Cenobites

"Explorers in the further regions of experience. Demons to some, angels to others. " ~ Lead Cenobite (Pinhead)

A Cenobite is a type of demon that exists in the Hellraiser universe, formed from the souls of mortals that have given into forbidden pleasures. The Cenobites are disturbing, sadomasochistic beings that exist to drag mortals to Hell and torture them so as to reveal all the hidden pleasures and horrors of suffering: in the original film the Cenobites were not truly evil creatures but rather neutral - being tasked with capturing whoever solved the riddle of the Lament Configuration, however much like their leader - Pinhead - they would develop a more aggressive nature as the series progressed and became more "standard" horror characters that killed and maimed without purpose.

What Is A Cenobite?
A Cenobite is a type of demon described in Clive Barker's novella Hellbound Heart as well as the eight movies based on this universe - they are extradimensional in nature and as such do not freely roam Earth (at least not in the original film) and must be summoned by the use of the strange device known as the Lament Configuration.

Once summoned, it is a Cenobite's duty to take the person who solved the Lament Configuration puzzle to Hell in order to receive their "reward" of an eternity of torture that would reveal to them all the different levels of pain and ecstasy that the Cenobites know of. Trying to flee from a Cenobite only makes things worse as they are programmed to hunt down any mortal foolish enough to do so and have been known to become more vicious if people oppose them (as was the case with Pinhead's famous line: "trick us and we shall tear your soul apart!").

Cenobites are different from a lot of demons in fiction by the fact they have human origins - almost all Cenobites started existence as a human being but became transformed into Cenobites upon losing their sanity and soul to depravity, this goes some way to explaining why Cenobites appear in humanoid form and why they have a special interest in torturing others.

Usual Traits Of A Cenobite
Although there is no official chart detailing what is and is not a Cenobite, several features have been present in the Cenobites throughout the series - at first, these entities tend to appear to humans as deformed humans, some Cenobites also have self-inflicted wounds over their bodies: an outward manifestation of the sadomasochistic nature of these beings.

Cenobites tend to dress in skin-tight leather that reveals a fair amount of flesh while still keeping them "decent" (though the word decent and Cenobite should never really be used in the same sentence) - many Cenobites also carry weapons or instruments of torture with them, some Cenobites may even have such devices permanently moulded into their bodies via unnatural mutation.

Cenobites are often nick-named by their outward appearance: some of the more famous are - Pinhead (named after the self-inflicted pin mutilation over his head), Butterball (a horribly obese Cenobite) and Chatterer (named after his horrific facial deformity that leaves him with exposed teeth and gums).

Every Cenobite's deformity and mutilation, as well as choice of weapon (or lack of) is individual but their leather clothing seems to be standard uniform for all Cenobites - whether it is by choice or a part of being a Cenobite is unknown..

Usual Personality Of A Cenobite
In the first film a Cenobite was portrayed as a neutral being that was neither good nor evil - as they had quoted themselves they were "demons to some, angels to others" and they were immensely intelligent creatures who while repulsive, also displayed an unsettling grace.

However when opposed the Cenobites were not above using terror to pursue their prey and they were always portrayed as sadomasochistic - meaning that they enjoyed both inflicting pain and receiving pain: although not truly malevolent the Cenobites of the first film were nevertheless merciless forces of nature.

The Cenobites changed their personalities drastically in the sequels and become more and more like the stereotypical Western portrayal of demons, being obsessed with world-domination and apocalyptic-styled torturing of humanity as a whole (in direct opposition to a Cenobite's nature in the novel and first film, where they only wished to torture the one who summoned them).

Powers Of A Cenobite
A Cenobite has a vast array of supernatural powers due to his or her connection to Hell as well their own unnatural mutation - as mentioned above many Cenobites also carry their own unique weapon or instrument of torture as well.

Cenobites are shown as being capable of appearing instantly in almost any location and are able to track down whoever summoned them, even over great distances - they can proceed to drag this individual back to Hell but seem to lack the ability to freely roam back and forth from Hell without the Lament Configuration.

More powerful Cenobites, such as Pinhead, have been shown to have near-limitless powers at their disposal to the point they could even transform humans into Cenobites upon death, as was seen in Hellraiser III when Pinhead created a small army of new Cenobites from his victims.

All Cenobites would appear to have great knowledge on both pain and pleasure, making them masters of both physical and psychological torture - this coupled with their supernatural abilities serve to make Cenobites arguably amongst the most frightening of all demons in fiction.