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The Thing I Really Like About the Cenobites

posted 10 years ago by Jobeykobra
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Something that really stood out about the cenobites, the supposed villains of the film (which truly were Frank and Julia), was the fact that they really didn't come across as evil, per say. They were just gatekeepers, in a sense. Pinhead and the other cenobites simply brought what those who opened the box were looking for, and pursued those who managed to leave Hell.

There was actually a sense of comfort you got with the cenobites, particularly when it came to handling Frank. Yeah, they wanted to bring Kirsty back with them, but to be fair she did open the box. It would have been a violation of the Lament Configuration's rules not to take her along. They came across more as dealers of punishment for those who were asking for it, instead of just sadomasochistic demons. I especially felt that way when they were about to tear Frank apart and Pinhead said to Kirsty, "This is not for your eyes."

By the third film the writers turned Pinhead into a sloppy power-hungry psychopath, but in the first two films (especially the second) it seems like he was governed by certain principles and was willing to listen to reason, which made him more comforting than frightening. The other cenobites however, especially the woman, seemed more vicious.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] HellboundHero 10 years ago

Although it's what's being preached in the current comics, I don't like to think of what the cenobites do as punishment. The Hellbound Heart said they see pleasure and pain as the same thing and that their idea of pleasure might not be the same as a human's, and that's the explanation I'm sticking with, not revisions to the mythos from over 20 years later.

[–] Jobeykobra 10 years ago

Oh, I completely agree with that sentiment, and it's part of the very reason I find the cenobites more comforting than frightening; they're about offering unfathomable experiences of sensation. Frank said it himself, "Pain and pleasure, indivisible." Both ends of the spectrum beyond what most humans have had the chance to experience. At the same time, though, the cenobites are ready to pursue the ones who escape, and Frank deserved to be brought back and tormented by this experience that he obviously couldn't handle. I think Frank was a weak man who pretended to be strong, with his arrogance besting him in the end, and it felt like what the cenobites did was deliver justice. Just my feelings. They were demons to him, but the ones who were truly ready for the experiences the cenobites had to offer found them to be angels.

[–] Nuclear_Exorcist 10 years ago

Pinhead became a bloodthirsty psycho in the third film because his principled human side became separated from his demonic alter-ego after being killed by Channard. He was mostly back to his usual self in Bloodline, aside from the excess of cheap one liners, and entirely returned to his regular neutrality in Inferno. Not that it makes those two particularly good films though.

[–] KingCobra686 10 years ago

I think this is my favorite part of the movies. Not many horror movies have villains like Pinhead and the Cenobites. They are powerful and dangerous, but they are also on your side if you play by the right rules.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] texasbeast-38912 8 years ago

Jobeykobra wrote:
By the third film the writers turned Pinhead into a sloppy power-hungry psychopath, but in the first two films (especially the second) it seems like he was governed by certain principles and was willing to listen to reason, which made him more comforting than frightening. The other cenobites however, especially the woman, seemed more vicious.

Is this a reason to really like the Cenobites, per the thread title, or merely to like Pinhead alone?

Do you really like that Pinhead was rational for a time?

Or do you really like that the Cenobites are inconsistent and variable?

I don't like the idea that such fickle enforcers are set loose on the world. It reminds me too much of the stories of bad cops. I want consistent, brutally efficient, reliable enforcers who have but one *beep* in their armor that is still entirely within their rules. The films should have kept hammering away at the precise terms and limits of that gap in their rules, sometimes allowing protagonists to escape, and sometimes ironically closing the trap on someone to their bitter end.