What the HELL happened to HELLRAISER III Hell On Earth!!!

It’s all been leading to this. Something for a long while I’ve wanted to share some thoughts on and a franchise that as a fan I came the closest to not just wishing they’d end it. For good. But felt in my soul a tweet Clive Barker made about one of these later entries into the franchise. Which honestly is saying a lot if you know the man.

For those not familiar I will save that tweet.

Fuck it we need it because nothing has ever summed up more greatly what a lot of these became the further removed from the first two they got, and I quote “I have NOTHING to do with the fuckin’ thing. If they claim it’s from the mind of Clive Barker, it’s a lie. It’s not even from my butt-hole.” 

Hearing it said again in my head, and remembering what I’ve witnessed. Giving me that thousand yard stare knowing what exist out there under the name Hellraiser it carries the same weight as the scene on Apocalypse Now when he hears the man screaming never get off the boat, your goddamn right.

But, as curiosity gets most of us in the end, and as Dr. Channard said in Hellbound Hellraiser 2, I have to see. I have to know. Well dear reader. Now we will see, and now. We will know.

It is already rather well known among people that this series ended up a place holder for the studio so they could keep the franchise under their roof. At one point they didn’t even hide it, and by the time we got to the very end of the straight to dvd releases, no one cared. But it wasn’t always that way. The last good faith sequel was Hellraiser 3 Hell on Earth. Which is where we intend to begin, and it is a bit puzzling to do so, according to the fanbase.

Which is why we are!

See Hellbound Hellraiser 2 saw the backstory and the ending, of the Hell priest we know as Pinhead, and his faithful followers. Kirsty discovered his origins and undid what the lord of hells labyrinth had done to his devoted servants. The film ends showing us that the cenobites under Pinhead had all been condemned to the field of souls for turning against their creators design. The film was well received overall, though it signaled a divide in the fandom. Some didn’t care for the tonal shift from a tighter store focused on a small family to a much larger landscape with new characters given little breathing room. The quick return of Julia and the tricking of Kirsty through Frank making little sense to most. But in the end it was still labeled acceptable because, well. Everyone loved the cenobites. They loved Pinhead. Even though they kill him off, which did upset them. You could still enjoy it, and I rather liked the character arch they gave him. But I can agree with fans that the death of the cenobites felt rushed and anticlimactic. Which it was, and wasn’t oddly enough.

See the sequel, given the huge success of the first was greenlit with a vastly larger budget compared to the first. This was going to be a grand blood filled sexy sequel. But unfortunately, the “Black Monday” stock market crash altered that. Well altered as in millions of dollars vanished literally overnight and a 3rd of the films budget was gone. This is why what should have been an effects heavy decent into hell turned into what it did. Which I still find beautiful-but yes the cenobites had a somewhat different turn. While the original story envisioned a grand battle between the cenobites and Channard, the writer and director had other ideas. Simply put, Pinhead and his followers are not soldiers. They aren’t made for waging war. Though the idea of shooting off chains and powerful beams of energy. Cenobites unleashed displaying wide sets of abilities could’ve been interesting I can understand it destroying a bit of their presence. They’re shown to us, as Clive wrote them, a clergy of torment.

So though the budget was severely cut down, it didn’t effect their showdown. The cenobites once no longer under the influence of their master became lost and shocked. Their powers tied to Leviathan were severed so. What people expected of a battle, was meant to play out as we got. An execution. Pinhead was never meant to make a last stand, he knew that. He served himself as a distraction for the other two who freed him to escape. Still doesn’t mean people had to enjoy it but, I did.

We needed to revisit the backstory on Part 2 because it ties in very directly to the 3rd, and was going to in fact setup a lot of what Hellraiser was meant to follow moving forward.

Part 2 had plans, that ultimately would have reshaped the entire franchise dramatically. Almost biblically for fans in a way that I honestly would love to visit an alternate dimension where we got the films original secret ending. Which is exactly what it was, and remains. A secret ending.

But before we get into that. We need to begin this thing. So with that…

Hellraiser 3 Hell on Earth.

The death bell of the franchise that gave you what you wanted and was hated for it.

As a fan you get it. People loved Pinhead. Differently than Freddy or Jason. He gave a much darker presence that bordered the core of what I love with Clive Barkers work. The seduction of the beautifully grotesque. People wanted more of him. To hear his beautiful voice tell us about how he planned to tare us all apart in an act of unimaginable pleasure and agony. The problem is, the more Pinhead talked, the more he lost his mystery and grace. That’s why Freddy, Jason and Michael hit differently compared to Pinhead. His acts are more personal and direct. The others its more incidental and comical. So having an intimately violent partner begin monologuing well. It’s difficult to stay in the mood when your partner starts going off on the state of the world when you want them to go scorched earth on your nether region.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Since Part 2 still made a profit and fans were wanting another trip into Hell’s labyrinth. A sequel was on the minds of the studio. However. New World Pictures who made the first two films, unfortunately was HUGELY mismanaged. They closed their studio doors and began selling off their properties. Hellraiser was one such property. Miramax purchased the rights to the franchise with dreams of their own large franchise in the lucrative horror market. It’s funny given how people viewed horror films but a good number of studios wanted to tap that market given the success New Line had as being ‘the house that Freddy built’. Miramax was so sure they would have a franchise to do the same, cornered directly into the horror market-that they created a new group specifically for Hellraiser and future horror. Dimension Films. Growing up in the 90’s you’d see that title attached to a lot of good, okay, and shit tier horror. Much like Lions Gate in the early 2000’s.

This is why the film series found itself moved out from the British cities and acting talent, and landed itself right into the land of eagles, apple pie and fat ass titties.

So Dimension Films was born and a new chapter of Hell was about to be unleashed in pure American slasher style. Which is what this film became. Whether you wanted it or not.

Story

The film did not forget its sequel. Sort of. It introduces us to the worst dressed man of the 90’s further reminding us as Freddy’s Dead did, that again. The 90’s was not a time to celebrate nor will it ever be. Decisions were made and all of us suffered.

We are introduced to a straight from the Hellraiser comics, Pillar of Souls. Which replaced the much more basic grotesque wooden pillar from the previous film. Now we have an aged stone pillar playing home to Pinhead. Not his human soul, but the essence of the Hell Priest. He was so full of evil in nature that he was ripped from Elliot Spencer and imprisoned within the pillar. The pillar serves much the same way as the death site of hells victims, the moment blood is introduced to the site/pillar. It awakens the trapped spirit within. Such happens to Pinhead that he now finds himself in the same role as Frank and Julia before him. Having to make deals with whoever they can, to free themselves. Meanwhile we are introduced to Joey, a reporter with a can-do attitude trying to find her big story and make it as a reporter.

She befriends a friend of the recently purchased Pinhead centerpiece and begins going to work on her story, while combating PTSD like dreams of her fathers death in Vietnam and visits from Captain Eliot Spencer, the human whom Pinhead came from. He has a quest for Joey, which made sense to someone as sometime. Since Pinhead found a way to enter our world and be reborn, this puts Elliot at unease. Why should he have an eternity in the afterlife, if the monster within him gets to roam free. So he begins putting together a plan for Joey. Stop his evil from being let loose upon an unexpecting world causing unimaginable amounts of suffering.

Joey is understandably shitting herself with all of this information but handles it well. She is a reporter after all.

Unfortunately Pinhead is let loose and makes his presence known immediately through the creation of some of the most uncreative cenobites. But it is his first time so we won’t judge him too harshly for a first attempt.

Now Joey can’t simply go up to him and toss the puzzle box at him like a pokeball. Like any woman trying to send her problems to hell, she needs to lure him back to her apartment where the gateway exist that Elliot can do so for her.

So why doesn’t Pinhead just smack Joey down with some chains and shav her with hells razers? Because bush wasn’t acceptable in the 90’s. entire crotch forest were cleared and destroyed during this time, that’s why we all donated to save the rainforest.

Well the reason he can’t touch her, is hellraiser lore. The box. Pinhead operates on the same laws of return as Frank and Julia. The box is a means to send him back to hell. If hell learns he escaped he knows what awaits him. Destroying the box is his one priority to keeping himself alive and ruling over the hell he plans to turn Earth into. But as long as she has it, he cannot touch her.

But his ceno-friends can!

And touch her they do.

In the funniest goddamn way, I shit you not. The cenobites went from imposing figures with tools and imaginations that you didn’t want near you. Now we have a man with a thrusting piston in his head giving him orgasms, a man with a camera built into his head recording it, a DJ was cd’s in his skul and a cd changer in his chest, and lastly a female cenobite with a cigarette stuck in her throat and in her hands.

Seriously tell me how threatened and pants crapping scared you would be with a bald woman and friends circling you hearing “Oh yeah oooooh yeah” while the bald goth girl taps you with lit cigarettes giggling. Normally you pay for that kind of thing, or you just know the right people.

I used to work in a restaurant across the street from a blacked out “invitation only” club for people into that. We don’t talk about how I learned that, or anything else within it. But I digress.

Joey is chased through the city, mildly inconvenienced by people in leather, until she has a showdown with Pinhead. Which is awkwardly done through early 90’s CGI, stop motion and a lot of ugliness. Through trickery of the mind Pinhead is rather easily able to gain back his box from Joey and could not be happier about his victory. He celebrates it just a little too long though as he soon discovers his former human self is now in the room with them and ready to have a word with him. If you thought the cenobite fight in part 2 was meh, prepare for something even more out of place and anticlimactic. Joey gets put in leather straps and hung from the ceiling, fully clothed because someone was not going to bare any flesh for this(good on her), and the two personalities wax poetic at one another before, literally struggling and merging into each other. Trying to see which soul will win and claim the final form. The victor? Is no one. We all lose. Pinhead looks to have beaten his human self, but as we all learn even after you beat yourself and you relax with that lingering sensation of pleasure and guilt. It doesn’t stop you from getting up and needing to beat it again.

Elliot through the hells of bad CGI screams at Joey to send him to hell, so she does! She stabs the badly formed Pinhead with the puzzlebox. Which has morphed into a plot device, or a blade. With that Pinhead is returned to hell, complete with his former self and peace returns to the world as we know it.

The film has to remind us this was the beginning of a new franchise, so we see Joey bury the box in wet cement and walk off back to her life with no friends, no cameraman and the hopes MTV is hiring. As she fades off into the distance, the film leaps forward in time and lets us know, the box. Did not go unfound. Wherever she buried it in concrete it has been dug up and used as inspiration to create a large skyscraper designed entirely off the Lament configuration. Setting us up for a bright and wonderful Weinstein future.

Jesus wept.

So this was not well received. At all. Fans hated it and weren’t pleased. While the sequel had a much larger scope and epic hopes of a bigger story overall. This film was tossed even further away when it was transformed into something more commercial. If you buy American, you are getting just that. However just like the previous 3 franchises. The film financially did great. For horror. It outperformed Hellraiser 2 thanks to video store rentals and marketing. But it absolutely failed with fans and the story left a lot to be desired.

Which is the interesting part of this film and where we can dive back directly into Hellraiser 2.

See in this film there is a small easer egg given to fans. During Joey’s investigation into the box and where it came from, she  is told to contact the Channard institute and receives some tapes from the archive which reference her search. It gives us a surprise and very small cameo from Kirsty. Who tells us about the puzzle box, the cenobites. Like me it’s incredibly short and doesn’t offer us much to go on, but it’s still a nice nod.

However the original intention was a lot different. Wildly different and again, what a world we would be in had we gone this route.

See, in Hellbound Hellraiser 2, there was as I alluded to, a secret ending filmed. Clive Barker at one point actually really loved Hellraiser. It was his first film and he adapted his own work, faithfully to his liking. He enjoyed part two as well despite the budget and was working on other adaptations of his work to film as well. He had deep plans moving forward with Hellraiser as he too saw it as a potential ongoing franchise. The secret ending they’d filmed for the sequel still had us end up at Dr Channards home with his belongings being shipped off and stored. A mover still meets an unfortunate end, however we weren’t going to end with a pillar of souls and trapped cenobites. Instead we were introduced to what would be the face to carry the franchise as its true villain. The Queen of hell, Julia.

That’s right. Clive Barker wanted Julia to be the central villain of the Hellraiser world. If you recall in part 2 she introduces herself to her step daughter once revived as being, The Queen. It wasn’t just a Snow White jab. Julia had become the Queen of Hell serving beside the lord of the Labyrinth Leviathan.

The film would have ended with a fully formed and dressed in cenobite black pale skinned Julia, smiling seductively and addressing the moving man after finding his friend turned into ground meat, “I’m Julia, love me.”

The story as it was originally meant to be, was going to be called Church of the Sacred Wound, at least it was the working title and again, something straight from the comics and revisited in the recently released Hellraiser Revival game with The Scarlet Church. As the game developers worked directly with Clive Barker he was all too happy to revisit and bring back what was his intended vision with the church, and much like the video game, and hinted at through the comics. The film would have centered on an entire cult like religion of devoted followers to Julia, their priestess who would lead them in worshipping Leviathan and the cenobites. She would lead them in sacrifices, self mutilation and attempting to bridge the gap between hell and our world. As it stands in the lore, the puzzle boxes in all their configurations were designed as door ways linking our world to hells realm. Ambitious souls, and demons would seek to widen that and create an open gate linking our worlds.

In this story, Kirsty would return in a huge role once more, After having escaped the Channard Institute with her no longer mute friend, the two would set out to try and begin life again, carrying their new trauma on top of what Channard inflicted on them both, only to discover Julia and her cult. Hearing about the discovering of mutilated bodies reminiscent of what the two experiences with their encounter at hells literal front door. Kirsty would battle her step mother once more and it would continue again their on going battle established in the first film.

There was also the idea of bringing back another cut storyline from Hellbound where Frank and his brother Rory would potentially return. One serving Julia the other reaching out to Kirsty. The two having their own brotherly battle that they intended to resolve with the original sequel but never got too.

That part I don’t care much for. But the idea that the films would shift away from Pinhead and focus solely on Julia as the face of the franchise. It’s a hell of a move and the possibilities would have been incredibly interesting. I honestly want to know how people would have reacted. Given how many fucking sequels we get after part 3, Imagine if Doug was given a break as Pinhead and instead we kept revisiting Julia.

The thought we would have both her and Kirsty finally having it out for good and all. I really dig that. You could say Kirsty had her story arch in the last film, as sudden as the ending was. She did end Julia’s return in that film. But that’s also what makes it all the more interesting. The idea that Julia escaped hells judgment, emerging as the queen she alluded to being christened. Wanting her own justice and the idea of having the protection and power of her devoted followers to help punish the step daughter she couldn’t stand. It just sounds too damn good.

This was the story part three was going to use. Even with the ending being unused.

Why was it unused? The studio liked it, The director and Clive were all for it. So why.

Clare Higgins, Julia.

Clare very vocally made it known, she absolutely hated the gore, the special effects, and the direction of Hellbound. She wanted nothing to do with the series so, she quite. She wasn’t going to take any offers, calls and any contract would be quickly thrown back at you.

This is still very politely putting just how she felt about part 2. It cannot be understated, she legitimately was not happy and hated this.

Then there’s the other, more well known factor as to why the ending wasn’t used.

Pinhead.

Hellraiser was making its way across the pond in America and across home video. It was growing its own cult like following of fans while the sequel was being filmed and by that point, Pinhead had become the fans hero of the series. He was the franchises Freddy and they wanted more of him. I still remember hearing Doug Bradley at the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors as a kid talking about how it struck him the fandom around his character, that he had received multiple. Multiple offers from women wanting him as pinhead to get them pregnant and have his demon children.

I mean you can look at Julia, knowing she could suck your life juices out your throat hole and leave you a dried husk, Some of us may have even paused the film to admire her….skinless…very unneeded but highly detailed…lower regions. You could look at this murderous creature and still think, you know what? Would hit it.

But Pinhead just had that little bit of extra jazz to him that people wanted more of. I guess the idea of a demon taring you apart with chains was more acceptable and desired over the idea of a woman who sucks your soul dry and rips your heart out.

Clive also had another idea he kicked around, and Atkins was onboard for, which he later revisited with a different series of cenobite like figures with his twisted souls series.

Clive pitched the idea of a Hellraiser that would take place with the creation of the first cenobite. The film would take place in ancient Egypt, it would use the pyramids as the earliest design for what would become Leviathan. It’d explain the bridging between our realms, the creation of the box, the cenobites and eventual hierarchy that leviathan brought into hell giving it order.

The idea was politely given a fuck off and no way in hell. It was either Queen Julia of house Bitch slashing people up, or a new family slashing people up.

These ideas were the sanest, eventually they even went as far as, Well. What would become something of the plot in Part 4(and 5) They toyed with the idea of London. Itself. Being a giant configuration. I’m not joking. The idea would be that several churches throughout were connected as part of the lament configuration and if properly activated. Would transform and bring Leviathan to earth, opening a portal to hell unleashing again, hell on earth. The funny thing is all the writers, the ideas, and directors, mixed in with Clive? None of them hated the ideas and were on board with them, so much so to the point even when flat out rejected, they kept the ideas to circle back too. Clive took his Egyptian Hellraiser idea and decided to pitch it to Universal as Clive Barker’s The Mummy, They turned him down, but it stirred up enough interest that we eventually got the adventure comedy series, The Mummy. And as mentioned these lead to short stories he’d end up turning into series, and the tortured souls series of toys and accompanying stories. It was a very cool creative flow and the idea they could all dig each others ideas and still carry them through later. It doesn’t happen nearly as much now, but its so cool to see happen when it does.

Meanwhile with the film readying for its sequel. The studio as we mentioned went under. Once the film was bought up and readied for a new sequel, the Weinsteins made it very clear they were going to change things up, much in the same way Freddy was with Part 4.

They had no desire to bring anyone from the original films back. This was now an American property. Which meant no British talent, and a much different story with no connective tissue to the originals. This would have a new, American cast and story. It would be handled as a slasher film, not a psychosexual horror thriller.

The only reason Ashley Laurence came back for a cameo was thanks to the director and writer wanting to give original fans something to make them happy since so many fans really cared about the character and wanted more of Kirsty Cotton. But she would only serve as a catch the new audience up and explain the power of the box and cenobites.

So the studio had settled on its new approach to a new Hellraiser. Forget the past and enter the future. It would center on a night club that came into possession of the pillar with Pinhead and he would unleash hell on earth.

They just had one problem. The director. The director who made Hellbound Hellraiser 2, Tony Randel was set to direct part 3. He was the one pushing for the Julia story which didn’t work, and he approached them with the idea of carrying with the tone of the last film, doing a bleak, far darker film where hell would ultimately win. A psychological story with a new group discovering the consequences of selfish desires and the solving of the box. More deals with the cenobites. The studio politely said no. we want a straight to the point, by the numbers slasher. Pinhead was to be the star and people wanted him to kill poor souls.

The director wanted substance and story, the studio denied him this. He tried repeatedly and eventually he was fired. They replaced him with Anthony Hickox. Which makes sense with the shift in tone in the film as well as some later inserts. Anthony directed the Waxworks films, he was someone they could rely on doing what they wanted. Quick dirty horror on the low end budget. If you haven’t seen Waxworks. The first and second film are completely different films. The first is a straight forward anthology of cheesy but fun horror, and the sequel was a time travel scifi comedy adventure. It’s really something to see given the story in the first film was fun and interesting. Only to be so different in the sequel that you’d have to check the credits to see if they changed directors given the huge shift. Where the first film was a fun light horror film, the sequel was more like an evil dead 2 comedy to the point of meta parody, while trying to give you a singular story.

It’s funny to mention his making those films, because at one point during Hellraiser 3, Joey calls up her cameraman to tell him about the news story she saw on her television reporting about Pinheads antics at the Boiler Room. He turns his tv to the channel she tells him only to see a woman belly dancing in a medieval film with a snake. That’s a scene from Waxwork 2.

A funny side note and a good reason to rewatch Waxwork, Doug Bradly makes a cameo in the film playing a juror on a court room scene. He snuck Doug on set just after they’d begun getting ready for Hellraiser 3. Also It’s a good excuse to see the film because Bruce Cambpell pops up in the film for a segment as well playing a paranormal investigator. Always fun seeing Bruce.

So back to the film.

With a new capable director joined in their vision, it was go time. Time to bring Pinhead back and in a new look, with America as his new home.

Yes this is where the Fire Nation attacks.

Even with a director on their side, the studio in power and with the writer seemingly on board. It was all set for a good time. But studios, like New Line, still feel the need to meddle. And meddle they did.

The studio wanted to ensure this investment would be a success. Which sounds familiar with how they handled H20 and Halloween Ressurection. So they demanded more pinhead. The story as it was would have more investigation from Joey, more story from Terry, and learning about the box while Pinhead remains trapped and seducing JP into freeing him. They couldn’t have that, so rewrites were the order of the day. They had already begun pushing out a huge marketing campaign with Pinheads face plastered everywhere. Every single poster, every ad and newspaper spot had Doug’s grid pinned face front and center. So more dialog was given, more scenes of him enjoying being a free cenobite while cutting out side stories like Terry and her struggle to get away from JP, how someone ended up with the puzzlebox torn from the pillar and the man ending up torn apart by the configuration in a hospital.  There was also more of a story to do with the man who sold the pillar to JP. In Hellraiser the man is often referred to as the Guardian or Puzzle Guardian. Always collecting the box after and passing it along to the next marked victim.

You don’t need lore, want lore read the books or the comics. This is a movie damnit!

One of the biggest fights the studio had with the film was again with its writer. The man wanted to do something interesting and they wanted something commercial and safe. The trouble came from the films ending.  Which I will hold a grudge against them for having not allowed given how insane it sounded.

Peter Atkins intended, as was his fashion. A much darker ending. Originally Joey still tricks Pinhead to the land of Limbo in her apartment. Pinhead and Elliot still merge together. However instead of stabbing Pinhead with the box. The psychic energy of the event, the two ultra powerful beings fighting together joined in the same space create a reality shattering explosion. Leaving Joey stranded and alone in Limbo. Pinhead though defeated in Limbo, remains joined with his former self and is returned to hell as the cold calculated being we know and love. He’s back where he began and in charge once more in hells good graces.

Joey is mentally broken and destroyed by all of this. Even after she ‘won’ she still lost as Pinhead still lives, and she remains trapped and hopeless. In this ending, Pinhead approaches her and, Joey sides with Pinhead. Becoming an underling of his.

The film would fast forward several years from the climax, much how it does in its final ending anyway. But instead of a lament configuration style building, we have a large news network and the head of this network is Joey. Who appears very much changed. Confident, in power and cold. We learn very quickly she is being used by Pinhead, serving him using the news network to spread hells influence and pure new victims to the puzzle box, all under Pinheads command giving Leviathan and Pinhead their foothold in our world.

This ending would have received the Clive Barker seal of approval as it carried a core theme with all of his Hellraiser stories, the idea that when it comes to the configuration in all its forms. Any dealings with the cenobites, encounters or callings. Going back to Kirsty and the psychological damage she faced after losing her entire family. No one ever wins against the puzzle box without losing their humanity.

Dimension wanted absolutely nothing to do with that.

At all.

They demanded immediate rewrites where Joey DOES defeat Pinhead, walks away the final girl and winning at life. While like Akkad taught us all, leaving a tease at the end giving you an open door for the next inevitable sequel.

Happy they would get their new ending, the studio felt they were onto a winning streak and decided why not further secure our success and fuck around more. Remind everyone who’s in charge here.

This is a pattern like everything else just like the other franchises. If your going to go big? Go fucking big. Remember in Ressurection how they let Busta Rhymes do what he wanted because that would get the younger generation into theaters? The same was done here. Because Pinhead was seen as a bad ass by his fanbase and the most metal figure. Literally and figuratively. With advertising in full swing. They pimped Pinhead out to everyone and anyone to market the film and to make sure they got the young horror hounds in on the film. They pushed for a metal soundtrack straight off of MTV, It influenced the film as they wanted more to push, more to market. This meant the new cenobites. The very cenobites everyone loves from this film SO much that they can’t help but laugh their ass off at.

Let’s tackle this bit of a dingleberry

Keep this in your mind wile we dig into this. Please, for me. The cenobites were and are tragic figures that represent their true selves. A design orchestrated by the engineer with religious like modifications and body mutilations.

For instance one of the least talked about figures. Butterball, the large cenobite with stitched eyes, no ears and an open festering gut wound. In life he suffered depression, a huge perverted fixation he over indulged and and a pure glutton. The engineer modified his body to create what the man was. His body mas wasn’t just kept, it was bulked, his body filled with boiled fats, he was stripped of the ability to ever feel satisfied, to feel fullness. His eyes stitched closed to symbolize his willful blindness to the consequences of his extreme desires, his willing gluttony to destroy his body for the love of being full, his ignorance to those around him and his sick perversions.

The Chatterer as well. A young runaway who escaped physical and sexual abuse, trying to forget his past, to change himself so no one would ever recognize him or desire him the way his abusers did. The Engineer melted his flesh into a raw open blanket of pulled featureless flesh. His eyes and ears melted away keeping him blind and deaf to the world he wished to escape from. His lips gone, his mouth was wired wide open causing an involuntary constant clicking of his teeth, the sound of a scared shivering child for all eternity.

The engineer designed everything to bring to hells light all of your faults and expose yourself to what was within. Pinhead, is not the engineer. So story wise he is simply an upset devoted follower turning against his master, making abominations in his own image.

JP Monroe, the dickhead owner of the Boiler Room.

Obsessed with himself and using abusing women. Collecting them like he collects anything of interest to himself. He liked fucking and using women. So Pinhead shoved two mechanical pistons in his head constantly fucking his mind.

Terry, the lost runaway trying to escape one abusive relationship after the other and JP. Afraid of her own dreams and wanting to escape her life to lead a normal one. She gets a slit in her throat filled with a Cigarette while carrying smokey treats in her hands.

And DJ The most beloved of the group that Dimension loved. DJ the fan favorite. He’s a DJ at a night club, he’s friendly and helpful to people, keeps the music bumping and the bodies grinding. The man gets CD’s buried into his skull and a cd changer in his chest.

There is. A slight change in operations between these designs.

But the studio demanded it. They wanted to market new cenobites and ESPECIALLY DJ because he’s be able to relate to the youth of the day.

To their credit and using the path of least resistance. The writer decided to use what was already there. He used characters already in the script and made them cenobites based off their profession and anything he could think to link up. Without more work. But CD head was absolutely pushed through by the studio and their main man.

Whats worse about this, as always. The writer presented other designs too. Which had more grounded, traditional cenobite design and function. Which the studio flat out trashed. One of my favorite ones they came up with that even Clive Barker loved. Did not like, but loved. Was a legless cenobite known as Torso The cenobite would drag themselves across the floor using large meathooks. It was an incredibly disturbing design and I can understand why Clive loved it. But the studio wanted gimmicks. Atkins even tried expanding on the lore by adding cenobites that were based off psychological phobias, they would be ethereal and were meant for a planned dream sequence that blurred reality and hell with Joey. The studio flatly denied this and called it art house. They again wanted marketable designs and something ‘cool’

Like a bartender wrapped in barbwire who sits flames, a camera man…with a camera in his head.

Bless the writer, because the man really did try salvaging this. To the point he even included the dialog from Pinhead, that these cenobites were ‘Shadows of my former troops’. Trying again to give the impression Pinhead was hastily making his own designs. Establishing his future as the new engineer of our world. He tried. But it just failed with audiences. But the studio got what they wanted.

The studio having shoved their balls onto the dinner plates of most everyone at the table, were pleased. The film got made, and was ready for viewing. If you followed along with our Halloween Article. You should know this is when the Weinsteins would suddenly realize that, when they meddle with productions to get what they want? They end up with shit, and demand someone fix it because it now sucks. Well the same happened here. After they assembled a workprint of the film and viewed it. Bob was incredibly let down and mad. It looked cheap, the film was boring, lacked atmosphere, lacked horror and made no sense. Imagine that. So his answer? His answer came to mirror the studios answer once they came to a sudden realization. Something missing from the film, that appeared on the other films. Something sort of important.

Clive Barker.

Now, everything I’ve mentioned up to this point? Clive barker was involved in early production. From the story idea of going to Egypt and the church of Julia the queen of hell. By the time the studio closed and was bought off, the new owners decided that, them owning the property, having a director, the writer who worked on the last film AND Doug Bradly signed on. They felt they didn’t need Clive Barker or his creative interference. Clive was happy to walk away and remove his name from the film. He wouldn’t endorse it as they treated him like shit, and he stepped away.

Well The Weinsteins realized the previous films had his named plastered on the film, Clive Barker presents, From the Mind of Clive Barker. Etc. This was seen as a seal of horror approval and having his name on the movie would, they felt promise more asses in seats. If he endorses the project baring the name of his creation? You can take it to the bank this will be good. Given his direction on the first, his relationship with the writer and having brought in his friend Doug Bradley to play Pinhead in the first place. It made sense they needed to bring him onboard. So they offered him an executive producer credit. They offered an I’m sorry bag of money and promised him power as a creative voice on the film. That was why he gave his input on the cenobite designs mentioned above. He was shown the film and he agreed this was dog shit.

Clive Barker went to work with the director re-editing the film scene by scene trying to create a better narrative flow. But it wasn’t enough. The studio wanted more horror, which meant more gore. This is sounding like another repeat of other Weinstein Halloween productions.

So Clive agreed with the gore and told the studio we need MORE money! Film the gore, film more kills. Go hog wild bitches! So they did. This is why the Boiler Room got the deaths it did. Originally the most you could hope for was a closed door with bodies slamming into it and blood pooling at the floor. It’s fun to mention this reshoot because if you pay close attention to the bar patrons? One of the people in the bar that get torn apart is Zach Galligan from Gremlins. Who was used by the director in both Waxwork films and was asked to pop in and get murdered by a cenobite.

Atop the gore additions, Barker also added his personal designs. Which while awesome, were also what later added to the film feeling like an odd mix of glued together shots. Clive Barker is why Joey suddenly gets suspended by chains, strapped in BDSM and a fleshy cum oozing appendage with blades and biomechanical tools grows out of the floor to begin torturing her.

He also sided with the writer, as a fellow writer and the father of these films, by slowing down the pace of the film and making sure to change bits of lore surrounding the cenobites and his puzzle box. Keeping these things consistent and making logical sense. That’s why the lament configuration turns into its leviathan configuration which Joey stabs Pinhead with, even if the script and original descriptive audio referred to it as “Stabbed with a blade”.

NOW the film was ready. It made sense. The story was salvaged. Clive gave it his approval and would attach his “Clive Barker Presents” seal of approval. The studio felt rewarded for their meddling and all was right with the world.

Except we  should know by now, given Halloween….Nightmare on Elm Street….and Friday the 13th.

They still had to face the MPAA, and dear lord was it funny.

After using a turkey baster and shoving in all the gore and dark atmosphere the film was missing? Every fucking frame of it was removed.

So the film was edited a second time and sent off for another viewing.

They were told to remove the sexual imagery. No titties, no ass, the no more than 2 thrust rule still applied.

So the film was edited a third time.

With the film now back to its original state of being a confused mess with disjointed scenes, quick edits and slimmed down kills. The movie was ready for release onto the world, It was granted the R rating it wanted.

The film, like a lot of these we’ve discussed. Was not a success among the fans or critics. It was seen as cheesy, comedic over scary. The story made little to no sense. The effects were dated even for the time. No one liked any of the new cenobites. I still remember being their opening night as a kid. My cousin and her late husband took me to see it. I was with the big kids this movie was marketed for. Everyone was laughing through a majority of the movie and at the end. It wasn’t a laughing with you laughter either. But I didn’t care because I got to see an R rated horror movie, specifically my first Hellraiser in theater on the big screen. It was the height of my life at the moment, especially being in a theater with true gore hounds.

So audiences didn’t like it, but the film. Like those before it. Made a profit. It made more money than Hellbound had. The movie was made for $5 million, and grossed $12.5 million. Which for the franchise was a decent start, It wasn’t the same numbers as the other franchises, but this was a British established franchise making its mark over in America, had it started in the states it would have been making Nightmare numbers and reached a larger audience. Not at all underselling its success, but saying this is why when looking at the numbers compared to the other franchises? It wasn’t that Hellraiser was a niche franchise. It very much wasn’t.

This was one of the big boys and Dimension was very much wanting to set aside a podium meant for Pinhead after the first film took off as quickly as it did in the states.

It’s both unfortunate but fortunate that Dimension picked them up. I don’t know who else could have picked it up or would have. The idea of New Line picking them up still makes me wonder what could have been had they. But this is the world we live in, and this film is in that world. Whether we like it or not.

The finger of blame on this film being what it was is easily placed on the studio. But they don’t care. To them, they succeeded in exactly what they hoped. Makin’ money. With the money in the bag, making more than the sequel which was still loved by fans even if divided. They made more, they succeeded, this meant a sequel could go forward and instead of a hodge podge mess. This one would be different. This one would be better.

Since Clive Barker was brought on as an executive producer, and Atkins was enjoying the collaboration. They began trading ideas for the eventual followup. One of which, even if the more ludicrous of the ideas. Would become a large part of the next story.

Ladies and Gentleman, we are about to enter the downfall of the franchise in all it’s beautiful glory. You aren’t ready for this one. But hey, at least we can’t have worse than CD head right?

Right?