Want To See Pinhead Re-Imagined?

It's not really the disorderly fashion of the pins that bother me. I think the black S & M gear was just as iconic as the fact that he had pins sticking out of his head, I thought it was a mistake to get rid of them. Also I thought it was a helluva lot spookier to give him beady eyes instead of those Riddick/Blade 2 reapers thing he has going on there.

I'm also wondering if he meant to remove the white pale skin look Pinhead had or if it's just for the make up test. That too is a big no-no. I just think Clive Baker perfected the look, the only thing they should do in a re-invention is copy that exact look but implement it with the state of the art effects at their disposal that Baker had no access to.

I have to be honest, in the photos Ive seen, the pins don't actually look all that disorderly to me...

Uh... Link?

Fangoria Online seems to have the main pics Quarant, but I have to say, that really doesn't look all that 'random'...

That looks like a videogame.

It does. Looks like the Unreal engine at work.

It's a nice change, without falling completely off the page. It works. I'm glad they got rid of the cliché black leather/rubber combo. I can't wait to see what else they have in store. A Channard re-design would be sweet.

Don't mind the pins, but I'm not a fan of the bleeding scars. Never thought I'd say this, but that amount of gore is just unnecessary.

That looks like Sam Neill decided to recoup from his battle with Larry Fishburne with a little acupuncture.

I think it's the contacts that really make it work for me. Anyone know who the model is? He kinda reminds me of Michael Rosenbaum.

It's not a horrible design but the one for the original movies works so much better for all the reasons Stelios stated.

If they absolutely have to redesign it I wouldn't mind this but they should just go with the original design if at all possible.

Wait, that's just like a makeup test that the FX guy did to try and get the job. That's not final is it?

The blood just really, really, doesn't work for me in those pictures whatsoever. There's a ritualised quality to Pinhead which always seemed to work well with his pristine makeup.

I like the symetrical elegance of the original look. It makes him look more like a LEADER than this new look does.

Same here. Granted, I do like some of the ideas behind where the FX guy is going, but Pinhead and his crew are supposed to be the upper echelon of Hell or Hell's army, and the black clothing/fetish gear always struck me as having a subtle SS look to it.

As to re-designing the character, it's GOT to start with Clive Barker's input. It's his baby, he knows Pinhead better than anyone, and he set up the look from the get go (I saw a sketch he did of Pinhead in one of his art books back in the day, and that sketch is pretty damn close to what we all know and love today).

I kind of like the raw, brutal look of the new design. It looks like the guy's really [I]suffering[I]. I did get a sense of menace from Pinhead, but not as much of a sense that he's actually in pain. I guess the bleeding kind of makes sense, as the Cenobites' victims were kept alive to be tortured thru eternity, so you'd expect that their wounds would perpetually heal and reopen. The bottom line for me is that if the pain Pinhead is in comes across, I think he's scarier, because that gives you a sense of frightening anticipation. If this motherfucker is in that much pain, you KNOW he's gonna lash out and lay a world of hurt on his victims out of rage. The contacts work for me, too, because they make him look Goddam demented. You'd expect that decades of non stop torture beyond human comprehension would shatter his reason & give him the 1000 yard stare, to say the least. Lastly, the larger size of the nails in this design are far more cringe inducing, IMO, than Pinhead's tiny brad nails were. Barker's stories always had a raw, visceral edge to them. I don't imagine he'd be that upset with this design.

I never read any of the books, so I might be completely wrong about it, but I don't think I ever associated Pinhead with rage.

I agree entirely, and your reference to the subtle SS look of the uniforms is a nice observation. These are not madmen, afterall; they are methodical and precise in their vocations.

I agree with this as well. They've transcended the torture experience from the merely physical level at this point. They're teachers now.

I understand your point, but if this new Pinhead were in as much pain as this pic implies, chances are he'd be on the floor in a fetal position screaming.

The older design had a sense of... elegance?... to him, like he was a connousieur of pain and suffering, that he had such secrets behind his exterior and his eyes and God help you if he decided to show them to you. This newer design, while it captures Barker's taste for the visceral, doesn't convey that same sense of menace; it's a cool design, and very reminiscent of Pinhead, but it lacks style.

Y'know, looking at the picture again, I think I know what's throwing me off - the new Pinhead design looks brutal, and as a result, I'd expect this Pinhead to BE brutal... you know he'd fuck you up, straight and to the point (almost has a Hostel feel to him). The older Pinhead design has a cleaner look, with the odd bit of nastiness thrown in - you'd expect him to fuck you up, but the true horror would be in the anticipation of HOW he'd do it.

I don't like it. The whole point of the Order of the Gash is order and symmetry. That's why each nail is inserted in a neat and orderly way. This make-up, while not completely random, doesn't have the clean, neat and orderly lines his character requires.

Summed it nicely. I don't like it.
Maybe for an entry in the Silent Hill series. Doesn't complement the original aesthetic IMO.

Points well taken. I didn't mean to imply that Pinhead is or should be a stark raving lunatic, but you can't - as a being that was one human, anyway - endure suffering of the levels they apparently do and come away with all your marbles intact. Maybe rage isn't the right word, but I think the people who sought out the Configurations, seeking to find the limits of sensation, are disaffected & probably angry people with little connection to their fellow man (in other words, not all there) to begin with. Perhaps they seek to teach others what they know thru a mad, joyous exuberance? Or maybe they are just sadomasochists pushed to their logical conslusions? Further, I didn't mean to insinuate Pinhead would kill someone slasher style, all wham, bam & thank you ma'am. Of course he'd be precise & methodical. But you have to think no one could hold completely still while perfectly symmertical rows of nails are driven into your head. Surely you'd squirm, and throw off the aim of the torturers just a bit? Hence the slightly uneven nature of the nails & slashes in the new design are pluses to me.

In the book he was elegant, almost feminine. Wispy voice and perfect symmetry of twisted flesh.

I guess whether or not this works depends on the film they make. I don't want some stupid, gory film. I want more or less what the book is...

A love story that goes beyond death, with some pretty fucked up goings-on.

Entirely possible, and well reasoned, Ig. As always. Before his transformation into Pinhead, Elliot Spenser was a burned out WW1 vet, becoming "an explorer of forbidden pleasures", which led him to the Lament Configuration.

I do agree that suffering as Pinhead did during his transformation (great, great scene - in Hellraiser 3, when Elliot Spenser is transformed into Pinhead, and you see the grid pattern getting cut into his scalp and the pins going into his head, you catch his mouth go from gritting his teeth because of the pain to this sick, satisfied, smile) would definitely make you batshit insane. It's how the character carries off the insanity that helps define them. Old-school Pinhead's insanity was presented under a controlled (re: ordered), sophisticated, elegant (thanks, Judas!), exterior; IMO that made him even more frightening - he was evil by design, and it shows in his appearance. I could picture him sipping some wine as he nonchalantly sends the barbed chains and hooks flying.

The proposed Pinhead re-design, which does look pretty nifty, looks more chaotic with it's random slashes and pell mell pins. Based on his appearance, and it definitely invokes the current theme of torture porn in horror nowadays, I'd expect him to be far more savage with his actions. There's no mystery to him - he's experienced pain and he's going to share it with you, brutally.

Well, this is all neither here nor there - the real test'll be how the OFFICIAL Pinhead re-design will go over once it's shown. Expect a gnashing of teeth greater than the Chatterer Cenobite's from the fans soon after.

Poetry.

Mmmmmmm. . . . I don't think I get random & chaotic from it so much as imperfectly orderly. There is a pattern, albeit one that's disrupted by what MRI techs refer to as "patient's motion artifact". I honestly didn't make the torture porn connection, though, until you just mentioned it. I certainly hope they don't go in that direction (although being the gorehound I am, I'd of course never object to more gore). The pain/pleasure the Cenobites inflicted was always a purer sort, I thought, fraught with that sex/death dichotomy Barker was famous for. I think you expressed it a bit more clearly than I did, in that Pinhead & his fellows are reacting to their torture in an organized, calm & considered way. But a way that is still, on some level, batshit insane. And this isn't as contradictory as it may sound; many real life serial killers are cool and very methodical in their thinking, planning & acting. But it was - to coin Dr. Lecter's phrase - years of systematic abuse that made them what they are. It's how they chose to react to it that made them dangerous. They want to share their pain and inflict some of their own, too. But they carefully plan & orchestrate when, how & w/ whom they'll do the sharing. So too w/ the Cenobites.

I think of the Cenobites almost as torture surgeons (from the old look), as opposed to torture butchers (from the new look).

If you’re thinking that Pinhead and the rest of the Cenobites were tricked into their current fates then you’re massively misreading the text. They actively sought out and relish their current forms.

Indeed the Cenobites in the original Hellraiser aren’t really psychotic or evil persay*, they’re operating on a far more lateral/logical level than a bunch of psychopathic sadomasochists who hate the world for their pain. These are people who take a conscious decision to push themselves beyond the realms of human experience, but they did this because they chose to not because they were abused or whatever.

*They seem more affronted at Kristy opening the box than anything else, despite their villainous turn in the last five minutes.

Interesting points, Ig (didn't know about the "patient's motion artifact." Hey, I just got my learn on! Thanks, Ig!). I do agree, Pinhead Old School and New G Pinhead are both undeniably insane - I think what was throwing me with the design was it was almost too "hardcore", as the writer of the Fangoria article intended, and as a result, I'd expect how he'd attack would match how he looked. In this case, I'd expect his tortures would be a bit rougher than the original Pinhead's (although a fair chunk of that went out the window during the sequels).

Who knows? If this is the direction they go in, maybe "appearances can be deceiving", and this guy might be more calm, cool, and collected in his tortures than the original. Definitely one to ponder, but won't know for sure until we get more info once filming starts.

So... any pics of a redesigned Female Cenobite out there?

I also like the otherworldly blue tint to the original Pinhead's skintone. It makes him appear to be from another world or dimension. The new design is a little too 'earthly' for what I consider to be an astral esplorer of the physical limits of pain.

Go with that feeling, stelios.

Good point about the skintone, Judas - it does convey an almost alien look to the character, which also translates to his personality, and kind of riifs off some of the points you, Ig, and others made earlier.

Yeah, I'm gonna re-watch Hellraiser tonight. It's FAR overdue.

Perfectly put. And yes, I think I'll take a break this weekend and re-watch Hellraiser.

First time I saw the original Hellraiser (maybe 2 years ago) I couldn't stop laughing. Does that make me a bad person?

I agree completely that they willingly sought out their fate, but I feel a) they may have gotten more than they bargained for (remember, Frank spends most of Part I trying to escape), and b) even if they do love their lot, they are compelled to share what they've learned. This may be thru some kind of cosmic "rules" system (someone having to go back w/ them whenever the box is opened and all that) or just their own perverse desires. Or some combination thereof. IMO, the willing infliction of pain on that scale, even if it ultimately leads to some pleasure beyond, is a form of evil.

Hellbound proposed that The Cenobites had forgotten who they were, which would lead you to believe that they had also forgotten what they were seeking in the first place or why. Or how they had evolved to the state they were in. But, then again, I'm not that big of a fan of Hellbound specifically for that reason. It's hard to call yourself an explorer if you don't remember where you came from or realize how much you've changed or learned over the course of your journey. A Cenobite who thinks it has always been a Cenobite would have no grounds for comparison. It would have always known nothing but the most extreme forms of suffering and therefore it would have very little to relish in a new state of being. And if they are operating under the belief that they had always been this way, then it's doubtful they would even remember the lessons of the flesh that they are so eager to impart. Because if they remember what had been inflicted upon them, or what they had inflicted upon themselves, then they should be able to remember all the way back to the beginning of who they were before the lessons began. Hellbound puts forth the notion that these really are just monsters following some sort of implanted behavior that they may not even fully understand themselves. All it takes is a freaking photo to jar them out of it and suddenly they're no longer interested in the exploration of the further regions of human experience. They shake it off like they had been in a voodoo trance. Phooey, I say. Phooey.

In regards to this new design...

What I feel Barker was referring to in the above quote was that the make-up and design had lost its impact. As the make-up artist mentions, Clive said this over the years on the sets of the endless sequels that were being churned out. Something that had once been shocking had become mundane due to over exposure. So by saying that the make-up had lost "the decay and filth", I don't think he was talking about actual blood and grue, but that the design was no longer as perverse as it once had been. Even your mom knew who Pinhead was. The make-up artist, however, totally misinterpreted this and went for messy, wet gore completely abandoning the elegance of the original design. And it is elegant. Regal even.

Oh I wasn't trying to conjure that comparison AT ALL. The word "Torture" has been tainted.
Yup. Zactly.

He looks like the henchmen you dispatch on the way to the Big Boss, but I guess it does look "hardcore."