, working with mirrors and lasers. “Trapped light, feeding off its own reflections,” John explains. It will work only for a few moments before losing its definition, and when he puts this into practice in the basement—at the behest of Angelique—his gaming skills again prove lacking. This failure will cost him his life as Pinhead shouts, “No more games!” before slicing off his head. It is left to Bobbi, who has herself been playing a real-life version of a scrolling computer game with the Chatter Beast, to send Pinhead back to Hell with another apt phrase: “You go and play with your dog, you bastard!”

  The scenes onboard Minos are even more reminiscent of a “shoot ’em up,” with winding corridors and laser guns. We’ve already heard that Pinhead had almost given up waiting for Merchant to play, and, as Paul has told Rimmer, “I’m playing an endgame here!” He warns her, “You don’t know what you’re playing with....” Only he is qualified to participate in this final game, which he does using a hologram. Angelique lures another man, Carducci, to his death by pulling him so far into a mirror; and Pinhead plays a game of hide-and-seek with Chamberlain, who thinks he has escaped only to find the jaws of the Chatter Beast lurking in the darkness. Rimmer takes Bobbi’s place as the dog’s prey, but destroys it completely by trapping it in a decompression chamber. “Play dead,” is her own contribution to the game.

  The Chatter Beast that terrorized Bobbi. Replica figure by NECA (courtesy NECA; photograph credit: Nicolle M. Puzzo).

  The most obvious toys are the three pivotal constructions of the Lemarchand/Merchant clan, which grow bigger in each time zone. And all have dual purposes. The first is the Lament Configuration that Phillip creates, a toy puzzle that is actually a gateway to Hell—replacing the cruder Pentagon that de L’Isle relies upon. The second is the office building John has designed, which earns him a place on the front cover of AE magazine but which also has the potential to become a much bigger pathway. It is, as Pinhead comments, “a holocaust waiting to wake itself.” During this section the movie also shows us little Jack building a Ferris wheel out of a Meccano-like toy set, showing that the need to build is in the Merchant family’s blood. When Jack survives and passes his genes on, as well as trace memories, the result is Paul’s masterpiece: the Minos Station, which hides the workings of the Elysium Configuration—and the ability to transform into a giant puzzle box in space.

  On a much smaller scale we have the toy figures that Phillip makes. These are seen only briefly in the movie, as part of the box-making montage. But in the script there was much more detail. Genevieve mentions the acrobats and lover figures, and examples of the Harlequin dolls are present in Phillip’s workshop. These are what Angelique bases her killer troupe on, and the lovers are almost certainly meant to represent herself and Phillip. Later, Paul uses a much larger doll he’s built—a robot, which he manipulates using sensor gloves—to work the puzzle box. In just the same way, the toy dolls serve also to highlight the manipulation of mankind by Hell—and by the Cenobites. First, through de L’Isle, they orchestrate the conception of the Lament Configuration. Then, through Angelique (in both the script and the film) they demand more boxes be made. The Cenobites use human beings for their own entertainment and pleasure. They are latter day Greek or Roman gods, moving human beings around as if on a gigantic chessboard, an analogy the series would return to in Hellraiser: Inferno. Human beings are their own dolls to do with as they like. Pinhead’s speech when he sees Earth on the monitor enforces this argument: “Ah! Glorious, is it not? The creatures that walk on its surface, always looking to the light, never seeing the untold oceans of darkness beyond. There are more humans alive at this moment than in all its pitiful history. The garden of Eden ... a garden of flesh!”

  Sex, Death and ... Adultery

  We have touched on the complex relationships between Phillip, his descendants and Angelique, as well as Pinhead and the Princess. But this warrants further exploration, as it ties in with yet another one of Bloodline’s fundamental themes. In the script the attraction between Lemarchand and Angelique is much more pronounced. When he first visits the Chateau and sees her, Philip is spellbound; how much of this is magic and how much pure, animal lust, Atkins leaves to the reader’s imagination. However, he does state that Lemarchand is “Visibly struck by her beauty....” and is “the subject of her penetrating stare and ravishing smile.”2 Seeing her true demonic features during the game with the gamblers sends Phillip fleeing from the house, but not even this can bring him to his senses when she calls at his workshop. Again, the puissant attraction draws them together during a heated scene. Phillip wouldn’t be the first or last man to be seduced by power. Their meeting ends in them almost kissing, were it not for Genevieve’s interruption. With this knowledge, the New York section of the film now makes much more sense. When Anqelique says to John Merchant, “We were good together,” it’s a statement of fact, not a panging for what might have been had she not murdered him within seconds of setting eyes on him. In the movie version, Phillip’s reaction to Angelique is one of disgust; when she demands that he play with her, he fears only for his soul; there is no lust or love in his eyes.

  Had we not known about their relationship in the script, it would seem very strange that Angelique’s seduction of John would be so quick. He has been dreaming about her, but in those dreams her mouth is smeared with blood and she is holding a heart, hardly an image that would make him desire her. Additionally, it would make more sense for him to become flustered when he sees her during his speech, if this had happened before to his ancestor Phillip. “You think you don’t remember, but your blood knows. Let it remind you,” Angelique says when they eventually meet in person. “You know me from dreams, John Merchant. John Lemarchand.” But the film in its current form would suggest that those memories and dreams are merely bad ones. In any event, John is soon fixated with her and his dreams are filled with much more erotic fare: Angelique straddling him naked in bed, promising that whatever he wants can be his. So, when the double cross comes again, it is following the same pattern as the scripted France section: seduction and betrayal, ending ultimately in death.

  Hence, in the screenplay’s futuristic setting, Paul is able to twist this around. Allowance is made for a final confrontation between the two, where Angelique wishes they could return to the past, perhaps to change what happened. Thankfully, it is Paul who betrays her this time
, leaving her in the clutches of Pinhead before destroying them all by triggering the Elysium Configuration. The movie version denies the audience this final satisfying meeting between the two, thereby withholding any kind of resolution to this subplot, or any form of closure to the affair, which brings us to another aspect of this scenario.

  In the script, Phillip and Angelique raise Genevieve’s suspicions because they exhibit all the signs of a couple having an extramarital relationship. Phillip leaves his house twice at night to venture to the chateau, once even leaving his bed. Then Genevieve catches them virtually kissing when Angelique comes to see Lemarchand. This is why, in order to win him around, she reveals that she is pregnant, divulging the information just as he’s about to leave her. But even this fails to stop him. Genevieve plays the spurned wife in this scenario, who cannot compete with Phillip’s stunning new admirer. Of course, in the film we have none of this tension. Phillip is happily married and knows about the child Genevieve is carrying right from the start, even before he knows of Angelique’s existence. “Stay with me. Stay with us,” says Genevieve in the very first historical scene, placing his hand on her stomach. So, when he departs to take the box to the chateau at midnight, this makes his motivation more about providing for his family than seeing his other woman.

  In the New York setting this infidelity is present in both the script and the finished movie. John’s strange behavior alerts Bobbi to a possible liaison between her husband and another woman. John is distracted, is having trouble sleeping and unashamedly lies to her. The close-up of Bobbi’s face as she rolls over in bed tells the audience she doesn’t believe a word he says. This section recalls the first Hellraiser and Larry’s growing suspicions about Julia. But Bobbi is much more astute than Larry: if Jack hadn’t been kidnapped one suspects she would have uncovered John’s secret anyway. And, once more, the punishment for this deception—for his guilty pleasure—is to almost lose his wife and son, and to be killed at the hands of Pinhead. Could this be why there is a hint of sarcasm in his voice when Pinhead says, “Stand your ground, family man”? Through his behavior, John has damaged his family unit beyond repair. Bobbi no longer has a husband and Jack will now grow up without a father. The imagined future that Pinhead speaks of to John, where he watches his son grow up and loves him, is snatched away not—as John originally thought—by the death of Jack, but by the untimely demise of himself. The ultimate price of any extramarital affair is the break-up of the family unit, the estrangement of husbands and wives, fathers and children.

  Maybe this is the reason why Paul Merchant has not taken a wife. He is very different to his predecessors, not simply focused and dedicated to his work as they were, but obsessive to the exclusion of all else. In the script the love interest is represented by Kirsty’s descendant, Corinne. There is potential for a relationship to develop, but because his bloodline is cursed it is necessary for Paul to sacrifice himself and obliterate the demons. In the film, Rimmer replaces Corinne, and she has studied the doctor in depth, which we deduce from Edwards’ line: “I wasn’t asking you, Carducci, I was asking the expert. Well, Rimmer? Great man didn’t live up to your expectations, did he?” It is apparent from her interview that there is a certain amount of hero worship on her part, and possibly attraction as well. Before they can embark on a relationship, though, Paul must rid himself of the guilt from his past by erasing all trace of Pinhead and Angelique. This done, he is allowed to fly off in the escape ship with Rimmer to start a better, and, it’s to be hoped, happier existence. Paul doesn’t succumb to temptation; he resists and reaps the benefits that were beyond the grasp of Phillip and John. It is his act of recompense on their behalf.

  But Phillip, John and Paul are not the only characters Angelique finds herself involved with. Once summoned, she is forced to enter into a sexual relationship with Jacques. Phillip sees him through the open bedroom door, a naked Angelique attending to his needs. The epitome of the jealous boyfriend, Jacques’ answer to Angelique’s attraction for Phillip is to hit him over the head then damn him for all eternity: “Demons will walk the earth and you’re responsible.” His order for Angelique to kill Phillip is the ultimate masculine triumph over both her and him. She has no choice but to obey, even though she wants Phillip for herself. But when the bloodline continues, Jacques is doomed. Angelique sees John on AE’s cover and determines to go to America. “I’m restless and you’re bored,” she says in an effort to talk him into going. Jacques tries to stand in her way—and in Hell’s way; therefore his punishment is Hellraiser’s infamous “kiss of death,” this time ripping a bloody hole in his cheek.

  Angelique’s relationship with Sharpe is brief and founded upon a misunderstanding on his behalf. He believes that she wants him for sexual favors, when she is only using him to call forth the next man in her life: Pinhead. As already discussed, there is a discrepancy between the technicalities of their relationship on page and on-screen. In Atkins’ script they do not care for each other at all. In the movie there is a definite undercurrent of physical, and possibly emotional, magnetism. His entrance impresses her, and she circles him, looking him up and down. In the film this is also the first time she is called Princess. This could mean she was high up in Hell’s echelons. Or is it a term of endearment? As Pinhead is sometimes known as the Dark Prince of Hell, it would seem that the two are well suited. The rest of the section reads visually like a mating ritual between them, with each vying for superiority. Like Jacques, Pinhead manifests a certain degree of jealousy about her fascination with Merchant men; then he asserts himself at the end by encasing her in chains, a scene that recalls Joey’s bondage at the climax of Hell on Earth. When we see her again, she is dressed in the attire of a Cenobite, insinuating that she has relinquished herself fully to Pinhead.

  As for Carducci, his fling with Angelique is even shorter than Sharpe’s. Unable to ignore Angelique’s cries in the mirror on the Minos, he reaches out, only to be killed when it solidifies around him. In any and all cases, just as they are in all the other Hellraiser films, sex, love, pain and punishment are intertwined: one is never present without the others.

  He Who Commands

  Connected very closely with this is the theme of slavery—or even bondage—contained within the movie. Like most slaves, Angelique comes from a poor background: “All alone in this dark, dark world,” as the Duc de L’Isle puts it, which suits his purposes exactly. Skinned in the traditional Hellraiser fashion, she is used as a vessel for a Princess of Hell—and yet, still she finds herself in servitude. “He who summons the magic, commands the magic!” de L’Isle teaches Jacques. In the original script, it is he who commands Angelique, but in the film the young apprentice steals that power. For two centuries she remains his slave, and it is implied that his treatment of her has not been lenient. When we catch up with them in 1996, the scene between them speaks for itself. Grabbing her by the back of the neck, Jacques elucidates: “Angelique, let’s make this clear, what you want is irrelevant. It’s about what I want. After two hundred years, you should know what those things are.” But her chance to escape comes when Jacques ignores the rule about standing in Hell’s way. “You like it rough, don’t you?” she says, grabbing him by the throat and slashing his face.

  Unfortunately, her moment of freedom is short-lived, if it ever truly existed at all. Although personally her reasons for going to New York are to see John Merchant, this overlaps with Hell’s bidding; and Hell, as we know, speaks through Pinhead. In the script these contrary forces—the chaos of the Old Hell and stability of the New—are defined by their sparring and her eventual surrender to Pinhead’s wishes. In the movie this is much more subtle, expressing itself first in the way Pinhead grows impatient with her progress, then in his line: “A lesson, Princess. Work with me, or for me.” When it becomes apparent she wants to send him back and regain her freedom, she is forced to return to Hell for Cenobitization. In the last section of the film, we see a more subdued Angelique, once again a slave, this time to discipl
ine. When Pinhead gives her the order to kill the soldiers on the station, there is no argument, no spirited retort as there was back in Merchant’s buildings when she told him he was “no different than the beast that sucks the bones you throw to it.” Now, she simply obeys; Angelique is bound to Hell’s new rules.

  Though he is more in control than Angelique, Pinhead, too, is a slave to Hell. We know from the previous movies that there is a human side to him, trapped in the “shell of the beast.” His orders come from Leviathan and his efforts to open the larger Lament Configuration in New York are all in the name of his dark god. At the same time, Phillip, John and Paul are slaves to what they have created. Phillip’s device has allowed the door to be opened between Earth and Hell, and will cost the lives of many. John has inadvertently done the same thing only on a grander scale. Paul has been a slave to this history and sees it as his responsibility to end the curse, to seek both redemption and retribution. He is tied to this destiny just as surely as the slave-like manacles bind him to his chair when Rimmer is interrogating him. Paul, in turn, has also used the robot in the holding cell as a slave, getting it to perform the task he would rather not, which results in its total obliteration. Lastly, the first two Lemarchand/Merchant incarnations are, to some extent, slaves of Angelique, intoxicated by her, Phillip more so in the script than in the film.

  Mirror Images

  Mirrors have played a very important part in the mythology of the Hellraiser series. They’ve hidden voyeuristic tendencies, allowed passage into dream landscapes and reflected the inner qualities of the person. In Bloodline this trend continues. De L’Isle offers the demon Angelique a mirror so she can look at her new face immediately after he has summoned her. “You are Angelique,” he informs her. She studies the guise carefully and smiles before rubbing blood across her lips—as Kirsty does when she sees Larry’s skinned figure in Hellbound—indicating that de L’Isle is her “father.” But there is an aspect that is not revealed until she kills Jacques, her monstrous clawed hand and black eyes hinting at the creature she keeps hidden. This is referred to when Pinhead catches her looking in not one, but two mirrors, symbolically and physically reflecting her two personas. “You look like death, Princess,” he says admiringly, as the camera closes in on the pair of them framed in the mirror. It is unclear whether the tear on her cheek is because she hates the form that she now takes, or because she has another one beneath that John Merchant is liable to discover. Quite possibly she is crying for the person she would like to be, one expunged of the evil that dwells inside.