The Best of the Bad Guys: Pinhead

Pinhead might put his victims through more physical and mental anguish than any other bad guy in the genre, but he’s been through a literal hell of his own when it comes to the Hellraiser franchise. From the pen and direction of the all-time legend Clive Barker in the original Hellraiser to the bargain bin at Walmart—and at one point, some basement in Idaho where the even more horrendous Weinsteins slapped together Hellraiser: Revelations in the time it takes a lunch lady on meth to make a sloppy joe. Yet, in almost all of those situations, the character still delivered at least one classic moment of Pinhead wisdom—or at the very least, some ripping and tearing of the sweet, sweet flesh. Welcome to Best of the Bad Guys, where we celebrate the best of horror’s worst villains. On today’s episode, we’re highlighting the best Pinhead moment in every single Hellraiser film, starting with the 1987 Clive Barker-directed classic that started it all:

HELLRAISER (1987)

In the classic film that never fails to make you want to wash your hands, Pinhead doesn’t show his face until around an hour in. That’s a testament to Clive Barker’s storytelling that it doesn’t feel necessary until then. When he does show up, as his weird friend in the corner sticks its fingers into Kirsty’s mouth for no good reason, Doug Bradley announces himself as a horror icon unlike any other: “The box. You opened it. We came.” Every word he says is all so very final. Like when your dad uses dad voice, and you know you’re going to get the belt if you push it any further.

All jokes aside, the moment Pinhead arrives on the scene with that voice and those lines you’re hooked. He intrigues you just as much as he scares the shit out of you, without so much as moving a muscle. Except for his mouth.

HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II (1988)

There aren’t a lot of great moments for Pinhead in Hellraiser II as the story is dominated by other elements. We do see him face off against the rare superior being in the film’s gnarly ending, but in a weird way. It’s kind of messed up to say you’re rooting for Pinhead but in this situation, I kind of feel like we were. And he was dispatched of so easily. So, with that being said, this moment goes to an earlier scene in the film, where we’re treated to a little Pinhead origin story. We see his human form open the box for the first time, only to receive the ooey-gooey skin-rip treatment as Tool music video snake-knives slice up his skin before impaling his brain with pins and his mouth with gingivitis. Watch close enough, and you’ll even see him enjoy it a little. Which is….super awkward.

HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH (1992)

Hellraiser isn’t the franchise you think of when you want a good time, but if you do, it’s usually Hellraiser III. This might be my favorite moment on the entire list. Pinhead shows up at a club, literally exploding a guy as he spawns, before declaring: “Shall we begin?” Which is definitely how I like to show up in the bedroom.

He then goes full Texas Party Massacre and murders the shit out of the entire room while laughing and creating some Cenobites along the way. He rips a dude’s fingers off for daring to catch his fastball, turns into a goddamn icicle for some reason (let it go), murders someone with Chumbawumba CDs, and even uses a pool table as a weapon. It’s Pinhead’s version of Freddy’s pool freak-out scene in Nightmare 2, and it’s something to behold—unlike anything we’ll ever see him do again.

HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE (1996)

While I appreciate Bloodline has the backbone to send Pinhead to space while keeping a straight face and blow him into oblivion like never before- my pick here has to be the creation of The Twins Cenobite. Two twin brothers, who look like the guy from Dead Man on Campus, unfortunately stumble upon a Pinhead looking to show off in front of the Princess. As he is one to do, Pinhead mocks their love for each other before fusing them together in the most painful fashion. The FX here are amazing, and the suffering is sweet.

HELLRAISER: INFERNO (2000)

I’ve always found Scott Derrickson’s Inferno to be unfairly judged guilty by association and trapped among the later, forgotten sequels. It’s actually a fairly decent story with some of the coolest Cenobites in the entire franchise. There’s not a lot of Pinhead, but his reveal is an unexpected and welcome surprise as a psychologist is revealed to be The Engineer—or rather, Pinhead himself. Who goes by many names. When he finally corners Joseph and lets him know he’s a big ole’ piece of shit and it’s time to pay for his sins, it’s a chef’s kiss Pinhead moment. Ridiculing him for his useless begging, before welcoming him to hell and promptly ripping apart his mortal coil with chains. As one does.

HELLRAISER: HELLSEEKER (2002)

In one of the better deep sequels of the franchise, our main character decides to get some acupuncture done to see if it will quell the suffering. Probably not the best idea in a movie about a demon with pins in his skull. Pinhead makes his appearance Freddy Krueger style—through the wall—and lets him know he likes the freaky stuff before removing a pin from his own brain. Pinhead then inserts said pin through the back of the Rescue Me guy’s neck hole, and my god, does that look painful. Probably should have protected himself from mayhem like this.

HELLRAISER: DEADER (2005)

There’s not a lot of greatness happening in Deader, but there is a solid moment where Wish.com Jeremy London tries to square up with Pinhead. Thinking his time as a roadie for the Goo Goo Dolls granted him some kind of force field against the perils of Hell, a descendant of the toymaker tells Pinhead he can’t hurt him. In a beautiful f** around and find out moment, Pinhead easily dispatches him.

But the real highlight here is when Pinhead takes out all of Stephen Jenkins’ followers in one fell swoop. He instantly shoots chains through everyone, everywhere, all at once, and they drop like dominos. A rare moment where Pinhead decides these peasants aren’t even worth a good one-liner. It’s quick but ultimately satisfying as they fall like unemployed dominos into the ether of skank Hell.

HELLRAISER: HELLWORLD (2005)

Alright, so Hellworld released the same year as Hellraiser: Deader because Dimension was constantly on some wacky shit with this franchise. It technically doesn’t feature much Pinhead at all. This Scream-esque version of Hellraiser is known for featuring a young Henry Cavill as a douchey partygoer, as well as yet another solid performance by Lance Henriksen as “The Host” in an otherwise forgettable horror film. We think we see Pinhead and the Cenobites tear through a group of partygoers, only to find out that it was all hallucinations caused by a party host who had drugged and buried them alive. There’s an awesome moment where we think we see Pinhead go full Jason Voorhees and get his hands dirty by chopping a dude’s head off but alas, it wasn’t real so it can’t count.

Instead, the best moment belongs to Pinhead ordering the seatbelt-faced Cenobites to toss their medieval chain blades through a partied-out Lance Henriksen. A badass moment despite his insides looking like CD ROM road kill from 1997. It’s all capped off with an old-school one-liner from Pinhead, straight from the pages of a mid-’90s Steven Seagal flick: “How’s that for a wake-up call?”

HELLRAISER: REVELATIONS (2011)

Look, we’re not even going to give this butt baby the time of day. An absolute blasphemy of the blaspheme, Hellraiser: Revelations was a desperate attempt by Dimension to retain the franchise rights. It was filmed in three weeks and released in a single theater. No disrespect to anyone who put effort into this film and all the disrespect to those who forced them to without the proper support. This was not Pinhead, as, for the first time in the franchise, Doug Bradley smelled the stink on the walls and declined to participate. So, the best moment of this film goes to the great Clive Barker’s tweet about it, when he said, and I quote: “I want to put on record that the flick out there using the word HELLRAISER is NO FUCKIN’ CHILD OF MINE.”

And for posterity’s sake, another gem tweet: “I have NOTHING to do with the fuckin’ thing. If they claim it’s from the mind of Clive Barker, it’s a lie. It’s not even from my butthole.”

HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT (2018)

Though that steaming pile of dung Revelations killed the Hellraiser franchise for seven years, out of its ashes came Hellraiser: Judgment. Another film that never had the necessary support from its studio, but this time, it was both written and directed by longtime franchise stalwart Gary J. Tunnicliffe who put forth an admirable effort on the sequel. Though Judgment didn’t feature Doug Bradley as Pinhead, Paul T. Taylor stepped in and delivered a performance that I’d rank second-best in the franchise, just behind the legend himself. While the film is imperfect, it offers some great Pinhead moments. The opening monologue sets the tone perfectly. There’s also a fantastic moment where a punk rock Pinhead “cares not” about orders from an agent of Heaven, ending with him tearing her face apart and dropping a beauty of a sassy one-liner. Before being banished back to Earth for upsetting the status quo.

But no, my personal favorite moment is another petty, petty Pinhead scene, where he dismissively tells a couple of adulterers that their pitiful catalog of sins is beneath him before commanding them to “bow their heads to the catalog of filth your brother has created.” That’s just good goddamn Pinhead writing. All before impaling them Scorpion style and waving them off with another banger: “Amateurs. But still, we will afford them an experience beyond limits in your name.”

HELLRAISER (2022)

Though Doug Bradley is always “the way” for me when it comes to Pinhead, I was excited by the prospect of a female Pinhead in David Bruckner’s Hellraiser. After all, in Clive Barker’s original writings, Pinhead was described as having an “androgynous appearance with a light, feminine-sounding voice.” A female Pinhead just sounded scary to me. While I wasn’t a huge fan of Jamie Clayton’s ultimate voice for the role (technically “The Priest,” but it’s Pinhead)—it sounded more like someone with laryngitis than the commanding presence of Doug Bradley. I thought the overall performance was solid, however. The best moment could have been when Pinhead dispatches Chatterer, because that’s not something you see every day. But honestly? It bugged me that they took out such an important Cenobite so quickly. It looks cool, but I hate that it counts.

So instead, the best moment goes to when the character Norah is toyed with, talked down to, and ultimately has a goddamn needle lodged through her esophagus with colonoscopy-vision as Chatterer chews on her blood.

And so is the world of Hellraiser. After revisiting these eleven films, I’m happy to be out of it. If we’re being honest, I need to watch Care Bears or some shit for a month. But it was still fun, and we appreciate you guys taking the ride with us! Until next time, this has been BEST OF THE BAD GUYS! Thanks for watching, and be sure to check out our other episodes, covering everyone from Norman Bates to Freddy Krueger. A couple of the previous episodes can be seen below. To see more, click over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!