When this was released, how big was the whole pinhead thing? I remember seeing his pic as a kid in the early 90s thinking that it would be too disturbing to watch a film with him in it. And boy was I right! Great horror movies!
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Hellraiser, not just Pinhead, was huge. Spawning countless merchandising, a comic series and an entire club culture, it was part of the rise and awareness of S&m and certain counter cultures. The raves were huge http://www.cenobite.com/techno/uhde.htm , a quick explore of The hellbound Web will give you an idea of the ammount on offer in the haydays of around 1988-1994. Hell on Earth certainly hit hard and caused a lot of disappointment at the time.
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"When this was released, how big was the whole pinhead thing? I remember seeing his pic as a kid in the early 90s thinking that it would be too disturbing to watch a film with him in it. And boy was I right! Great horror movies! "
Pretty big. Check out the older Fangoria issues and much of Clive Barker's material was featured. I would say that during the eighties, the "Pinhead thing" was third in line to the Freddy and Jason franchises.
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Yeah i still see figures of Pinhead for sale sometimes.
shareI wouldn't say Pinhead himself was ever really seen as a true icon. What is certainly true is the film gave people images they just wouldn't see anywhere else. It was like Saw is now- you went for the traps and the grisly, surrealistic violence more than to cheer for an appearance from Pinhead. You either wanted to see skinless people or you didn't. Pinhead himself wasn't exactly scary- he looked bitchin cool and was quite possibly the most polite and well spoken demon ever.
Also the religious groups were all over this slamming it from different sides. that kept a good bit of the mainstream of flocking to it. But people who couldn't give a rats ass about religious politics went to see what the controversy was all about. The style of the cenobites caught on and inspired an entire gothic wardrobe for counter culture. But MAN it had a peak phase there around 92 where the leather gothic style was almost as big as punk- people were actually getting arrested for freakin bystanders out by simply sitting on a bus...but still Pinhead wasn't really admired as an icon villain as much as his clothes were to kids simply wanting to rebel or express.
Pinhead had to compete with Freddy, Jason, Myers ANNNND people are totally forgetting Chucky.
CHUCKY WAS HUGE people HUGE for his short 3 movie run and people were more scared of that little *beep* than Pinhead. I knew people who got rid of toys after those flicks. But every villain lost out to Freddy and Jason who simply saturated the market. When you saw a trailer and heard 'kill kill kill ma ma ma' or those singing children you started to get a buzz: "This is gonna be the best movie ever!"
...then of course you saw the damn thing.
RF
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"he looked bitchin cool and was quite possibly the most polite and well spoken demon ever."
lol. Awesome quote.
I think I'd rank as far as image icons, Pinhead, Freddy, Leprechaun, Chuckie, Michale Myers, Jason.
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