The term cenobite is an archaic word meaning simply “a member of a communal religious order”. Indeed, the original novel mentions the Cenobites as “Theologians of the Order of the Gash”; they are also referred to as Hierophants. They can reach Earth’s reality only through a rupture in time and space (referred to as a “Schism”) which is opened and closed using certain unearthly artifacts. The most common form for these artifacts is an innocuous-looking Chinese-style puzzle box called the Lament Configuration.

The Cenobites all have horrific mutilations or body piercings. The best known of the Cenobites in the Hellraiser films is Pinhead. Pinhead’s mutilation consists of pins that have been hammered through his flesh into his skull in a grid pattern and six open wounds on his lower torso with the flesh peeled back, and also fish-hooks embedded in the back of his head.

Pinhead; the Dark Prince of Pain, Angel of Suffering, Leviathan’s Lord of the Damned. During the first World War, Captain Elliot Spenser witnessed many atrocities, his appetites were indulged, but it was through the Lament Configuration that a world of experience beyond limits would open up to him and eventually become his domain.

Originally enforcers for Leviathan, Lord of Hell, Cenobites were charged with retrieving anyone who solved the Lament Configuration, also known as the Lemarchand Box, a wood and brass puzzle box, which if solved opens a gateway between our world and Hell, highly sought after by the greatest of hedonists for its promise of unparalleled pleasures. The Cenobites were then directly responsible for the pleasure/pain torture of said individual.

I was really in the mood for a good scary movie the other night, but I felt like I’d seen everything already, and I’d seen so many stinkers, especially of the remake or “reimagined” variety, that I wasn’t even going to bother with this one. But I was pretty desperate so I gave it a shot. When you go into something with few or no expectations, you can really be pleasantly surprised, as I was with this movie.

I’d seen the original “Last House on the Left” ages ago, was suitably freaked-out by it, and figured the remake would just be an even more gruesome, B-movie equivalent, and that the tragic events which befall the main actress would be even more exploitative. In other words, I thought they’d go for the same grossout shockfest that movies like the “Saw” and “Hostel” series’ had to stoop to, in lieu of actual suspense-building and dread.

Instead, this turned out to be a movie that could actually stand up on the acting, direction and cinematography alone, without excessive gore or silliness. Oh, there’s gore, but it’s handled quite realistically, and therefore is even more shocking than seeing gallons of blood gushing out everywhere.

It’s pretty suspenseful, too, especially, I would imagine, if you had never seen the original or knew the premise.

I don’t post a lot of these, usually only if a movie really surprises me in a good or bad way, and this one qualifies as a good surprise. This is a very decent scary movie if you’re in the mood for one.