Hellraiser: Difference between revisions

* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Kirsty boyfriend, Steve.

* [[Coolest Club Ever]]: The Boiler Room from ''Hell on Earth''.

* [[Creepy Twins]]: The Siamese Twins from ''Bloodline'' and Wire Twins from ''Inferno''.

* [[Cute Monster Girl]]: Marla (depending on how rotten she is in a particular scene) in ''Deader''.

** Even more so in the novel, where (except for the [[Mind Rape|soul rape]] you forever thing) the Cenobites are [[Affably Evil|quite amiable]], and do not renege on their deal with Kirsty as they do in the movie.

* [[Dark World]]: The implicit setting after a character solves the puzzle box but before they're taken to the Labyrinth: the surroundings change to become deserted, blood-drenched and adorned with chains.

** When it comes right down to it, that's what the whole series is about. The pursuit of ultimate pleasure or forbidden knowledge, wherein the seeker places their trust and fate in the hands of unknown entities of supernatural origin. And the Cenobites deliver. It's just that, in true Deal With The Devil style, the ultimate pleasure that the seekers ''get'' is not usually the kind they ''want''.

** Played with in ''Revelations:'' {{spoiler|Niko tries to make a deal with Pinhead like Kirsty did, but Pinhead takes one look at the person he wants to trade for himself and realizes she's the kind of person who will open the box of her own accord one day, thus making her worthless as a trade.}}

* [[Development Hell]]: The remake was stuck in it for a long, long time.

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: People who describe (or [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch|dismiss]]) ''Hellworld'' as "Pinhead killing hackers online".

* [[Dirty Cop]]: Detective Joseph Thorne in ''Inferno''. He cheats on his wife with prostitutes, neglects his family, brutalizes his informant, steals evidence, does drugs, frames his partner...

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The female Cenobite inserting her fingers into her own exposed trachea in the first film - among innumerable other examples likely to make you ill.

* [[Downer Ending]]: {{spoiler|Amy Klein}} may not have been taken by Cenobites, but {{spoiler|she's still dead, though}}.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: Leviathan. Also, possibly, the Engineer.

** The first movie treats the Cenobites as such.

* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Pinhead's human self, Captain Elliot Spencer... and probably Pinhead himself.

* [[Expanded Universe]]: A surprisingly large, detailed one.

** [[Subverted Trope|Angelique is the princess of HELL.]]

*** Further subverted. {{spoiler|After she fails to corrupt the modern descendant of Lemarchand, Pinhead takes her to Hell with him and remakes her in his image. The next time we see her, she's just another Cenobite in his retinue.}}

* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: Show up quite often, and not just in the film set in space.

* [[Gainax Ending]]: ''Hellworld'', and all the made-for-video sequels to some extent. Before that, the second film, with many a movie critic complaining that the climax didn't make sense. At the very least, figuring out what the Leviathan Configuration does, and what happened at the end {{spoiler|when Tiffany resolved it}} will take [[Wild Mass Guessing|some guesswork]] on the viewer's part.

* [[Good Cop, Bad Cop]]: The two detectives from ''Hellseeker''. {{spoiler|Subverted. They're the same entity, torturing the [[Villain Protagonist|villainous protagonist]] throughout, and a callback to the question of whether the cenobites are angels or demons.}}

* [[Gorn]]

* [[Ironic Hell]]: Often. Prominently with Frank's own Hell in ''Hellbound''.

* [[Large Ham]]: Pinhead and the Channard Cenobite.

* [[Legacy Character]]: The Chatterer.

** Also the Lemarchand family, though the Chatterer's more visible and continuously invoked. It's debatable whether it's the same character throughout the series.

* [[Not So Different]]

* [[Off-the-Shelf FX]]: Pinhead's "pins" in ''Hellbound'' are Q-tips without the cottonballs, painted gray.

* [[The Other Darrin]]: The actress who played the Female Cenobite in ''Hellbound'' isn't the same one who played her in the original, but it's not that noticeable. In ''Revelations,'' it's ''very'' noticeable that Doug Bradley isn't Pinhead.

* [[Our Ghosts Are Different]]: Elliot's wayward soul in ''Hell on Earth''.

** The lurking phantom of parental incest is all over the first two films. "Come to daddy" and all that. There's no evidence that it actually happened, but the idea is pretty firmly put into viewer's heads. {{spoiler|Well, aside from Frank not being above sleeping with his brother's second wife. Even if he's not Kirsty's father, though, the implications as her uncle aren't much better.}}

*** Incidentally, that was a line taken directly from the novella where Kirsty is twenty-six and a friend rather than the daughter. Doesn't make it any less creepy though.

* [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner]]: Several. For example, "Play dead" (to a demon dog) or "Welcome to oblivion" (to Pinhead) from ''Bloodline''.

* [[Recycled in Space]]: ''Bloodline''.

* [[Religion of Evil]]: The Deaders in ''Deader'', and the Cenobites themselves in the original novella, as servants of the Order of Gash (the word Cenobite just means a monk or nun in a convent).

* [[Romanticized Abuse]]: The ''Hellraiser'' films have this as a component, creeping most viewers out even further. "We have such sights to show you". The novel version ''The Hellbound Heart'' has the initial description of the female cenobite invoke piercing fetishism.

* [[Self-Constructed Being]]: The plot of the first movie as far as Frank Cotton was concerned.

* [[Sense Freak]]: The Cenobites. Albiet to a very, ''very'' extreme degree.

* [[Supernatural Proof Father]]: Larry.

* [[Token Minority]]: Derek in ''Hellworld''.

* [[The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday]]: ''Hell on Earth'' and ''Hellseeker''.

* [[Throw It In]]: Andrew Robinson thought "Jesus wept" sounded so much cooler than the scripted line "Fuck you". He was right.

* [[Twist Ending]]: Several:

** ''Bloodlines:'' The space station is {{spoiler|the perfected "anti-Lament Configuration" that previous Merchants couldn't get quite right.}}

** ''Hellseeker:'' {{spoiler|Kirsty's actually outwitted her husband and traded him to Pinhead in exchange for her own safety.}}

** ''Hellworld:'' A double whammy: {{spoiler|There's nothing supernatural going on at the party, the Host has drugged the protagonists so they'll have potent enough Hellworld-related hallucinations to kill them as ironic payback for his son's Hellworld-inspired suicide. Then, when the Host is idly playing with his son's homemade Lament Configuration, it turns out that it actually ''works,'' and the real Pinhead explains his son simply opened a gate to Hell. The Host pays for doing the same.}}