Ballraiser

Freshman year in high school, a buddy and I sat on the roof of my house which, in the distance, overlooked a cemetery. We started talking about how creepy it would be if we saw Pinhead rise up out of the cemetery and silently point at us. We scared ourselves so bad, we were done hanging out on the roof. That was probably the last time Pinhead was scary.

I never saw Hellraiser in its entirety until at least my late teens or early 20s. My whole youth I was under the impression Pinhead was a solo killer like Jason or Freddy. This made him scarier. When I found out he was a demon that gets summoned from hell with his Cenobite buddies to inflict pain (or pleasure) when you fuck with the Puzzle Box, it took a lot of the scare out. Well, okay, I won't fuck with the Puzzle Box and I'll be fine. Much like Sinister wasn't scary – okay, I don't have kid. Nothing to worry about here.

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is fucking dumb, but the Jessica Biel remake is terrifying. I'd like to see a new take on Hellraiser, but the whole bit about the Puzzle Box opening a door to another dimension may be too silly for today's audiences. Its just not grounded enough. Maybe the days of sci-fi horror are over?

That said, Pinhead, Hellraiser and all those bad 80s horror movies like Phantasm and Puppetmaster will always hold a soft spot in my heart. Whether I saw them as a kid or just stared at the VHS boxes in the video store, they were undeniably a part of my childhood.

Thanks to my brother and our buddy Paul for doing the legwork brainstorming the idea for this comic. Drawing an outraged Pinhead was super fun. So much fun, this may not be the last time we see him.

-Gint