By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Copyright Entertainment Film Distributors
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
Hellraiser explores human lust and base needs and those individuals that crave more than basic sex and loving relationships. They want to go deeper than anyone else to push the boundaries between pleasure and pain . The key to this is solving the puzzle cubes that confound like Chinese puzzle boxes.
Once solved the desperate individuals tortured by needs that scream at them to fulfill, are fatally caught in the Cenobite web that takes them to literally Hell from which they never come back. They quickly learn there is a deeper truth to the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for.” Perhaps this was invented by some other poor soul lost to the Cenobites as a wasted warning to others.
Dr Philip Channard played by Kenneth Cranham is a man driven by such needs. He is in a position of power which allows him to indulge and use any and all means to get those answers. He has created the Channard Institute where he uses his patients as guinea pigs. At some point he somehow discovered the cubes but cannot solve them.
He learns of the events of the first movie when a traumatised Kirsty is admitted to his Institute and tells them what happened. She begs them to destroy the mattress Julia died on. She brought Frank (Sean Chapman) back by feeding him victims to consume allowing himself to regenerate and escape from the Cenobite hell. They had a steamy affair the night before her wedding to his brother Larry and she still lusts after him.
However Larry’s daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) discovers their secret and steals the cube. Terrified that she will somehow alert the Cenobites to Frank’s location, Larry Cotton (Deep Space 9’s Garak and Dirty Harry star (Andrew Robinson) is murdered by Julia, allowing Frank to wear his skin. Kirsty however made a deal with the Cenobites to deliver both Frank and Julia to them. This is what Channard has been waiting for.
Channard now has the bloody mattress used by them and is feeding patients to it. It reanimates Julia who has been skinned. That doesn’t matter to Channard as he kisses her fleshy body. She is the key he has been seeking and his base needs want her because she has no inhibitions. So he feeds her patients in order for her to regenerate fully. He also gives a puzzle box to a young mute girl Tiffany whom Kirsty befriends. At Julia’s urging, Channard gave Tiffany the cube to solve in order to open the gates to Hell. Channard has a massive collection of cubes and relics detailing Hell and its secrets.
With the mattress successfully installed in his home along with Julia Channard thinks he is full control. However once in Hell, Julia and Channard find the god Leviathan the god of flesh, hunger and desire, Lord of the Labyrinth. But Julia reveals she has only one task; to deliver souls to Leviathan and it wants Channard.
He is transformed into Doctor Cenobite, a malevolent being that acts out all of Channard’s deepest sickest fantasies. His is probably one of the best Cenobite designs. He is dangling from a pronged tentacle like tendril attached to his head, his skin blue and wrapped in wire. It has drilled into his skull making him an extension of itself.
Such is the depth of Channard’s new power as part of the Leviathan, Pinhead and the other Cenobites take him on. Channard wants to rule Hell and needs rid of the others so they can be remade. He reverts them back to human form including Pinhead. He played god in the Institute and now he intends to rule Hell itself. He has worshipped from afar for so long and wanted to know its secrets, he intends to make it in his open image. Or could it be he is channeling the wishes of the Leviathan? Is Chananrd’s thirst for the darkest experiences mirror the Leviathan’s so closely they are one and the same?
He tries to stop Tiffany from solving the puzzle by turning her into a Cenobite but Julia enters distracting him. Despite her betrayal, he still wants her but it is really Kirsty using Julia’s skin. While distracted Tiffany solves the cube triggering Leviathan to turn into a massive cube, killing Channard in the process.
To have a Cenobite god to scare even Pinhead was a great idea and Channard was the perfect choice. As a doctor who has sworn to do no harm, he has no feeling for his patients, willingly killing and abusing them to further his own gains. He only cared for himself and even his lust for Julia was only to satisfy one of his sick fantasies. There have been many villain doctors over the years but Doctor Cenobite has to rank near the top.
If you can scare Pinhead to the point he protects humans then the threat is very real.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 