100 Reasons I Love Pinhead
Forget Jason, Freddy, or Michael Myers — Clive Barker’s avenging demon is the monster of my dreams
My favorite ’80s movie monster is Pinhead from Clive Barker’s intense, blood-soaked horror classic Hellraiser. While I remain a fan of other horror franchises from that era like the Nightmare On Elm Street movies, none of them moved me the way Hellraiser did. I watch it at least once a year.
Unlike other slasher movie characters, Pinhead is kinky and graceful. He’s intelligent. On occasion, he cracks a slight smile because he loves his work. He’s not a hulking killing machine like Leatherface nor a sarcastic wisecracker like Freddy. Actor Doug Bradley portrayed Pinhead in eight Hellraiser movies and he gave the character a kind of dignity.
Pinhead was also sadistic: you can count on Jason to kill his victims brutally but quickly. Pinhead promises endless misery. He wants to toy with the mortals who summon him. He seems turned on by the very idea of pulling a human apart with hooks for eternity.
The name Pinhead was a set nickname. It stuck. Originally this character was simply the leader of the Cenobites, a sect of extradimensional demon butchers who exist to torture humans. He’s a Lovecraftian demigod who is more than happy to answer the greediest of mortal…
