Can someone explain hellraiser to me?

dspaceman20 · August 2021

I have never watched hellraiser and i don't know anything about it. Can someone explain it to me and why it would fit into dbd?

Orion · August 2021

Hellraiser is the original "pain is pleasure" franchise. It features Cenobites (basically demons from Hell, or close to it) who torture themselves, each other, and other people for kicks.

EDIT: Right, there's also this puzzle box that, if you solve it, opens a portal to their dimension (again, Hell, or something like it). That's how they come to our world and torture/kill people.

StibbityStabbity · August 2021

Hi, I'm a stupidly big fan of Hellraiser despite how bad the franchise got. I also basically left dbd and this commotion had summoned me back.

To start with, Hellraiser is about people that play with a music box puzzle called the Lament Configuration that opens up a gateway to something akin to hell. Once opened, the cenobites, which are beings of that hell, show up to drag the victim with them to an eternity of torture. To them, this is a sort of blessing, as you get to experience the most radical sensations they can possibly impart on a living being. To most people dealing with it, it's like a monkeys paw of sorts. Lust for power, sensation, knowledge, etc, lead to a prize, but the prize is a trap door to suffering.

Once summoned, cenobites seemingly have overwhelming power, but the series never focuses too much on that. The third movie shows them shrugging of guns like its nothing, while the second movie has one killed by a knife. Calling it inconsistent is entirely fair. That said, they can teleport around, change reality, and summon bladed chains and structures on a whim. They are also intelligent. They can converse with you, toy with you, and even let you run freely away from them if they feel it suits them. The first three movies, which all have the best claim to canon, even show the victims making life or death deals with them. That said, they always intend to take the victim with them.

Later in the franchise, the meaning is mostly lost, and the cenobites mostly seem to show up like some kind of final judgment for the Damned. This is because the movies were not intended to be Hellraiser movies and were modified in order to retain the rights.

Within hell itself, the cenobites are basically a religious order of suffering. They serve a deity called leviathan. Leviathan resides in the center of the maze that is their realm. They have their own castes, ranks, political structures, etc. There is more, but that should be enough to start with.

The first movie is basically required viewing to get them, though the second movie is honestly my favorite. The third is kinda bad, but has a bit more lore and is still canon. Everything after that is pretty rough and honestly bad. Bloodlines is still technically lore, but also completely contradicts the first three movies. I see it more like a bad fan fic.