The Evolution Of Pinhead From 1986 To 2022

In 1987, Clive Barker's demented love story "Hellraiser" hit theaters and forever changed the horror landscape. Adapted from his novella "The Hellbound Heart," Barker's film is a horrifying tale of hellish temptations and forbidden pleasures. 

Despite being a minor character in the books, "Hellraiser" and its 10 subsequent sequels are best known for introducing the world to the extra-dimensional being known as Pinhead. Officially called the Hell Priest, this entity is intrinsically linked to an ornate puzzle box named the Lament Configuration. Pinhead and his Cenobite colleagues emerge from a hell-like dimension to claim the soul of anyone who solves the puzzle, dooming them to an eternity of torture. Inspired by the Dutchman, a character in one of Barker's early plays, Pinhead's evocative design and urbane demeanor has made him one of the most frightening and fascinating figures in all of horror.

Thirty-five years after the first film in the series, a new adaptation of Barker's original story has emerged. David Bruckner's reboot, also called "Hellraiser," offers a new take on the Lament Configuration's lore as well as a new batch of Cenobites for the box to summon. They're led by a dangerously beautiful new Hell Priest, played by Jamie Clayton, who brings the memorable character even closer to her creator's original designs. To fully appreciate this return, let's look back at how Pinhead has evolved, first from the page to the screen, then to direct-to-video releases, then back to the page again, and, finally, into the hierophant that Barker originally envisioned.

Tired of directors who didn't understand how to bring his work to the screen, Clive Barker decided to take matters into his own hands and direct the cinematic adaptation of his novella "The Hellbound Heart" himself. Regarding Pinhead's design, in the liner notes for a "Hellraiser" DVD set (via Barker's personal website), Barker said, "I had seen a book containing photographs of African fetishes: sculptures of human heads crudely carved from wood and then pierced with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of nails and spikes. They were images of rage..."

Barker also credits a visit to Cellblock 28, an underground club in New York City, as inspiration for the Cenobites. Referring to the sadomasochistic elements of the Hell Priest's design, Barker told The Guardian, "I got a good reaction from the S&M crowd — and still do. I was validating a lifestyle. It was a celebration of the beauty of these strange secret rituals."

Surprisingly, Doug Bradley almost rejected the role that would make him famous. As a new actor, he was nervous that he would be unrecognizable under the heavy makeup. Describing his first experience in costume, Bradley said, "The first time I wore it, I sat in front of the mirror trying to make friends with this new face, playing some lines and seeing where they took me. Most of my decisions about playing Pinhead were made there and then ... His threat is implied: look what I did to myself – now imagine what I can do to you."

The third installment in the franchise, "Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth," takes Pinhead in a new direction. It's the first film without heavy involvement from creator Clive Barker, but Doug Bradley recalls intense conversations with screenwriter Peter Atkins about the evolution of the character. He told Fangoria, "We've really discovered who this demon is and, equally as important, who he was as a human being." 

The third film begins with Elliot Spencer (Bradley) trapped in limbo. Separating humanity from the Cenobite has freed Pinhead from Hell. He is now trapped in an intricately carved sculpture called the Pillar of Souls, which is purchased by nightclub owner J.P. Monroe (Kevin Bernhardt). Like Julia before him, Pinhead charges Monroe with delivering souls to Pinhead so that he can devour them and free himself. Only by fusing Spencer's soul with Pinhead's body can they return this killer to his otherworldly confines.

As Barker told the New York Daily News, "'Hellraiser III' is definitely Pinhead's movie." Atkins, meanwhile, sees this film as a liberation of sorts for the famous monster, saying, "It's very much an examination of the rules of Hell, and by freeing Pinhead from those rules, we discover more about him. You could call this 'Pinhead Unbound.'" This film also marks the first time that the Hell Priest is presented as a legitimate villain. In earlier movies, he's only a danger to those who open the box or otherwise find themselves in Hell. Once freed, however, this version of the Hell Priest goes on a killing spree, massacring club-goers and turning innocent victims into an army of Cenobites.

As the "Hellraiser" franchise became a direct-to-video series, Pinhead's characterization began to shift. "Hellraiser: Inferno" follows Joseph (Craig Sheffer), a corrupt detective who finds and solves the Lament Configuration after finding the box at a crime scene. Pinhead (Doug Bradley) does not appear until the end of the film, which contains the revelation that Joseph has been in hell all along. His therapist, Dr. Gregory (James Remar), is actually the Hell Priest in disguise.

This marks the first time that the entity known as Pinhead appears disguised as another human. It also contradicts the previous film, "Hellraiser: Bloodline," in which Pinhead is staunchly opposed to relying on manipulation and temptation to torture his subjects. We will continue to see this kind of mental torment later in the franchise, but this entanglement marks an early example of how the "Hellraiser" mythology becomes increasingly muddled with each new installment.

Bradley is not a fan of "Hellraiser: Inferno" or this change for the character. In a 2007 interview with IGN he said, "There was a kind of moralistic tone that crept up that I didn't approve of at all." Clive Barker also doesn't care for the film, especially the depiction of Pinhead, telling the Lost Souls Newsletter, "What I'm trying to do is give the guy a decent dignified send-off. It's really important to me, and I think he's a great monster. I really hate the way he's been treated in this film."

The lackluster "Hellraiser: Deader" sees Pinhead battle a rival for control of the Lament Configuration. A Romanian cult leader known as Winter believes that his distant relationship to the creator of the puzzle box gives him control of the Cenobites. Unwilling to open the box himself, Winter (Paul Rhys) enlists followers who are suffering from mental illnesses, and convinces them to die by suicide. He then reanimates them and adds them to his cult, which is known as the Deaders. Pinhead only appears in the final act to confront the human who would dare to challenge his authority.

This confusing script is the first example of a problem that would come to plague the franchise. As screenwriter Tim Day told Fangoria, "We've taken a script called 'Deader' that Neal Marshall Stevens sold to Dimension almost two years ago as a spec, and I've rewritten it to incorporate the 'Hellraiser' mythology." This is probably why Pinhead feels like an afterthought. Stevens more or less confirmed as much, saying, "Pinhead has been brought in as an additional character. As in most recent 'Hellraiser' movies (from what I hear — I haven't seen them), he does not have a large part." Despite the reduction of his role, Doug Bradley was still enthusiastic about returning to the character, saying, "I'm still enjoying doing the movies, still having fun doing them, still finding fresh territory to explore myself."

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"Hellraiser: Revelations" follows two college students on a debauched road trip that leads them to the legendary Lament Configuration. The boys promptly disappear, and their families struggle to piece together the events of their final days. 

Rushed into production so that Miramax could maintain the rights to the franchise, director Victor Garcia was given a mere 10 days to prepare and only two weeks to shoot. Due to this tight timeline, Doug Bradley refused to participate in the project, stating, "The ink is barely dry on the script, and it is scheduled to be in front of the cameras in two weeks time and in the can by the middle of next month. The miniscule shooting schedule is more than matched by the budget." Clive Barker also disavowed the project in a profanity-riddled tweet.

With Bradley's absence, Garcia had two choices: omit the franchise's most well-known character, or cast another actor to play Pinhead. He opted for the latter, and Stephan Smith Collins stepped into the robes of the infamous Hell Priest. Though not an enviable position for any actor, Taylor feels all wrong for the role, losing the austerity and still menace that Bradley had perfected. Voiced by Fred Tatasciore, this Pinhead feels like a cheap approximation of the character. In the end, it's difficult to disagree with Bradley's summation that "Hellraiser: Revelations" "does not seem ... to represent a serious attempt to revive the "Hellraiser" franchise."

After the surprise success of the original film, the "Hellraiser" world rapidly expanded with the "Hellraiser" comic series. The first collection of "Clive Barker's Hellraiser," which contains four stories, was published in 1989. The series vastly expands the mythology, with tales involving not only Pinhead, but also other bastions of hell, further victims of the Lament Configuration, and the original film's final girl, Kirsty, who returns as a Cenobite. Barker would eventually contribute to the series, along with big-name writers and artists like Alex Ross, Colleen Doran, and Neil Gaiman.

"Clive Barker's Pinhead" is a six-issue comic series released in 1993 by Marvel Comics under the Epic Imprint. Though Barker's name is in the title, the script was penned by D.G. Chichester, and the art is by Dario Corrasco. This sprawling tale sees the titular Hell Priest travel throughout time to the Wild West, Enlightenment-era Paris, and A.D. 627, all while battling a being known as the Aggregate to restore order in Hell. In 2017, Barker's Seraphim Comics published a hardcover anthology containing 11 stories connected to the "Hellraiser" world. "Hellraiser: Anthology Volume 1" features Barker's own artwork in addition to stories from several other artists and writers.

Thirty-five years after the premiere of the original "Hellraiser," director David Bruckner reimagined Clive Barker's original source material for a new generation. A loose adaptation of the franchise as a whole, 2022's "Hellraiser" features significant changes to both the lore and design of the Lament Configuration, and a Pinhead that hews closer to the original novella's text. Casting Jaime Clayton in the role brings the character back to Barker's original description of Pinhead's voice, while Bruckner told the Hollywood Reporter that "We were never afraid of it. We always knew that [a female Pinhead] made sense given the history of the franchise and the kinds of fans that have embraced it,"

Bruckner's Cenobites have a distinctly lighter, but equally bloody, design. Rather than the black leather of previous films, Bruckner opted for a fleshier look, telling Bloody Disgusting, "We started thinking about extreme versions of body modification, and this idea emerged of, what if they were their own leather? What if they were so modified that their flesh was tailored in such extreme ways that it felt like clothing?" Doug Bradley himself was "blown away" by the new Pinhead design, praising Clayton's version in a tweet where he wrote, "The clever re-design of the make-up; the shimmer of the 'pin heads'; the palette; whatever that keyhole/locket/tracheotomy thing is at the throat. It's simple, subtle, disturbing, and sexy. Everything it should be."