The Hellbound Heart
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- Publication Date: November 1986
- Written by: Clive Barker
- Page count: 164
The Hellbound Heart was only the second Clive Barker book that I read, immediately after Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3. I knew the name of the book for a long time, since Barker himself later wrote and directed its film adaptation under the title of Hellraiser. At the time, I had only seen Hellraiser once, and remembered being mildly disappointed that it didn't focus on the famous Cenobite creatures that everyone knows. Still, I wanted to read the book and give the movie another shot just to see how the two compared. Not only did I end up absolutely loving the book, but it gave me an entirely new appreciation for the original film in terms of an adaptation, and I now like the film as much as I do its source material.
The Hellbound Heart is a very short book. At only 164 pages and with larger print, it's comparable to a Goosebumps book in terms of length. Like the movie, the book focuses on Frank Cotton, a sleazy man who is in constant pursuit of pleasure in all of its forms. He acquires a puzzle box that, when solved, opens the doors to a dimension inhabited by creatures known as the Cenobites. They're essentially BDSM demons who make those who summon them experience "pleasure" through immense pain and horrific body modification. After Frank is taken away to be tortured for eternity, he is later resurrected into the real world by his brother's adulterous wife, Julia, and the two work together to commit murders that will ensure that Frank is brought fully back to life. If that sounds remarkably close to the plot of the film adaptation, that's because Hellraiser is an almost scene-for-scene adaptation of this book. There are some differences here and there: the character of Kirsty is just a family friend and not a daughter, the Engineer demon from the film isn't here, and there's no winged bat monster at the finale. Other than that, all of the story beats are exactly the same. Despite its short length, you never get the feeling that anything is missing. It feels like one of the novella-length stories from Books of Blood, Vols. 4-6 ran off and grew just a little bit.
In terms of the Cenobites themselves, I much prefer this book's portrayal of them in comparison to what the later films would do. While the films would eventually focus on Pinhead as the focal Cenobite, the novel likes to focus on the Cenobites as a group. None of them are named, and each one takes turns speaking. They're much more androgynous here in comparison to their more definitively male or female cinematic counterparts.
"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? Was it the smell of vanilla they brought with them, the sweetness of which did little to disguise the stench beneath? Or was it that as the light grew, and he scanned them more closely, he saw nothing of joy, or even humanity, in their maimed faces: only desperation, and an appetite that made his bowels ache to be voided.
'What city is this?' one of the four enquired. Frank had difficulty guessing the speaker's gender with any certainty. Its clothes, some of which were sewn to and through its skin, hid its private parts, and there was nothing in the dregs of its voice, or in its willfully disfigured features that offered the least clue."
In addition, while the later films would portray the Cenobites as nothing more than supernatural slasher killers, here they actually focus on the angle of pleasure through pain. For example, when Frank sommons them in the film, they simply rip him apart with chains. Here, to give Frank a taste of what's to come, they turn his senses up one by one. Sight, sound, touch, taste and smell are all amplified until something as small as dust motes hurt the skin and the sound of his breath is deafening, eventually arounsing Frank until they take him away. The Cenobites were inspired by Barker's experience in S&M clubs in the 1970s, so it only makes sense that sex and sensuality would be a key component to them. I find this to be a much more interesting angle for these characters, and it's a shame that it would get lost as the films would continue on.
Much like Books of Blood, The Hellbound Heart is a fantastic introduction to Clive Barker's writing. If you're in the mood for a story that features sex, death, pleasure, pain, and despicable villains, this book wraps all of that up in Barker's beautiful prose. The franchise may have devolved into nonsense as the years went on and other creators took over, but no one did it better than Barker did. Go to the source and check it out. He has such sights to show you.