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All is death, woman. All is pain. Love breeds loss. Isolation breeds resentment. No matter which way we turn, we are beaten. Our only true inheritance is death. And our only legacy, dust.
~ The Hell Priest to Norma, in Scarlet Gospels.

The Hell Priest, also known as Pinhead, is a minor antagonist in Hellraiser: A Film By Clive Barker, a volume that collects the original script of the film Hellraiser by Clive Barker and sold together with the laserdisc of the film, and the main antagonist of its sequel The Scarlet Gospels and Hellraiser the Toll. All three stories compose a trilogy that follows the events of the original 1987 film, while ignoring the events of the sequels as well as that of the original novella. He is the leader of the order of demons known as the Cenobites.

Biography[]

Hellraiser: A Film By Clive Barker[]

In the screenplay volume, Pinhead's actions are relatively the same within the film's theatrical release. The screenplay ignores Pinhead's characterization in the original novella and gives him the role as the lead Cenobite who is obviously male as opposed to being androgynous in the novella. He is also given actual pins in his head instead of tattoos.

The Scarlet Gospels[]

In the 2015 sequel The Scarlet Gospels, Pinhead returns as the main antagonist and seeks to destroy all magicians in the world, absorbing their power and leaving some alive to be his broken slaves. He is referred to as the "Hell Priest". He goes against Harry D'Amour, another iconic character within Barker's novels.

The Hell Priest's intentions are exposed once Joseph Ragowski, one of the magicians he killed, is resurrected via the N'guize Working and reveals his plans. Ragowski's resurrectors are led by Elizabeth Kottlove, and include Lili Saffro, Yashar Heyadat, Arnold Poltash and Theodore Felixson. They try to figure out a way to stop the Hell Priest, however he finds them. He kills Poltash with his hooks and chains for trying to escape, rapes Elizabeth, and kills Heyadat for trying to reason with him, in the same way he killed Poltash. Lili dies from the trauma of seeing Heyadat get killed. The Hell Priest shows anger over being called "Pinhead" by Joseph, and kills him a second time for having done so, by infecting his head with worms that end up eating him. Elizabeth dies from the baby resulted in the Hell Priest's's rape tearing her apart from the inside, and the Hell Priest feeds the remains of the dead magicians to it. He takes Felixson to become his slave and turns him into a monster.

The Hell Priest uses the magic from the magicians to kill Hell's ruling classes, betrays and murders the Order of Gash, and attempts to do the same to Lucifer himself. He strips Lucifer's body of his armor and becomes the new Lord of Hell. However, Lucifer's body reconstructs itself and disembowels the Hell Priest who unfortunately lives long enough to blind Harry and rape his medium Norma Paine to death.

Hellraiser: The Toll[]

In 2018, Pinhead appears in another novel: Hellraiser: The Toll, written by Mark Alan Miller under the supervision of Clive Barker and which bridges the gap between Hellraiser: A Film By Clive Barker and The Scarlet Gospels. In this novel, Pinhead (identified as "the Cold Man") has a new confrontation with Kirsty Cotton, to whom he reveals his plans to conquer Hell and capture a mortal who will witness his rise to power (which will turn out to be Harry D'Amour).

Personality[]

The Hell Priest is an extremely cruel, ruthless and sadistic being. Cold-tempered, relentless and calculating, he normally maintains a stoic and composed attitude but can easily let himself go to anger, especially when provoked or cornered. In particular, it seems that the thing that bothers him most seems to be called by the nickname "Pinhead" (referring to the nails that pierce his skull), and usually when someone dares to offend him in this way he is in grave danger. He is also very wise and cultured, and knows the feelings and weaknesses of the human soul well, and is a great expert on everything related to pain and suffering.

Another distinctive trait of him is an inordinate ambition and an iron determination, which will lead him to desire to conquer hell and to want to unseat Lucifer from the throne of King of Hell. To do this, he will do research on magic that will lead him to kill the most powerful wizards on Earth to take possession of their magic (in which he places a lot of faith, unlike many other inhabitants of the Underworld) and will have no qualms about exterminating his companion Cenobites and to kill all those who come between him and his target. He also has a disposition tending to deceit, as he makes Kirsty believe that he would have spared her life if she would have handed him Frank Cotton, and instead he does not respect the pact trying, together with his four companions, to kill her too. Despite everything, however, it seems that the millennia of immortality have tried this by creating a veil of suffering in him.

Trivia[]

  • Clive Barker hated the nickname "Pinhead" that was given to his most iconic character. Therefore, he changed the name to the "Hell Priest" in The Scarlet Gospels. The scenes in the novel in which the Hell Priest reacts with anger when called that way are a reference to Barker's aversion to this nickname.
  • This version of Pinhead is much more negative and merciless than his movie counterpart: in addition to being guilty of crimes already committed by his film version (such as not respecting the pact with Kirsty Cotton and torturing his victims), he also committed acts such as rape and humiliation of his victims. In addition to those crimes, he blinded Harry D'Amour, raped his friend Norma Paine to death, exterminated the entire Order Of Gash, tried to conquer Hell by trying to subdue its inhabitants and killing many, murdered numerous wizards (and reserving particularly gruesome deaths for Joseph Ragowski and Elizabeth Kottlove, infecting the body of the former with numerous worms that completely devour him because he had insulted him by calling him "Pinhead" and raping the second, whose daughter would grow up prematurely to destroy her body from the inside) to steal their magic and become more and more powerful. He also tried to kill Lucifer by appropriating his armor.
  • Unlike in the movies, this version of Pinhead is not the demonic embodiment of Captain Elliot Spencer. Although his origins are never revealed and that he was a human being, in Scarlet Gospels it is suggested that he turned into a Cenobite in an ancient time, and that his fame was such as to allow him to be mentioned in ancient manuscripts and portrayed in ancient paintings and drawings.
  • In the Hellraiser reboot film released on Hulu in 2022, the Hell Priest is depicted much more like the version of the character that appeared in The Hellbound Heart, rather than the book versions of the screenplay and its sequels and previous films, selling depicted as an androgynous-looking creature.

External Links[]

Navigation[]

           HellraiserlogoVillains

Cenobites
Pinhead (1987 & 2022) | Chatterer | Butterball | The Female | Leviathan | Angelique | Hell Priest | Puzzle Guardian

Hellraiser
Frank Cotton | Pinhead | Julia Cotton | Puzzle Guardian

Hellbound
Phillip Channard | Pinhead | Julia Cotton | Leviathan

Hell on Earth
Pinhead | Pistonhead | Camerahead | CD | Barbie | Dreamer

Bloodline
Pinhead | Angelique | Siamese Twins | Duc De L'Isle | Chatter Beast

Inferno
The Engineer | Joseph Thorne | Wire Twins | Torso

Hellseeker
Trevor Gooden | Surgeon | Stitch | Bound | Chatterer

Deader
Winter LeMarchand | Little Sister | Spike

Hellworld
The Host | Bound II

Revelations
Nico Bradley | Pinhead | Pseudo-Pinhead | Chatterer

Judgment
Sean Carter | Jophiel | The Stygian Inquisition | Pinhead | Stitch Twins

Reboot
Roland Voight | Trevor | Pinhead | The Gasp | Chatterer | The Weeper | The Asphyx | The Mother | The Masque

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