>The earlier of two drafts recalls much of the franchise’s mythology, but also introduces fresh elements. The TOYMAKER/ENGINEER is reintroduced and what we learn is that, over the years, hundreds of boxes have been crafted and put out into the world. In the process, the Toymaker is murdered with the killer taking the mantle as the new Engineer. The boxes multiply over the years, as do the creation of new Engineers.
>An exciting new addition to the mythology would have been the TOYBREAKERS, a secret group of devoted individuals who dedicate their lives to finding and destroying these gateways to Hell.
>This version of Hellraiser would have opened with a family’s house being blown up, killing a mother and two of her children. A surviving daughter becomes the central protagonist as “the” box eventually finds her. Later, two of these Toybreakers (BLYTHE and TRUMAN) discover a reconfigured box that offers hope to close all of the gateways forever. This insane sequence introduces the central Cenobites, BLACK and WHITE (the Yin and Yang of Hell) and the big bad, GLASS, a black-clad figure with ribbons of jagged stained glass protruding from his face.
>Truman turns on Blythe, but it’s in an attempt to stop the Cenobites forever. This will come into play later as the story returns to the survivor of the explosion, LISA, who is now 19 years old. The character MULE is introduced: a fat and sweaty man that actually delivered the explosive package in the opening scene. This becomes a huge ordeal for Lisa and her friends that ends with a car accident and a trip to the hospital. There, it’s revealed that Mule holds the box in his stomach and cuts it out, while also delivering a message to Lisa: “I have traveled far to make you an offer.“
>He recounts her loss and offers her the opportunity to reunite with her family. She must solve the puzzle and open the box. She’s then haunted by the sight and sound of her family calling her to use the key, and open the box. This unleashes an orgy of Cenobites onto the hospital which are known as LO-BITES. Aided by Black and White, and the return of Glass, the reckoning also reunites Lisa with her father… Truman! This set piece is a massive labyrinth of blood, guts, and torture, before Lisa eventually closes the box and shuts the door on Hell (for the time being).
>As the characters come to terms with what just happened, there’s an interesting development in the morgue… the Mule, well, his flesh was just a shell…and inside are dozens of pins! Meanwhile, Black and White are attempting to convince Truman to destroy the Engineer and thus become the Engineer. You know, kill it from the inside. Another wild set piece traps Lisa and Erik in a Hellavator, while clues begin to emerge. The biggest tie-in is the infamous quote, “Jesus wept,” and the elevator leads them all to a frozen statue that doubles as the final puzzle. Lisa solves it and with it comes the Cenobites and a massive battle.
>This is when the big reveal occurs: Erik is just flesh and underneath it all is a dying and withering Pinhead.
>He urges her to stop her father if she ever wants to see her family again. With the help of Black and White, Truman kills Pinhead and thus takes his throne. Or does he? Something isn’t right. Lisa stands up to reveal her body has become a puzzle box and dares her father to solve it. “Would you destroy the last of your family to get what you want?” Truman explains that he’ll do what he has to because he’s the good guy and folds Lisa up, solving the puzzle. As Pinhead slowly deteriorates, Truman exclaims, “Thought you could trick me? Make a puzzle of my daughter? Well, I solved your puzzle. The world is mine now.”
>Pinhead: “You did not… solve it. You put it… back together.“
>As Pinhead closes his eyes forever, the Lisa-box lights up and unfolds to reveal that she is now covered in pins. “Perfectly symmetrical pins. Row after row all over. Everywhere.” It is revealed that Truman and Lisa are both part of the Toymaker’s original bloodline and with these turns of events have created the most powerful of all Engineers. Truman has failed and Hell has a new Queen. Lisa’s family is returned, as promised by Pinhead, and Truman’s punishment is to be trapped in his body… to watch as his family lives among the most powerful demon Hell has ever seen.
>Interestingly, there was a different spin on this mythology that was outlined later that year, and leads me to believe the executives at Dimension wished for a more teen-friendly, toned-down version of the treatment. While it is dialed back, the film opens with an insane sequence in which the box quickly moves from person to person, killing everyone in its path (right down to a plane explosion) as it makes its way to…TANNER. In this version, which feels rights out of a Final Destination sequel, Tanner is a red herring that’s used to set up the surprise that the box was meant for Lisa. Through the outline, Lisa’s friends are, one by one, turned into Cenobites. In the alternate finale, Pinhead offers her their lives in exchange for her soul.
>“Choose hell and the suffering of your friends will end.” Lisa considers, then, “I don’t choose hell. I choose my friends.” Pinhead: “As I knew you would.”
>It appears that the twist here is that Pinhead is unaware that, in turning Lisa into Cenobite, he’s fulfilling the destiny that she’s the last descendant of the Toymaker. Lisa destroys Pinhead. Melts Glass’s face into an eternal, horrific smile. Combines Black and White making Gray.
>As Pinhead lays dying, he exclaims, “So the power is yours now. Free your friends yourself then.” She turns to them within her newfound evil. “Why would I want to do that?” Suddenly her friends scream as she changes them back into Cenobites.
>As Pinhead dies…he smiles. This was his plan all along…
>he’s the good guy and folds Lisa up, solving the puzzle. What the fuck Does this mean he literally physically folds her body to 'solve' it? This sounds so goddamn retarded
The problem with Pinhead (f) is that she's a little too squeaky clean. She should have big exposed swollen nipples or something else going on. Kind of like
I HATE the second one, but not because of that, like, at all.
Cooper Jackson
That honestly sounds completely fucking stupid and so absolutely the opposite of what Hellraiser was supposed to be about. What a shambles, thank fuck it's cancelled. Hellraiser was about the inhuman extremes of experience and sensation, not just demonic BDSM. There's so much you could do with that core concept, but nah, pile on the gore. Hellraiser is about, or should be about, jaded weirdos end up with the box and they think they know what they're getting into, but they don't, and it never ends well for them. Or maybe it's exactly what they wanted. The vagueness is the whole point. War veterans, movie producers, top tier CEOs, old money families or the lowest of the low absolute creeps of society, the absolutely destitute, there's so much to fucking work with and they do this shit? Creativelt bankrupt is call I can call it. Everything needs a "mythos" now, just make a fucking horror movie.
Wyatt Flores
this making a good hellraiser film does not rest on adding another piece to pinhead's backstory or revealing that the box came from outer space or some shit, it hinges on having a (somewhat) engaging story and interesting non-cenobite characters
this is why no. 5 is the most successful behind the first two. it's like a trashy mulholland drive, which is the best one can hope for at this point
Joseph Scott
this doesn't seem to be the same person as the OP
Jaxson Garcia
Op is Loretta Vampz
Charles Bennett
Is there any case where expanding on the lore and background, especially of horror movies turned out well? Loom at Alien and the clusterfuck it became when senile Ridley fucked with the engineers killing all the mystery
Nathan Evans
Of horror movies, no. It's completely against the core concept of horror, you can only reveal so much before it stop being horror and becomes fantasy. Hellraiser 2 balances the line because everything revealed to you is weird and hellish and in tone. But Channard really fucks with the tone bad, he needed to be cut out.
Thomas Wood
Hellraiser frustrates me so much because the concept and aesthetic are amazing but they've never pulled off the execution to its fullest potential. Literally none of the movies are particularly good, with the first being by far the best but it's basically just a really good foundation for what should have been a grotesquely uncomfortable exploration of the human psyche.
Joseph Parker
Budgeting is why Hellraiser never achieved full potential. It’s subject matters a true horror filter that limits its audience and profit margin.
Sadily, because of this it’ll never get a decent enough budget
Jaxon Turner
Chucky sequels, jeepers Creepers 2, Tremors 2
Wyatt Kelly
Budgets are irrelevant. You need a box, white powder, and nails.
It also requires uncomfortable subject matter and discussion of forbidden pleasures, which is the reason it always fails.
Austin Taylor
>Erik is just flesh and underneath it all is a dying and withering Pinhead.
Am I missing something? Who is Erik, other than someone who apparently gets in the Hellavator with Lisa??
Sounds like we dodged a bullet though.
While we're on the topic - now that Blumhouse are apparently looking into the franchise, what would you ideally want them to do with it? Relaunch? Continuation? New Cenobites or bring back Based Bradley? Who would direct it?
Blumhouse make average mid tier horror, Hellraiser is not the place for it. Give the IP to some freak indie filmmaker and let them go crazy, Dimension is doing fuck all with the IP but letting it stagnate.
>Hellraiser 2 balances the line haha no it doesn't.
Brayden Perry
Is this supposed to be an argument in favor or against them?
Colton Williams
that's up to you, but it's a real halloween movie, not some "blumhouse-ization" that doesn't count, like the Prom Night remake. If they make a hellraiser, it'll be a real hellraiser, and it' s not like hellraiser's reputation as a franchise could be damaged any further.
Jace Cooper
Don't be a shitter
Ian Scott
Dubs of truth. I'll take my chances on Blumhouse because the worst that could happen already happened for 3/4 of the franchise
>third film is literally just the first ine again with a different BG
Also I just watched Deader and am about to move onto Hellworld. I see Henriksen is in it so am I kino bound?
Daniel Ward
Hellworld is a full-on 90s movie that somehow came to exist in a different decade than the one it belongs in. Also has based Cavill. It's my favorite one.
Nicholas Ramirez
>Also has based Cavill. no fuckin way lmao
Jeremiah Wood
we really should have a hellraiser marathon stream sometime
Aaron King
What is this franchise even about?
Charles Watson
lame sex demons for the first four movies, then they all end up being about detectives who were dead the whole time and didn't know it
it's a lot lamer than it sounds they just stand around telling you how intimidating they are
Nathaniel Ramirez
Jack White isn't looking too good
Jonathan Bailey
lmao
Logan Price
There's a magic puzzle box that if you solve summons Pinhead and his friends. They come to take you to their hell/labyrinth world for calling them where pain and pleasure become indistinguishable. I don't know about the later movies, but the early stuff is "I opened the box, whoops I changed my mind fuck I want out let me out" staring a young girl and her family.
Sebastian Bennett
Other guy's a retard. The series is supposed to be an exploration on the idea of supremely jaded people trying to access realms of experience beyond our mundane one and maybe getting way more than they bargained for and regular people getting caught up in it all. The Cenobites are the main attraction of it, because the role of villain is a bit vague, and of course their weir designs and dialogue.
Camden Gray
aka sex demons
Chase Allen
I liked inferno/hellseeker for what they were
3 was campy and dumb
Bloodline was unwatchable
Only 1 and 2 were fun flicks where i was interested in the demons. Last two are garbo
Kayden Adams
which one was pinhead in space
Thomas Carter
Bloodline
Colton Myers
i want a director's cut of that one. they left out loads of footage from the 18th century timeline iirc
Gabriel Lee
i want a hell princess waifu and i will never stand in hells way
Dominic Hill
Sure, just find a way to get Alan Smithee back on the lot to get you your cut, lol.
It was supposed to be a 2 part movie with the future being bookends or something.
Lucas Hughes
The fuck it isn’t relevant. You’re not going to get good script, above subpar actors and production designed on a chump change budget this series has. Shit, Netflix original content has bigger budgets then most the Hellraisers
Christopher Sanders
Half of this is pulled from the comics Clive Barker was involved with.
Anthony Lee
Hellraiser spiraled so deep down the drain that anything is an improvement. Make Pinhead black, make our heroes trannies, make the villains alt-right incels - it will still not be worse.
>black tranny with a magnum dong god damn it user i didn't plan to masturbate today
Gabriel Cooper
>teen-friendly, toned-down version of the treatment what the fuck
Cooper Powell
This guy's right but I kind of liked where Bloodline tried to go. Adam Scott's in it! That doesn't move the needle either way though. I think it's also the last work directed "by" Alan Smithee. Seems like use of the name died off not long after then.
Keeping the scale down to one house and a small group of people and a series of unspeakable acts and horrors really makes it work. If Hellseeker wasn't so goddamned boring it might have been able to keep in tone with the first two--Hell as a personal experience and attended by a dedicated chaperone.
Shrugging and deciding maybe Pinhead summons soldiers and starts killing at random is was a terrible idea. Bait-and-switching at the end of Dr Crazy's Coincidental Murder House was a terrible idea. The found footage one with a 90-pound Pinhead standin was clearly done to protect a license.
Trying to one-up the last sequel with the grossest new Cenobite misses the fucking point.
We've got cosmic horror without all the racist baggage ol HPL and with the unique feature of being interested in human suffering. It has a face and a voice because that makes the job easier.
Logan Murphy
based effortposter
Chase Howard
fuck I meant Inferno instead of Hellseeker. I can't even remember Hellseeker. I think that's where the art dealer keeps feeding the pillar hookers? Maybe that was Hell on Earth.
Something I wish later movies stopped doing was to add different versions of Chatterer. I know he is a fan favorite, hell, he is a favorite of mine too, but you can only add enough versions of him until it gets old. I know the same could be said about Pinhead and a Hellraiser movie that featured an all new cast of Cenobites like they do in the comics would've been fun. But with how terrible the later movies turned out regardless of Doug Bradley's amazing acting I don't want to imagine how they would turn up.
i've only seen the first five, and i can safely say that any hellraiser that pits the protagonists directly against pinhead & co. instead of making them a third party turns out lame and/or shitty
