Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)

SPOLERS AHEAD!

“Hellreasier: Hellseeker” is easily my third favorite of the series. It’s dark and mysterious and feels like the film that “Hellraiser: Inferno” wanted to be. Just like Detective Thorne, Trevor is piecing together memories that he lost after suffering amnesia caused by a terrific car accident in which his wife Kirsty died in. Yes, it’s the same Kirsty from the first two films! Through most of the movie Trevor is seen as a likable guy who is trying to mourn his missing wife, but as he goes about his daily routine, various women in his life try to seduce him such as his boss and neighbor. The police detectives working on his case keep hounding him for answers and his best friend wants answers to his own questions. It’s only when Trevor begins watching an old home movie (he loves recording “moments”) that we see him giving Kirsty the Lament Configuration for their fifth anniversary.  

As the movie slowly untangles the mess that is Trevor’s mind, we learn that he is dead and he is being forced to relive these memories as part of his suffering before going to Hell. It turns out that Trevor was having multiple affairs and that Kirsty was the sole heir to her father’s and Uncle Frank’s massive fortune (money that was never mentioned before…), and that he and his best friend from work decided to kill Kirsty and split the money. But Trevor decided to give her the Lament Configuration instead and forced her to open it (but telling her in a very stern way while holding the camcorder). Kirsty meets Pinhead and offers him a deal; in return for sparing her soul and finally leaving her alone, she will bring Pinhead five souls. He agrees and she kills three of Trevor’s mistresses and his work friend. The fifth and final soul is Trevor whom she shoots in the head while they are driving, causing them to crash into the river just liked the opened showed. She managed to frame Trevor for the murders and tells the police that he just shot himself while he was driving. They believe her and hand her the Lament Configuration. They ask her what it is and she tells them that it was a anniversary gift, so they give it back to her and she walks away, free.

It's important to note that "Hellseeker", "Deader", and "Hellworld" were all directed by horror cinematographer Rick Bota. It feels like the stories and his style were possibly influenced by the "Hellraiser" comics of the 1990's, short stories that have different takes on what the "Hellraiser" world means to them.

Favorite moment – I love it when Pinhead makes his first appearance, stepping through a chart of a human with needles hanging in an acupuncture studio. The music and visuals are perfect, and sense Trevor is already dead, there is no need to explain why Pinhead suddenly appears with the Box.

Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth (1992)

“Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth” continues to add to the Hellraiser mythos by exploring even further the history of Eliot Spencer, aka Pinhead. We see that he was a solider for the British Army during what appears to be World War One, engaging in the vicious trench warfare that occurred. Surely there couldn’t be anything more horrific than what he say there, right?

The film fully excepts the odd offer that “Hellraiser 2: Hellbound” ended with, the bizarre and grotesque living pillar that has both the Lament Configuration and Pinhead’s face engraved into it. This object is bought as an art piece, unknown to the buyer that the essence of the Cenobite is trapped within. After a bit of blood is splashed onto the pillar, Pinhead’s essence awakens. Trapped within, Pinhead is forced to promise and deceive the owner with assurances of power if he brings Pinhead a sacrifice in blood. Just like the bed and the floorboards from the first two movies, blood plays an important role. I have to say that this is a super unique concept that proves to work out amazingly well in the movie.

Pinhead and the Lament Configuration are the only parts of the mythos that appear in every Hellraiser film. The introduction of the Lament Configuration in this film is fuzzy at best. The movie opens with a victim being rushed into a hospital with fish-hooked chains piercing his skin, which become electrified when the doctors try to help him. He drops the Lament Configuration before going into the operating room and a girl who was with him picks it up. So how did the Box break free from the pillar? What did the guy do to get chained? This is never explained and this is something that should have been.

Unfortunately this movie is where the franchise begins to fail in my opinion. It makes sense when Pinhead is talking to J.P while trapped in the pillar but he keeps talking throughout the film. There are plenty of great quotes once again but I feel that Pinhead lost his sense of somber-seriousness. In the novella “The Hellbound Heart”, Pinhead was referred to as the Priest and I felt that was what he was in the first two films. Granted, he’s now a pure demon let loose in the streets of LA, but come on!

The second aspect of this movie I don’t care for is how there are new Cenobites. We can see directly how they are themed and it’s a bit heavy handed. Plus the fact that they aren’t people who solved the Lament Configuration but only victims of the insane Pinhead.

Kirsty makes a brief appearance in the film in recordings from interviews that Dr. Channard performed from the previous film. This time the protagonist is a reporter named Joey, played by Terry Ferrell (right before she became famous as 7of9 in Deep Space Nine).

Joey comes across a story that could make her career as a news reporter; a murder involving fish-hooked chains that is connected to the Boiler Room and its owner J.P Monore. Joey befriends Terri, a girl who has history with J.P. As they try to unravel the mystery, J.P is seduced by the essence of Pinhead, trapped within a living pillar. Suffice to say, J.P ends up as the sacrifice, Terri suffers her own tragic end, and Pinhead turns the Boiler Room into an absolute hell. Joey learns about Eliot through her dreams and is told that he can help her if she can bring Pinhead to him. As she tries this, this is faced with a new breed of Cenobites created by Pinhead who include her old cameraman and the DJ from the dance club. Even Terri has been turned into a Cenobite, which at this point is just silly. Eventually Joey is able to get Pinhead and Eliot together and now has to deal with a restored and dreadful Pinhead.

Hellraiser 2: Hellbound (1988)

“Hellraiser 2: Hellbound” is the strongest film in the franchise after the original, and in some ways it’s even stronger. This movie takes all of the elements from the first film and adds to it, showing us that the Cenobites were once humans who had dared to open the box, and for one reason or another, were chosen to become “higher beings” and enteral minions of Leviathan, the Lord of the Labyrinth. We get to see the inside of the Labyrinth as well, how different rooms are dedicated to an individual’s personal hell.

“Hellraiser 2: Hellbound” brings back The Four Cenobites that we met in “Hellraiser”; Butterball, Chatterer, Deepthroat, and Pinhead. Their dialogue is sparser and full of delicious quotes. And as I already hinted at, we get to see a brief glimpse of what they looked like when they were still alive. The main human characters from the first film also return. Kirsty and Julia are again the film’s main protagonist and antagonist while Uncle Frank makes his appearance as they walk through the halls of the Labyrinth. In this film, it is Julia’s turn to be summoned by blood and her readjustment to the normal world.

We are also introduced to Dr. Phillip Channard, a physiatrist who is obsessed with the secrets of the puzzle box. It is he who brings Julia back from Hell and in turn is guided into the depths of the Labyrinth. Dr. Channard proves to be a vicious antagonist as well as he goes on a bloody rampage killing his patients as well as going toe to toe with The Four Cenobites. One of the best moments of the film is when we get to see Dr. Channard’s office and the various fake Lament Configurations that he has collected over the years. It is also in his files that we see paper records of Pinhead’s human form.

The film begins right after Kirsty escapes from the house and the Cenobites (the skeleton dragon at the end of the original is ignored). Kirsty wakes up in a mental hospital and is kept there after she tells the authorities her story about the Cenobites and the murders that Julia performed for Frank. No one believes her but Dr. Channard’s assistant Kyle is sympathetic to her story. He snoops around the doctor’s office and watches in horror as an insane patient is given a knife in which he begins to cut himself with. The patient is sitting on the bed that Julia was killed on and as his blood soaks into the mattress, a skinless Julia’s climbs out of it and kills the man. She sees Channard and asks him for help, which he does. Kyle runs back to Kirsty and tells her what he saw; she demands to be released from the hospital and taken to Julia. Kyle breaks her out and together they go to Channard’s house.

Channard in the meantime has dressed Julia in medical bandages and has begun supplying Julia with the victims she needs to be whole again. Kyle meets Julia and falls victim to her life-sucking ability. Kirsty arrives to late but before she can do anything, Channard shows up with a young girl, Tiffany.  who solves puzzles. Channard gives Tiffany the real Lament Configuration, which she solves and opens the gateway to the Labyrinth. The Cenobites come and realize that Tiffany did not summon them with her own will and proceed to look for those responsible, but Channard, Julia, and Kirsty have already snuck into Hell. The remainder of the film showcases the images of Hell, the showdown between Julia and Kirsty, the transformation of Dr. Channard and his blood thirsty rampage that brings him face to face with Pinhead and the other Cenobites.

Hellraiser (1987)

Why did the 80's give us the majority of the horror movie icons that we have today? Was it really that messed up of a time period and I just didn’t notice? Was it a display of fiction reflecting reality because of the famous serial killers around the U.S.? I hope not, but you have to admit that plenty of movie villains came out that decade!

We already had Michael Myers and Leatherface from the late 70’s and they were soon joined by Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and a psychopathic doll named Chucky. And lest we forget the Cenobite originally known as Priest, quickly renamed by the press and marketing teams as Pinhead. Pinhead was an instant fan favorite, the assumed leader of a band of summoned demons and the standard bearer for Clive Barker's professional directorial debut in the movie "Hellraiser". It what really makes the Cenobites unique in “Hellraiser” is that they are not the real villains in the film but are merely the consequence of opening a fancy puzzle box…

Frank wants to experience the ultimate pleasures and when he opens the mysterious puzzle box, that’s exactly what he finds. If you think being pulled apart of large hooks on chains is your idea of ultimate pleasure. A few months later, Frank’s brother Larry and his wife Julia move into the house where Frank performed his final acts. Larry accidentally cuts himself while helping the moving crew and the blood that falls onto the floor is just enough to summon Frank back from Hell. Julia, who was having an affair with Frank, discovers him and finds that he is just bone and muscle, and agrees to help him find new flesh.  Kirsty, Larry’s daughter, thinks something is suspicious when she noticed that Julia is bringing strange men to the house during the middle of the day. She goes in to see what’s going on but is attacked by Frank. Kristy is able to obtain the puzzle box, and while recuperating at a hospital, she accidentally summons the Cenobites. Right before they are to claim her as their prize, she tells them that Frank had escaped from Hell and that she could take them to him. And thus a deal with the demons is made…

“Hellraiser” was adapted from Barker’s novella “The Hell Bound Heart”. It’s pretty faithful to the original story with only a few minor details being changed. The only real change I remember off hand is that in the story, Kirsty was Larry’s best friend. I see why she was changed to be his daughter for the film but it wasn’t all that important.

Favorite moment – When the Cenobites first appear. They walk in cool and calm, each taking its place in the room and in order. The when Pinhead first speaks, it sends chills down your spine…at least the first time you see the movie.