Cenobite (Hellraiser)
| Hellraiser characters | |
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 The four Cenobites featured in The Hellbound Heart and the first two entries in the Hellraiser film franchise. From left: Butterball, Pinhead, the Female, and Chatterer.
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| Cenobites | |
| In-story information | |
| Race: | Former humans/Demons |
| Primary location: | "The Labyrinth"/Hell |
| Leader: | Pinhead |
| Development information | |
| Creator: | Clive Barker |
| First appearance: | The Hellbound Heart |
| Last appearance: | |
The Cenobites are extra-dimensional beings who appear in the works of Clive Barker, including the novella The Hellbound Heart as well as its semi-sequel The Scarlet Gospels and the nine Hellraiser films. They are also mentioned, in passing, in the novel Weaveworld, in which they are referred to as "The Surgeons".
The Cenobites vary in number, appearance, and motivations depending on the medium (film, comic book, etc.) in which they appear. The involvement of multiple parties in the production of Hellraiser films and comics (many eschewing the creative supervision of Clive Barker) has led to varying levels of consistency regarding the canonical aspects of their philosophies and abilities. The only constants are that they take the form of ritually mutilated people with varying degrees of human characteristics, and that they can only reach Earth's reality through a schism in time and space, which is opened and closed using an innocuous-looking puzzle box called the Lament Configuration.
The term cenobite is a word meaning "a member of a communal religious order"; The Hellbound Heart specifies that they are members of The Order of the Gash. The text also refers to them as Hierophants.
After being disappointed with the way his material had been treated by producers in Underworld, Barker wrote The Hellbound Heart as his first step in directing a film by himself. The book describes a group of sadomasochistic entities who live in an extradimensional realm, where they perform "experiments" in extreme sexual experiences. Although antagonist Frank Cotton believes they will take the form of beautiful women, they appear instead as monsters:
Why then was he so distressed to set eyes upon them? Was it the scars that covered every inch of their bodies, the flesh cosmetically punctured and sliced and infibulated, then dusted down with ash? ... No women, no sighs. Only these sexless things, with their corrugated flesh.
Author David McWilliam identifies the Cenobites as described in more explicitly sexual terms in the book than they are depicted in the film adaptations. The four Cenobites described in the book each present unique mutilations and modifications: one Cenobite has stitches through its eyelids and a system of chains with bells hooked into various parts of its body; another has a grid tattooed to her head with jeweled pins driven into her skull at the intersections; the eyes of yet another are swollen shut and its mouth heavily disfigured; finally, a female Cenobite has undergone elaborate scarification to her pubis. The fifth, lead Cenobite, referred to as "The Engineer", appears briefly in the book's climax as an average human being whose body glows with intense light when he travels between realms.
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