10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Hellraiser
5. Pinhead's Character Originated Much Earlier Than You'd Imagine
If you thought Pinhead originated from The Hellbound Heart novel, you'd be surprised to learn the concept of the insidious entity emerged far earlier. In 1973, Clive Barker put together a play called Hunters in the Snow.
One of the characters, The Dutchman, was a torturer and a "strange, strange character whose head was kind of empty but who conveyed all kinds of things". Many years, Barker reworked The Dutchman into the character that would become Pinhead. However, The Dutchman did not have the Cenobite's iconic needle-faced look. That came later.
In Barker's short story, The Forbidden, (which was adapted into the film, Candyman), there is one chapter where a block of wood is described as having six-inch nails banged into it in a grid-like pattern. Over time, the author thought this design would look great for a character and incorporated it into Pinhead's face.
With the character finalised, Barker had to find an actor who could portray the malevolent demon. In the end, he cast the same person who inspired the character in the first place, the actor who played The Dutchman in Hunters in the Snow - Doug Bradley.