List of Hellraiser characters


Hellraiser is a British horror franchise that consists of eleven films, a series of comic books, as well as merchandise based on the series. The franchise is based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, who would go on to write and direct the adaptation of his story, titled Hellraiser. The films, as well as the comic book series, continually features the Cenobite Pinhead. The series' storyline focuses on a puzzle box that opens a gateway to another dimension, where the Cenobites come forth to take whoever opened the box back to their world, delivering an eternity of torture and experimentation. As well as the Cenobites other recurring characters include heroine Kirsty Cotton and several others.

Recurring characters

A

Amy Klein

Amy Klein is a character in the film Hellraiser: Deader, where she is portrayed by Kari Wührer as an adult and Maria Pintea as a young girl. A gonzo-style reporter, Amy was physically abused by her father as a child, which led her to stab him to death. After viewing a videotape her boss Charles received in the mail which depicts a member of a cult known as the Deaders committing suicide and subsequently being resurrected by Deaders leader Winter, Amy travels from London to Bucharest to look into the Deaders. Finding another tape and the Lament Configuration puzzle box in the apartment of a heavily decayed-looking Deader named Marla, who subsequently appears to her several times, Amy tinkers with the box, causing her to have a brief encounter with the Cenobite Pinhead. Tracking down Winter and the Deader's home, Amy is forced into experiencing something of a vision quest by Winter, who wishes to use her to solve the Lament Configuration, something neither he nor his followers can do. Eventually snapping out of her trance-like state, Amy is almost goaded into killing herself with a knife by Winter, but relents and inadvertently solves the Lament Configuration by hurling it at a wall. Summoning Pinhead and the Cenobites, Amy witnesses them rip Winter apart with hooked chains and subsequently kill the Deaders once and for all. When the Cenobites turn their attention on her, Amy, to rob them of collecting her soul, commits suicide by stabbing herself, causing the Lament Configuration to make the Cenobites vanish and cause the Deader's lair to collapse.

B

Butterball

Butterball is one of the first Cenobites introduced in the franchise, appearing both in the initial novella, The Hellbound Heart, as well as the films Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II. Butterball also made an appearance in Clive Barker's comic book sequel to Hellbound, the Hellraiser comic book series published by BOOM! comics in 2011. Despite appearing to be the second-in-command of the Cenobites in The Hellbound Heart, in the film and comics he primarily functions as a member of Pinhead's entourage.

Appearance

Like the other Cenobites, Butterball has undergone extreme body modification and ritual scarification; other than his massive size and obesity, Butterball's other distinguishing feature is a series of stitches through his eyelids, which he usually keeps hidden by a pair of round sunglasses. Although he is apparently a high-ranking member of the Cenobites in the novella, and has the most dialogue in the book, in the films he is the most removed of Pinhead's entourage. Butterball is completely stationary and silent, occasionally licking his lips with a bloated tongue. He only becomes physically aggressive during climactic battles, attacking Kirsty at the end of the original Hellraiser, Channard at the end of Hellbound, and Kirsty again in the seventh issue of Barker's BOOM! Hellraiser series.

Design

Actor Simon Bamford met Clive Barker through a friend who was doing prop work for Barker's plays. Bamford and Barker became friends, and Bamford joined his theater company. After the company disbanded, Bamford contacted Barker to see what he was doing, and Barker invited him to join his latest project, Hellraiser. Bamford wore a fatsuit and foam latex mask. He was designed to look as if it would be impossible for him to eat anything else. His torn-open stomach was meant to give the impression that he could directly interact with his organs at will.

Appearances

Butterball is first introduced in the novella The Hellbound Heart, in which he is the first of the Cenobites to appear, and their apparent second-in-command behind the Engineer, whose presence is only summoned in special circumstances:
Along with the other Cenobites, Butterball takes antagonist Frank Cotton back to the Cenobite realm after Cotton opens the Lament Configuration, expecting to find a hedonistic paradise that will cure his sensual nihilism. Despite being warned that what he finds may not be what he is expecting, Frank willingly goes along with the Cenobites, only to find that—past an initial euphoria—the experiences to which the Cenobites subject him are so intense as to be torturous. Butterball is later part of the Cenobite contingent that makes a deal with Frank's brother, Rory's friend, Kirsty, to return Frank to them in exchange for her own freedom, after she unwittingly makes a deal to return to the Cenobite realm by opening the box.
Butterball would later appear — and receive a name — in the closing credits of the film adaptation Hellraiser. Unlike the other Cenobites, who are sent back by Kirsty to the Cenobite realm during the film's climax, Butterball is seemingly "killed" when a section of roof collapses on him as the schism opened by the puzzle box causes a series of tremors to shake Frank's house.
Butterball reappears in Hellbound: Hellraiser II, with no explanation given as to his revival. Like Pinhead, he is reminded of his humanity by Kirsty, after which he fights to protect her against the newly created Cenobite, Dr. Channard. He is killed by Channard after a brief fight, after which he reverts to a non-mutilated human form. This is his last cinematic appearance, though he was revived in the comics.
Butterball reappears in Clive Barker's comic book series for BOOM! comics. Butterball appears in the fifth issue as Pinhead's "secret weapon", ambushing and restraining Kirsty when she finally confronts Pinhead. The confrontation turns out to be a trap arranged by Pinhead to betray his fellow Cenobites, and Pinhead slips Kirsty one of his knives, which she uses to kill Butterball.
Butterball reappears yet again in The Scarlet Gospels, once again being betrayed by Pinhead. This time, Pinhead kills him with a spell that liquefies Butterball's innards, causing him to vomit up his internal organs in a geyser of blood. In a final show of contempt, Butterball restrains Pinhead as he dies, so that the projectile of blood strikes Pinhead in the face.

Reception

ranked him number seven in their list of the ten best Cenobites, calling him "infamously creepy and mysterious".

C

The Cenobites

Chatterer

Chelsea Murdock

Chelsea Murdock is a character in the film Hellraiser: Hellworld where she is played by Katheryn Winnick. A teenaged girl, Chelsea is a fan of the MMORPG computer game Hellworld, a game based upon the Hellraiser mythology. After her friend Adam immolates himself with gasoline due to his obsession with Hellworld, Chelsea abandons the game, but two years after Adam's funeral is pressured by her friends into attending a Hellworld centered party at Leviathan House. While at the party, Chelsea is plagued by several bizarre incidents seemingly caused by the host of the party and, after escaping Leviathan House, witnesses Pinhead murder a police officer she had found patrolling the woods. Returning to the now abandoned Leviathan House after receiving a fake cell phone call from her friend Jake, Chelsea is chased to the attic of the mansion by the Cenobites and undead versions of her friends Mike and Allison. While in the attic, Chelsea is called by Jake, who realizes that everything they are experienced is some sort of mass hallucination. After rejoining Jake, Chelsea is confronted by the party host, who she had discovered was Adam's father. After the host causes Jake to become trapped in a coffin, he begins burying Chelsea alive, revealing he had drugged her and her friends and buried them, using cell phones to send messages to them and cause them to hallucinate everything, all in an attempt to avenge the death of Adam. Before the host can finish burying her, Chelsea returns to consciousness and is dug up by the police along with Jake. The police reveal to Chelsea that she and Jake have been buried for days and that they were only found due to anonymous call from Leviathan House, which Chelsea believes was made by Adam's spirit, which she briefly spots gazing out a window of Leviathan House. After the events of the Hellworld party, Chelsea and Jake, having become a couple, decide to go on vacation together, only to be visited by the apparent spirit of the host, who had earlier been killed by the real Cenobites. The host causes Chelsea's car to spin out of control before disappearing, leaving both Chelsea and Jake unharmed but severely shaken.

D

Doctor Paul Merchant

Doctor Paul Merchant is a character in the film Hellraiser: Bloodline where he is portrayed by Bruce Ramsay. A future descendant of Phillip LeMerchand, the creator of the gateway to Hell known as the Lament Configuration, Paul, being the last of his bloodline, is the only one who can permanently close the gateway to Hell his ancestor opened centuries ago. Hijacking a space station known as the Minos, which he designed, Paul uses a remote-controlled robot to open the Lament Configuration, summoning the Cenobite Pinhead and his minions. After releasing Pinhead, Paul is captured by a group of soldiers, who contain him while they investigate what he has been doing on the station. Left alone with a female soldier named Rimmer, Paul tells her of his family's history, telling her he must complete his work or else everyone on the station is doomed. When it becomes apparent that something really is stalking through the space station, Paul is released by the soldiers, who are killed one by one by the Cenobites. Managing to finish his work and narrowly escape Pinhead through the use of a hologram, Paul flies away from the Minos in a space shuttle with Rimmer while the Minos changes into a giant puzzle box, originally designed by Phillip LeMerchand, which completely destroys Pinhead.