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I watched this when i was 12 too, only it didn't scare me at all, it just bored me so badly that it pissed me off and I grew an immense hatred for this film
Fun fact: This was originally a stand alone horror movie about "The Engineer" that the studio co-opted and forced them to change into a Hellraiser movie. It feels disjointed and weirdly paced because it's two separate scripts, grafted into one.
I heard a few of the other sequels were the same thing, starting as a stand alone script then forcefully rewritten into a Hellraiser film. I never found out which ones, but I think perhaps Deader and Hellworld since the cenobites have less to do in those..
makes sense, there actually was a character named The Engineer in the original movie but it was this rubber puppet monster creature which made that a bit confusing and funny to think about these characters having meetings with this non-humanoid beast thing
Ah, much like the Wil Smith "I, Robot" movie, which had nothing to do with the Isaac Asimov book, but they had the rights, so they renamed the movie and some of the characters and passed it off as "based on the Isaac Asimov novel", even though it definitely wasn't.
More accurately for most of them post the fourth one they took a bunch of unrelated scripts and shoehorned the Lament Configuration and Pinhead (and sometimes the other cenobites) into them.
One thing I dislike about the Hellraiser films is that they recast the Cenobites as literal demons from actual hell instead of the more ambiguous rulers of a BDSM dimension where at least some people go to have a good time.
The movie is called Hellraiser, the book is called the Hellbound Heart, Leviathan is the ruler of Hell (aka The Labyrinth, realm of limitless pain/pleasure), and Pinhead's official title is The Hell Priest. The "BDSM dimension" is Hell.
I’m not against them being evil; i do have an issue with the movies adding more Christian mythos to it - the implication in two that there is no classic god gives the mythos a lot more interesting stuff to work with than the standard judo-Christian stuff every other Western horror movie defaults to.
The cenobites are evil in the firat movie. They don't honor their agreement to leave the protagonist alone if she sends her uncle back. There is a slight bit of ambiguity initially, but by the end it's pretty obvious they just want to capture souls to torture.
What's funny to me about that whole engineer thing is that when I worked in a warehouse, Engineer was code for someone who stands around and tries to look important, but really isn't doing anything.
Pinhead feels like an afterthought in these movies because in many cases, he is. The studio had to keep putting out Hellraiser movies to retain the license, so every few years they'd dust off a script, paperclip Pinhead to it, and make a movie. I think this is the first movie of that type in this series, but definitely not the last. The fact that these movies were made from scripts that couldn't get published under their own power and are motivated entirely by "put out literally anything with the Hellraiser name" probably explains their quality, as well.
Some of the later movies are really random films they shoved Pinhead as a marketing ploy. This, I am not so sure, maybe they went for something similar to the first movie (aside from a few teases the cenobites were only fully shown in the final moments of the movie).
And for a long, _long_ time Doug Bradley kept playing Pinhead in them because of the possibility of an actual, quality sequel that had been discussed off and on for years.
"paperclip Pinhead to it" made me picture the little Paperclip avatar from Microsoft Word. Clippy: " It looks like you're writing a bad horror movie. Should we add Pinhead to it?"
If I remember correctly, this is one of those movies that started life as something completely different in the screenplay stage, and then some producer got the wise idea, "Hey! Let's make this a Hellraiser movie!" Sometimes, that works, like with the third Die Hard film. And sometimes... well...
Actually, that's not the case with this particular movie. Co-writer and director Scott Derrickson (yes, the director of Sinister and Doctor Strange) said that it was indeed pitched as a Hellraiser movie from the start. This was definitely where it became painfully obvious that Clive Barker was no longer involved with the franchise though
"Cenobite" is actually a term for communal monks -- it comes from the Greek for "Life Together" (koinobios). There are different types of monks in the Christian tradition, the oldest being hermits ("eremitic monasticism") but the isolation was too much for some people so they came up with a moderated form ("semi-eremitic monasticism") in which they'd meet once or twice a week for worship services but otherwise live completely isolated lives. Even that diluted form proved too much for others who came up with communal ("cenobitic") monasticism, in which they'd live together in a monastic community but avoid the rest of "the World." While Cenobites became the norm in the Western tradition, they were seen as the pathetic weaklings of monasticism among the Orthodox -- especially the Copts of Egypt. Imagine my shock learning all this in grad school after spending most of my life thinking "cenobite" meant some kind of demonic entity... XD
The tv tropes pages for hellraiser are super interesting. The original film had a lot of depth around the cenobitic and their goals which the following sequels discontinued.
My biggest problem with this one is the fact that Pinhead is so out of character. They treat him like a demon that is tormenting a vile sinner in Hell for being evil. The thing is that Cenobites are all about sensation and embracing all that pain. They're not jailer meant to show evil people the error of their ways. The director seemed intent on showing they had read the Hellbound Heart by constantly referring to the Engineer. But it's obvious they didn't really "get" what the story is about. Oh, well. I quit after the sixth one. If there are worse ones than this one, God help the tormented souls that watched them!
Will it was never intended to be a hell rasier movie. Your right tho the cinobits are really out of character but there always out of character to a greater or lesser extent after hell rasier 2
@@madmachanicest9955 That is true. In this Frankenstein movies, you WOULD think that the creators would try to marry the different parts together better. Using Pinhead to tell someone they're bad and do an exposition dump was just weak.
@@TheJohno95 in a few lines form the book I have seen in retrospect and in scene for many of the early movie it implaied that pin head is not made up of even a single person anymore . Both mantuly and physically. Al the cinobits are like that. Much more trearfing if you ask me.
@@TheJohno95 hell cinobit is latina for common life. It was often used to man soul but it could also be fitting if you pinhead and the cinobits as thy could be farmed form and give form by the collective pursuer and hedunisom of man kind. Makeing them more like WH40k demons corset with a cogneto hazered SCP. This could also exsplian why the effectively hunt mortals to turn them into cinobits
Isn't it a tragedy that we never got an episode of Murder She Wrote Hellraiser edition where Jessica Fletcher solves the puzzle box and unlocks the dimension to hell where the cenobites are just smitten by her? I only want it to exist so PushingUpRoses finds it one day and is compelled to make a video about it hehe ♪MIDI Triangle for added tension♪
In the comics there's other puzzles, like walking through rooms in a house in just the right way, or playing notes on a piano. Geuss the movies just cant resist using the box.
I'm picturing it it very much like the scene in one of the Diskworld novels, where through sheet force of personality, Granny Weatherwax makes things backfire on the vampire who is trying to turn her and suddenly he's craving tea.
If I remember correctly, in the original book, the Engineer was in charge of creating new Cenobites. He ends up being a relatively important character, but they mostly cut him out of the original movie. I assume that is why they are going on and on about the engineer. Also, when did cenobites just become people in a gimp hood?
As someone who is a magician, it's weird how much hate we get in movies.Magicians are always shown to be either duplicitous or incompetent. Clowns too. We just want to entertain you!!
@@valkyrie9646 People find magicians "annoying" for 2 reasons (1) They think they're the smartest, best, most impossible-to-fool people on earth, and they resent you for proving them wrong (2) Economics forces magicians to be hustlers, and hustlers can be too pushy and too loud about their hustle. Problem 2 is sometimes the magician's fault....but the problem 1 guys need to get over themselves. Shouting "IT'S FAKE" at a magician is like shouting "SHE ISN'T DEAD!" at a horror movie.
@@exquisitecorpse4917 I did a lot of street magic in college to get by and I understand the resentment completely. Working for tips is difficult but once you get to know the local business owners and you get frequent hires, it kills the need to be pushy-pushy. Plus, magicians ruin it for themselves by trying to be “cool”. It’s an aged profession and there just aren’t many ways to change that. I accept that and act accordingly. To this day, I carry around a deck of cards because I can’t shake the habit of messing with them to keep my hands busy. I’ve found that if I just sit down in a corner and mess around with my cards, people that want to see stuff will come to me and ask. I never approach, because it feels… intrusive. And lastly, what solves the problem of hecklers and arrogant magicians is to take the Teller approach. Silence. Hecklers look real dumb pestering the quiet guy and I have no room to say dumb and incriminating shit if I just don’t speak. I just let the show do the talking and if people know how it works, cool. If they enjoy it, even better.
I'm not a cop, but I don't think you want to squish crime scene fingers, or probably any discarded body parts left in a crime scene, no matter how tempting
I think this one is the most obvious example of a movie that was written to be something completely different that they kinda just shoe-horned Pinhead into.
Most of the Hellraiser sequels after the second were exactly that - abandoned horror scripts that were sitting on a shelf only to have the Hellraiser brand and tropes shoehorned in to make them marketable.
Haha that's exactly what me and my friend said when we first watched it. We were like I bet it was some guy's script they just had lying around and they said "oh whatever, just use that one"
@@Axolotl_Mischief That seems to happen a lot in horror movies for some reason. I am also still 90 percent sure it was true of "Joker" but they did a better job of hiding it.
@@LibraGamesUnlimited it happens a lot to horror movies because of several things. 1. Horror movies trend towards frequent release schedules, once per year. 2. Horror anthologies used to be a thing, which is why Halloween 2 is what it is, and why I think people are primed to be more...flexible on horror movies. 3. There are really low expectations for writing quality and coherence for horror movies. But as for joker? Interesting theory, but...generally when it is the case, we know. The story gets out. And with something as big as joker? If it was, we'd hear. It wasn't.
I was holding it together until the sound effect for the arm popping off. I then had to hit pause after the "doughnut" line because I was laughing too hard to continue. 😄 Fun fact: Doug Bradley (Pinhead) is very nice in real life.
The Engineer is a creature within the labyrinth of hell in the Hellraiser series. It is thought to be one of the first being to open the gateway to hell IIRC. There is mention of it in The Hellbound Heart.
And even with that mythology, I do like the idea of certain puzzle solvers to be their own engineers. Meaning that they create the instruments of their own torture.
I always found it funny that one of the cenobites wears sunglasses.. Like.. You don't want the sun to hurt your eyes? Is there even a sun in your pain dimension?
The filmmakers: We have such sights to show you! The audience: Jesus wept. I would love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the sequels! Most of the straight to dvd installments weren't even originally intended to be Hellraiser films, but the studio wanted to maintain the rights to the series and did nonsensical touch-up work. As you can imagine that led to all sorts of internal inconsistencies in regards to what the Cenobites really are motivation wise. Also, Clive Barker wrote a proper sequel called The Scarlet Gospels that was fucking killer and had what may be my favorite depiction of Hell in fiction seeing as it felt like a fleshed out society with a laid out hierarchy. I want to see Dom Noble do a video on Hellraiser but he's squeamish so you might have to assist him, Roses hahaha.
Your videos kind of act like a stress sponge. During every midterm or finals week I binge all the videos I missed from the last hell week. I’m a junior in college and I have done this every year and I am just now realizing it. I need to watch your videos more consistently 😂
The Cenobite noises had me rolling!! It seems like the harder they try to be edgy, the more of a parody it becomes. But that can still be fun! Thanks for another awesome video, Roses!!
@@yourex-wife4259 - The funny thing is that the term refers to initiates in some real world religious orders, but since I first encountered the term through horror, that's what I always pictured when reading about these religious orders...and now, thanks to you, I am now going to always imagine these creatures working in a Cinnabon.
The parents in the hospital scene kinda reminds me of the episode of SpongeBob where Squidward gets scared by the floating head of his mother saying “Why don’t you visit me!” 😂
I've always appreciated the Inferno sequel, if just because I adore the "Twist" regarding the Cop Councilor being Pinhead, and how this movie feels like a sneak peak into Pinhead's day to day duties within Hell. Plus the cop reminds me of David Boreanez and despite being a awful person, that enough is enough to give me a mild crush on the dude.
I love Inferno! I love all the movies I don't care of they're not as good, I just love the hellraiser universe soo much, I even have a bunch of hellraiser comics with some awesome lore! So I can help but love all of them ( except maybe the last few without Doug Bradley. )
The engineer is a staple character within the Hellraiser canon, first appearing in The Hellbound Heart, the story that started it all. You should read it, it takes like an hour.
Considering how everything has become "based on comics" lately, I'm surprised they haven't discovered the old comic series, "Hellraiser Nightbreed - Jihad." In that comic series, Pinhead gets kicked out of Hell. Alone on earth, he finds his way to the only place where monsters are welcome... Midian. Things get incredibly interesting from there. It was a Hell of a story.
@@schwermetall666 Midian, while an obvious biblical allusion; is here referring to the home of the Nightbreed in the Clive Barker short story "Cabal" which he later adapted into the movie "Nightbreed".
1 and 2 are both amazing and Julia was supposed to be the villain going forward but studios thought a “female villain wouldn’t sell” 🙄 so even tho pinhead died in 2 they keep bringing him back and even Doug Bradley (who plays him) doesn’t understand why and wants him to stay dead
@@LilpnuthaterOfficial exactly. Clive walked out on 3 because they kept trying to tell him to bring pinhead back instead of her. Like she’s the VILLAIN!!! Pinhead is just a neutral messenger with a cool voice
I think they had to go with Pinhead because the actress who played Julia didn't want to come back. Originally Julia was meant to rise out of the mattress at the end of Hellbound
It's so odd, because the mythology of the cenobites could be so interesting in the hands of a talented writer. I hope one day, we get a sequel or reboot that is more passionate about the mythology, and not just scripts being recycled with pinhead shoehorned into it.
The Engineer was a character from the Hellbound Heart who was a cenobite with a white flame for a head and was implied to be the leader and possibly their creator. How it ended up this way I have no idea
If you remember Hellraiser 1 and 2, both show the Engineer. He is the creator of the Cenobites. I think that's why they were talking about the Engineer so much, another way to try to shoehorn Hellraiser into this movie that was originally not a Hellraiser script.
So fun fact, the guy who plays the lead was also in Barker's cult classic 'Nightbreed'. If you've not seen it before I think it would be up your street. :)
I was genuinely shocked by how many Hellraiser sequels there were. I lost interest after the third one. I think the fourth was Hellraiser in space? But Hellraiser 2 is my favorite because it has a much more interesting story than the first or third.
Seeing how the series went through makes me appreciate the Hellraiser comicbooks now. A lot of them were written by, and consulted by, Clive Barker himself and gave some better lore of what the cenobites are like than the sequels did. Definitely recommend them for anyone interested in more good Hellraiser media! ^^
1:17 please tell me I'm not the only person who noticed how stupid this chess game is. Grey haired dude: captures Knight with Bishop (I think) but just moves the piece to the side. Main character: takes that same Knight that should be off the board, and captures rook (which looks like is diagonal to knight??)
While I do really like the films interruption of Pinhead/The Priest I kind of want to see Pinhead with a more androgynous look like in the novela, like almost a demonic David Bowie, it's a design not used too much in horror pop-culture at least in this kind of setting.
@@michaelhegwood9977 while I'm unsure what's going on with modern Hellraiser there were some more recent comics where Kirsty Cotton inherits Pinhead's role as Hell Priest, she's got a fun design. There's also some frankly cute imo ship art, hey, good for them
I had never seen the first film, so I grabbed a copy at my local used movie store last summer. I became obsessed. I spent two weeks scouring every store I could find. I now own them all. It was the best worst time ever. Now I want to binge them again. Please do Hellhouse next!!
The brilliant Clive Barker is way too much for Hollywood to stomach. This movie was like a bad acid trip. The comics and graphic novels are among my favorites but the way they kept milking sequels for the films even had Barker getting pissed. Thanks for the awesome content!
16 years between this movie and Dr. Strange isn't "just a few years", that's more than a decade. He also directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which is really the film that was quite a step up in just a few years.
I'm impressed that you stuck it out through ten movies. I tapped out at the beginning of the one where they go into space. It seemed that after the first movie the puzzle box just started solving itself (to save time I assume). All the protagonist had to do was describe a little half-circle with their thumb on the top design and that was it.
Despite all the obvious flaws, this movie introduced one of my favorite cenobites; Torso. His whole aesthetic is just so disturbing and the implications of his torture are off the charts.
One part about the ending I couldn't get past was the moralizing lecture from Pinhead, of all characters. The leader of the Theologians of the Order of the Gash giving a lecture on morality? Is there anything that character would care less about than morality? Just as you said, tacked on as an afterthought>
The impartial judge who declared "Do I look like someone who cares what God thinks?" in Bloodline suddenly becomes the poster boy for morality in Inferno. One of the many reasons why I'm not a fan of this one.
Pinhead shows a softer side in Hellbound when Kirsty presented him with evidence that he used to be human. There is one thing that he would care less about than morality: Hell on Earth suggests that he questioned the idea of an "ineffable plan" by a benevolent God even before he became a cenobite, since his fellow soldiers and him believed God had abandoned them. None of the movies after Hell on Earth could agree whether Pinhead should be a villain (4, 6, 9), an observer (5, 8, 10) or an antihero (7).
@@network9568 the way i understand him is that all he cares is that people follow their desires, do you want to be a good person ? he will let you go, do you like hurting and torturing people ? he will take you to a place were people appreciate that, and if you cant make your mind he will kill you on the spot for wasting his time he would definitely not waste his time torturing this dude who is just going through the motions
My niece and I are going through all of these again. That line where you find out that he has never done magic for his daughter was so strange, yet very telling about the character. You can tell he never even considered showing his daughter any of his tricks. What a weirdo! Also, this movie is how my niece found out about The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Glad to see I wasn't the only one whose mind jumped to Will Smith at the chair spinning bit.
holy shit the concept for this movie was absolutely written by a guy who had just watched Se7en and thought "what if this was ALSO a Hellraiser movie!". Honestly not a horrible idea
Out of the sequels, I genuinely love Hellraiser 8 (I will not say it is a masterpiece- but it is fun and it has Henry Cavill and Lance Henrickson). But ooooh boy is Hellraiser 5 bananas
Sad to hear this video was claimed. I loved this video and subbed instantly. Checked out your review of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream and it was great. Can’t wait to dive into your videos this weekend.
I appreciate the Hellraiser series, but have seen very few of them--too much body horror for my tastes (as in, /any/ body horror :p). Seeing them through, ahem, "Rose(s)-colored glasses," on the other hand, I could do all day! For one thing, the Cenobites are now almost cute with Roses supplying their dialogue. :D
Oh no- I must have watched this movie. All of it. Maybe even more than once. I held no memory of this but every scene was so familiar- like a puzzle I solved long ago.
2:28 a little glass vial?! (Also, now that you've made that reference, need to ask if you would ever cover Repo! in a video? It's one of my favourite bad films and your style seems perfect to cover the more bizarre parts of it)
@@lcm2719 Tbh I prefer the Devil's Carnival duo as "good" cinema but Repo just has that mix of aesthetic, music and the cast to make it a great film on its own term. Plus Zydrate Anatomy, At the Opera Tonight and Chromaggia are unironic good songs
"I used to think my life was a turn-based RPG but now I realize it's a puzzle game, with point and click elements, the soundtrack is ok I guess" Joseph Thorn, maybe
I watched one of your videos like two years and forgot about your channel. I’m so glad I found this channel again because you kill every video. I’m so ready to binge your stuff!
Your sum up encapsulates my own feelings about this installment into the Hell raised franchise, too. "It's not the worst Hellraiser film. That's not a compliment." I'm not exactly hard to please when it comes to horror flicks. I unironically love all of the first four films in very different ways (I have similar opinions on the Alien franchise). There were aspects of this film where you can almost see good movie potential, but it's not the movie we got.
There's a line that the hellraiser movies toe for me. I don't mind body horror, nor do I object to bdsm, however 'sexual' body mutilation is a no go. These movies definitely push it into that realm, which is why I've never actually watched more then a few scenes here and there. But I love the lore of the cenobites and this universes concept of 'hell'. So I thank you for the review.
My biggest gripe with the Sequels except the Stories and what not is how ridiculously easy it has become to open the puzzle box. Like in the orginal it was implied that opening it took ages.
Maybe the Lament Configuration is like a cereal box; After opening it the first time, it's easy to open later. Relevant: images.halloweencostumes.com/blog/images/868/4663-1/ceno-bites.jpg
@@Chlorate299 - As in if you were someone who would want to be part of the BDSM universe it would call to you, or as in it was simply compelling to some people regardless of what they wanted? Either way is interesting, but different types of stories would rise from each.
@@Chlorate299 that makes sense; while it's touted as this key to new sensory experiences by mortals selling it or mythologizing it, it strikes me that the box itself is an eldritch object that pulls you into opening it, even if you're not *looking* for crazy pleasure torment. Kirsty just seems curious without knowing alot about the box, and she manages to solve the puzzle - which always struck me as kind of unfair, but isn't that just the way of cursed items?
Hellraiser honestly becomes 'so bad it's good' after the 4th one. The first 2 are amazing, 3 is decent, 4 is flawed but enjoyable. Everything after feels like spec scripts shoe horned into being Hellraiser, since they were. At least Inferno was watchable regardless. Less said about Revelations, the better.
Love your vids!!!!! I used to watch Murder she wrote and diagnosis murder with my grandma all the time. My grandparents raised me so I get having old taste.
Oh boy. If we're talking bad Hellraiser movies, I'd love to see one about Hellraiser: Hellworld, AKA the last one with the original Pinhead actor Doug Bradley, it's got that weird bad 2000's horror feel about it and Henry Cavill is in there too!
This sounds like it should be “Hellraiser: The Series”. Trim it to about 45-50 minutes and air it back to back with “Tales From the Crypt” or “The Hitchhiker”.
Inferno is my favorite Hellraiser sequel after 2. I think the horror and noir elements could've worked if they pulled a Fight Club and the whole time Joseph was The Engineer and Pinhead could've said at the end, "This is the Hell you *engineered* for yourself."
It was nice for them to reference The Engineer, the original master of the Cenobites from the novella, but it went way too far into goofy territory for it to be anything more than something for the book fans.
I mean yeah Inferno has at least like An artistic sense to it and the fact that the director had some sort of vision for the series which is definitely unlike the other trashy Hellraiser Straight to DVD sequels
Kinda wish the people who kept slapping Hellraiser on other unrelated projects and shoehorning in some loose connection would in fact open the lament configuration themselves. Loved the first 3 movies but after that just :(
Not gonna lie, I like this movie. Maybe it's because it was actually my first Hellraiser movie, so I didn't really had anything to compare it with. I love the fusion of noir/crime and horror, we don't get to see it that often. I liked the pacing to be honest, it added to the weird atmosphere of the movie, the constant question if what we are watching is real or the protagonist going insane. The biggest problem of the movie is the title. It didn't really need to be a Hellraiser movie, heck I think it would be far better if the guy he faced at the end was the actual Devil. If you got this expecting something like the previous sequels (which were basically slasher movies with Pinhead as the killer), I get why this movie gets so much hate. Not saying it's a hidden gem or anything like that. Just that I enjoyed it for what it was. And hoping someone would make something similar but better.