#Channard cenobite

[myfairgame]

[circuscenobite]

[hug-kiss-marry-kill]

[1cebittentwicehigh]

Look who got all handy and put shelves up for better viewing 👀 of the evil 🙈. Plus I added some fresh eyes 🧿👁️ and made a few minor updates. Hope y'all enjoy fellow hellfans.

[misty-235]

Channard: *appears*

The other Cenobites:

[cronengirly]

Honestly the reason that the Hellraiser sequels fail so fundamentally is that they try to put the focus on the cenobites. The cenobites are barely even in the original Hellraiser, or The Hellbound Heart for that matter, and the real focus of the story is on Frank. The cenobites are too passive to be functional as villains without major tweaks that necessarily remove the things that make them so interesting to begin with.

Hellraiser II manages to get it right by continuing the narrative with Julia and Dr Channard as the human antagonists. The cenobites' schtick leaves them too unconcerned with human affairs unless they're outright summoned. The sequels kinda lose that thread over time and just make them sinister little shits who do evil stuff because that's what they do. They lack a compelling motivation AND lose track of what made them so interesting to begin with.

[tenebrare]

Hellraiser (and bit of Witcher 3) This evenings quick doodle. I have always loved the armour Wild Hunt did wear in the Witcher 3 game. Would cenobites ever wear some sort of battle-armour, when there would be war-in-hell? If our priest would have worn something else, would he survived the Channards shenanigans ?

[deuterosapiens]

So, politely, what the fuck did I just watch?

This marks Day Four in our decent into madness and after a solid start, we are now on incredibly shaky ground with Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth.

Not doing a full scene for scene breakdown like I did for the second one because quite frankly, that was exhausting to write and because this one is a tremendous series of extremely audible oofs.

So, first and foremost, a glance at the Wikipedia for this one reveals that it had a roughly higher budget that Hellraiser II. Where that budget has gone, I cannot say. Certainly not to a cinematographer, because this one looks and feels so, so direct-to-home-video. But that's fine, after all, the story's got to be good, yeah?

Uh... no.

Look, my man Clive Barker, he's a busy guy. I'm sure he was working on something of extreme importance at the time and therefore didn't have as much of a role in story details and whatnot. It happens. I can't blame him. Who do I shift blame to?

Tony Randel, who directed Hellraiser II, and Peter Adkins, who wrote the screenplay for II based on a story by Clive Barker. Huh..? Can someone verify that my notes on this are right? I'm genuinely confused. And director Anthony Hickox's only major film of note is... Hellraiser III. Some action movies and whatnot, but nothing of note.

I'm not going to talk about our lead, Reporter Joanne Summerskill, because I legitimately do not care about her at all. She exists as a replacement for Kirsty (who gets a cameo), but as her journey here isn't really connected to these events in the same way as Kirsty, or Julia, she kind of doesn't connect as well. Actually, she's kind of just a weird vehicle for the storyline the movie actually does want to focus on, the character the movie wants to focus on.

The nail-headed Hell Priest died at the end of Hellbound. Not a good thing if you want him to be the antagonist of a sequel, right? Luckily, this series has an established history of allowing dead things to return to life, though we also seem determined to disregard the rules to that. So we do spend a bit of time bringing the nail-headed Hell Priest back to life.

We explore a bit more his former, human life, something touched upon in the previous film. You see, former human, the late Captain Elliot Spencer, manifests himself to our reportagonist to exposit a bit about how the nail-headed Hell Priest is a darker side of him, one which had given in to the allure of pain and pleasure and not at all who he truly is and yeah, this was a pointless contribution to the character.

I actually like this idea of a human giving in to the excesses offered by (the tragically absent) Leviathan and the Labyrinths of Hell, and being transformed by it into the Cenobitical Gash. This is good stuff. Having this character say "yes, I succeeded in becoming a master of pleasure and torment, and yes I delight in inflicting grievous bodily manglement onto others, but it's not really ME, it's not really who I AM!", is remarkably dumb. You cannot expect to garner sympathy when I've literally watched you rip your victims to tiny little pieces via meat hook. No dice.

Since none of the nail-headed Hell Priest's compatriots from the previous film bothered much with the whole "accept a blood sacrifice on the place of your death" thing, our Lead Cenobite goes about creating a new horde of loyal servants. Not equals, these new Cenobites are clearly subservient.

I cannot bring myself to like any of their designs, the new Cenobites. They feel so, I don't know, rushed. These are obviously not persons who have taken to bodily disfigurement and self-mutilation as a means of exploring the farthest reaches of pain and experience, they are just sort of, well, impaled with random things and given black leather.

Yes, yes, Doctor Channard had a similar thing going for him, but I think he is not quite a victim of the same thing as the new ones. His Cenobitical forme expanded on his own desires to torment his patients. It works as an outward expression of his own masochism. Cameraman Doc's is just sort of, now he has a video camera shoved through his eye socket. I guess it's hard to give designs that reflect a character's inner desires when none of these characters have a significant personality to begin with.

Aaaaaand once again, we seem to have completely forgotten the rules of the Lemarchand Box. It is now a glorified Pokéball. Is it really that damn hard to remember that the Lemarchand Box is a key? Really? Can we do this right, please? And what's with this "he cannot take it, it must be willingly given" rule? I'm not saying this directly conflicts with our established understanding of the Lemarchand Box, I'm just saying it feels like it conflicts with our understanding of how the Lemarchand Box is used by the Cenobites in the first film.

I'll give this movie one thing though. The scene with the church did kind of amuse me a bit.

This also marks the first time the films use the name Pinhead properly, which again, out of respect for Clive Barker, I will not be using.

Please tell me that I can forget all about this one and disregard it entirely for the next one.

[acapelladitty]

Dittyyyyyy, I need the knowledge of a horror aficionado! Have you watched many Hellraiser movies? I have only seen two, and I am wondering, aside from that doctor cenobite who one-shotted him, has any one ever tried to just, like...punch Pinhead? Shoot him, stab him, hit him with a brick? Have we ever seen how this guy handles combat? I need to know this for reasons.

He's not really one for combat 🤣 I've seen all of them and, aside from Dr Channard fucking him and the others up royally as their rediscovering their humanity, I don't think anyone had successfully gotten handsy with Pinhead. He's too cool for that!

Dude was an officer in World War One so I assume he had SOME fighting skill but then I also think being hells number one special pope boy with a sadomasochistic legion of followers at his helm might have taken precedence over his training 🤣🤣

[clownkiwi]

i think my favorite part of hellraiser 2 is when dr channard cenobite hops back out and starts vibrato screaming. sounding like a ytp here...

[giulliadella]

My thoughts about Hellraiser 2022

So I decided to watch this movie since most people told me that it's good. And they were right - it was indeed a good movie! And also, it was filmed in my home city!

I really liked the further exploration of the lore behind the Puzzlebox and the mechanisms by which it functions in this movie were super cool. The main antagonist was again a rich fucker lead by desire, but I believe that part was executed very poorly.

The effects were quite good and I was very glad that they used both the practical effects and the CGI. I loved the way they used that old smexy Hellraiser theme in a modern light. The acting was good as well!

Now, as much as I loved the new Cenobite designs, it should be clear that the Cenobites in this movie lack the kinky aspect. Like, sure, they are all for pain and they love to torture people and they are all sexy and strange, but they absolutely lack the perverse desire part that they had in the original. Maybe I'm the stupid one, but to me, Cenobites have always represented some kind of perverse forbidden pleasure. To me at least, they are sex demons, or, more precisely, demons of desire. And in 2022. remake we don't really have that much of it.

We have two very lame, very basic straight sex scenes, we have a dude who likes to throw orgy parties, but we never see his desires and the Cenobites just don't play pleasure and pain indivisible card, they just cause immense suffering. I don't know why all that feels so wrong to me lol.

Spoilers for the ending here:

The ending of this movie confirmed to me a theory I had for a while now: "We have such sights to show you" means "We're going to turn you into a Cenobite". Seriously, hear me out. Julia says that to dr Channard and then he gets thrown in the transformation chamber and becomes a Cenobite. The Hell Priestess says the same thing to asshole rich guy and he gets turned into a Cenobite. And I 100% believe that when Pinhead said that to Kirsty in the OG Hellraiser that he meant that. I mean, let's be real, Kirsty would be a great Cenobite.

Oh, yes, I really disliked the way the main girl, Riley, was able to escape the Cenobites. I honestly expected much more lol, but she just told them like "Nah, I don't want to do anything with you" and Hell Priestess was like "Ok, cool, sorry that we were chasing you for weeks and killed 5 people to get you lol". I would have honestly preferred if Riley became a Cenobite, not the rich fucker, but oh well.

Honestly, it's hilarious to me that this movie expanded the lore so much and yet it took so much charm away from the Cenobites. Like, those new designs were so elaborate and beautiful, but WHERE IS THE LEATHER!? Where is the kinky shit!? They all acted more or less just like generic horror monsters and idk, it just didn't feel like they were Cenobites. I mean, the rich asshole's villa had a protective cage and they couldn't enter, like wtf is that? And Chatterer and one other Cenobite were literally just used as monsters to chase our protagonists and get killed in kind of dumb ways. And, like, even the torture scenes weren't that creative. Idk, I'm mad because this movie had so much potential and creativity and I liked it a lot, but idk, there was definitely something missing and to me, that was the kinky desire aspect of the Cenobites.

Anyways it's 2:21 AM and I need sleep, so take this review with a pinch of salt lol. The movie gets a solid 7/10 from me.

[theteethofgod]

i feel like we don’t appreciate doctor channard from hellraiser 2 enough. like man spoke totally normally until he became a cenobite and from that point it was exclusively medical puns. that was a CHOICE on his part. he was sat in his office playing with the box with one hand and writing down his Super Scary one liners with the other.

[hesawifebeaterdanusethegun]

Looking at @kayecollects art again, it breaks down like this:

Pinhead - Bat

Kirsty - Dog

Female Cenobite - Cat

Chatterer - Crocodile

Butterball - Pig

Frank - Dog

Julia - Fox

Tiffany - Mouse

Dr. Channard - Cat

Those are great animal choices :3 The chatterer is my favorite and crocodile is perfect

[robe-and-wizard-hat]

[deuterosapiens]

So, here we are in our countdown to October First. I think technically I should actually be, you know, counting down, rather than up but whatever. Count-up sounds weird. So, either way, Hellraiser, Day Three. I present batshit craziness. Hellbound: Hellraiser II.

This film opens with a recounting of the first film's events, followed by a cool scene of a solider opening the Lemarchand Box and being transformed into the nail-headed Cenobite Leader which Scarlet Gospels names "The Hell Priest" and this, as well as each subsequent film, names Pinhead (which out of respect for Barker, who hates the name, I will call the Hell Priest as well).

Following a polite bit of laceration and head-nailing, we cut to Kirsty in a mental institute, coping poorly with the events of the first movie. There are two doctors of note in our institute: Doctor Channard, and his assistant Kyle. Kyle is no one of consequence, since his death contributes exactly nothing more than a raised body-count. Channard on the other hand is a doctor you very much would like to never have. He's played by Kenneth Cranham, a fact I only bring up because this guy discounts Sam Neill so damn hard that I refuse to believe he is in fact not Sam Neill in a weird skin-suit.

Kirsty is visited by an officer investigating Larry's death, and just, over all, the insane remnants of the house. This plot disappears quickly, and really only exists so that Channard can learn of the Mattress on Which Julia Died (here after known as The Mattress on Which Julia Died, or the MoWJD, for short: pronounced Mo.Jed). Channard pulls some strings to acquire the Mattress on Which Julia Died after hearing Kirsty's story, in which she indicates that, as long as the Mo.Jed is in tact, Julia may return from the dead.

I'm going to ask one question, right now, of the movie: how the hell does Kirsty, correctly I might add, deduce that those are the rules? Based entirely on the events of the first film, all Kirsty knows after solving the Lemarchand Box is that Frank is alive and has escaped the Cenobites. Neither she nor Larry actually know of his death in the first place. She certainly is not aware that Frank came back as a result of blood being spilled, or that continued supplies of blood were required for his return to strength. I know it's a popular horror trope for the Final Girl to randomly acquire information between films that is vital for subsequent heroes to learn the rules, but again, Kirsty cannot possibly know that Julia is able to come back from death in this manner. To say nothing of the fact that Julia's death isn't really Cenobite-related, that is, she is not a prisoner of theirs, so I'm not entirely sure how she's able to come back in the first place, but we will get back to Julia later.

Anyway, Channard acquires the Mo.Jed in a conversation Kyle overhears, which results in Kyle sneaking into Channard's house for... reasons. Channard sacrifices one of his patients on the Mattress on Which Julia Died, a scene that is fairly unpleasant to those uncomfortable with self-mutilation and/or severe possessed of severe trypophobia, an event witnessed by Kyle. Julia returns to life via the Mattress. Julia's return to life is nowhere near as cool to watch as Frank's was. It involves skinless blood wrestling and in general, this just lasts longer than is necessary.

Kyle returns to Kirsty, informing him that he believes everything about her story involving the Cenobites. He informs her of the existence of puzzle boxes in Channard's house. Kirsty is convinced that she can save her father from Hell if she uses the box to open the doors to hell (oh yeah, she had a weird vision as well involving a skinless bloody figure, whom she assumes is her father, begging for help).

Channard sacrifices more patients to Julia, whom he is developing a sexual relationship with. Kyle dies to Julia. The movie does not care to linger, so neither do we.

One of Channard's patients is a withdrawn girl named Tiffany, whose specialty, by sheer coicidence, is puzzle solving. I'm glad the gates to Hell are not locked behind a magical puzzle box, or this would be an incredibly useful coincidence.

Channard is obsessed with seeing and learning of the Labyrinths of Hell and uses Tiffany as a human shield for the Cenobites' Wrath. Hellraiser II completely disagrees with Hellraiser I when Tiffany opens the Box and the Cenobites completely ignore her. "Hands do not call us, it is desire!" says the nail-headed Hell Priest, informing us that Channard is not off the hook just because someone else opened the Box in his place because it was his will that caused the Box to be opened. This leniency would have done Kirsty quite a bit of good precisely one movie ago.

Hell is weird. It's a giant Labyrinth of uh... labyrinthiness... where we occasionally see weird shit. The coolest is a clown without eyes. The implication is that the Labyrinth is a different hell for everyone, so I guess for each person it is sort of an Inferno-style ironic punishment. Kirsty finds the House which she believes holds her father but discovers that she has been deceived for it is not Larry, but Frank who called her. Shocking.

The reason Larry called her is because he was bored of his ironic hell: think Tantalus from Greek Mythology, but instead of food, it's moaning women. Julia shows up, everything is on fire, Julia is still pissed that Frank stabbed her at the end of the first movie, rips out his heart.

Oh, and Channard meets the god at the center of the Labyrinth:

Leviathan, Lord of the Labyrinth! I could probably draw this thing...

Julia is apparently acting as a soul-collector for the giant booming lazer-spitting death lozenge. Sure, why not? She sacrifices Channard to it who is transformed into a Cenobite. I guess it works that way?

I forgot, there's a funny little scene with the Cenobites in which the female (I wish these things had better names or titles, so referring to them wasn't so weird...) mocks Kirsty for teasing them. The important detail of this moment is that the Hell Priest transforms the Lemarchand Box into a state that's nice and pointy and looks kind of a lot like Leviathan, Lord of the Labyrinth (which every time I type or think about sounds like a Magic the Gathering, or YuGiOh card), and is now basically unsolvable.

So Kirsty and Tiffany escape the Labyrinth of Hell, only to realize Channard is now forcing all of his patients to solve puzzle boxes. They are mutilated for their efforts. In his new Cenobite state, Channard now speaks exclusively in doctor-related puns that rival Mr Freeze in their ability to completely de-escalate the severity of every scene they are in.

Confrontation between the Hell Priest and Channard! It's whelming. Neither over, nor under. It just whelms. The Cenobites are killed, transforming each back into their human form. Sure, why not?

We return to the Labyrinth so that Tiffany can solve the puzzle and restore... something. Evidently the Leviathan configuration uses Square-One rules, because solving it involves reducing it back to cube shape.

Channard is killed, Tiffany returns the Lemarchand Box to its original state, and this is reflected on the God Leviathan, Lord of the Labyrinth, which also transforms into a giant cube, thus closing the doors to Hell.

Kirsty and Tiffany walk away free!

I have no idea how to even go about considering this a good follow-up to the first movie, because it is so incredibly different, and so incredibly insane, that comparing the two feels kind of pointless. Every element brought-in from the first is basically speed-ran just to get the plot going. This one delights in presenting us with weird, disjointed weirdness. Oh sure, the Cenobitical designs look impressive, the make-up is really well down for skinless Julia and skinless Frank. Leviathan, Lord of the Labyrinth, feels like such an incomprehensible thing that as aggressively inexplicable as it is, it actually kind of works for me.

Yeah, I've seen this one before, and rewatching it reaffirms my belief that I have chosen a seriously bizarre series, if I want to rein-in spooky season. Sit back, ignore the story, inhale that sweet, sweet Christopher Young score, and enjoy the weird.

Tomorrow, however, we will enter into uncharted territory. I have no idea what to expect from Three, but I'm ready to get this stuff going.