10 Horror Movie Scenes You Remember Totally Wrong

7. His Name Isn't Pinhead - Hellraiser

Hannibal Lecter
New World Pictures

After the success of Clive Barker's novel The Hellhound Heart, the esteemed author took it upon himself to adapt the story for the big screen. Although Pinhead played a minor role in the book, the film adaptation turned him into the leader of the Cenobite demons.

Not only was Hellraiser a hit financially and critically, Pinhead became an icon overnight, and was instantly perceived as the face of the franchise. Over the last 25 years, Hellraiser has spawned nine sequels and a reboot, with each instalment centred around the needle-faced entity.

Despite being one of the most recognised movie monsters of the 1980s, a lot of people don't realise "Pinhead" isn't his name. In fact, nobody refers to him as Pinhead in the original film.

In the first two instalments, the lead villain is credited as "Hell Priest". In Barker's other work, the demonic foe is called The Lead Cenobite, The Priest, The Pope of Hell, The Engineer, Elliot Spencer, and most importantly, NOT Pinhead.

Even though Barker hated the character's undignified moniker, he allowed his creation to be credited as Pinhead for the first time in Hellraiser III, when the horror writer realised how popular the nickname had become.

Contributor

James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows