Hellbound Hearts (42 page)

It is twenty years and more since Clive plucked the Lemar-chand Configuration and its attendant intrigues and custodians from the recesses of his restless mind and placed it in our midst, yet its fascination shows no sign of waning. Quite the opposite, in fact. It appears to have reached every corner of the globe (a delightful geometric impossibility that, isn't it?) and still be traveling.

Around the world in eighty perversions, perhaps.

Some ten to fifteen years ago, I was asked to undertake a similar exercise to this in writing an introduction for a collection of
Hellraiser
-inspired comic strips. I commented then on how exciting it was to see a group of writers and artists take a basic idea from one writer/artist/director and run off with it in myriad different directions, with nothing but their imaginations as a compass. Here we are again, and exactly the same thoughts are coming to mind.

I suppose I'm here as some kind of Keeper of the Flame. And it is clearly true that I have been the one consistent link through the series of films. True also that it was Pinhead who very quickly became the figurehead for the series: the face and the image that everyone now associates with the
Hellraiser
films, so much so that I even hear the character being sometimes referred to as “Hellraiser” rather than Pinhead (which is of course not the character's name at all; for me he really has no name and if you ever called him Pinhead, he'd ignore you). I've been in lots of situations where people have said they don't know the
Hellraiser
films and don't watch horror films. And yet they all know the image of “the guy with the nails in his head.” “Oh
him
! That's
you
? That's amazing . . .”

It has been his face on all the DVD boxes, the
Hellraiser
films always being sold on the promise of more and more Pinhead even when, in some cases, he was barely to be seen in the film contained within.

And yet you'll have searched in vain for Pinhead featuring among these pages. There are other Cenobites, yes, newly sprung
from the imaginations of the contributing authors here, and at least one very familiar to fans of the original films. But no Pinhead, at least not in the strictest sense. Does that bother me? Not one jot. Quite the opposite, in fact. Consistently, though not uniformly, the writers have gone straight to the real heart of the
Hellraiser
“mythology,” if such a thing exists. To the Lemarchand Configuration, the ever innocent puzzle box: and beyond that to what Lemarchand's plaything represents and points toward. The labyrinth, the puzzle, internal and external, the riddles and enigmas.

And is there, I was just wondering, any precedent for this? Oh, novelizations aplenty. But a horror franchise throwing out original off-shoot stories like this where the central character—the “monster”—is conspicuous by his absence? And surely not a precedent for not one but two cast members from the films to contribute their own original pieces of fiction. Take a bow and some plaudits, Mr. Vince and Ms. Wilde, for boldly venturing where this thespian has never trod.

And we've been on quite a journey, haven't we? From London's South Bank to Constantinople, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first centuries, from convents to cemeteries, puzzle boxes in computers and labyrinths in strange gardens and more. It would be invidious of me to list everything—and slightly pointless as well, perhaps. It is to be assumed you've just read them. Or, if you're one of those people who likes to flip to the back of a book first, you're just about to.

And once again, these gathered words, whether you've read them yet or not, are vivid testimony to the power and the glory that is the imagination of my friend Clive Barker. It would be an exercise in stating the blindingly obvious to say that without him none of this would have been possible, but it's also to me an exercise in stating a wonderful truth: that the last twenty years (for me personally, obviously, but I make a broader point), particularly in the world of horror, would have been a much poorer place without
Hellraiser
. Yet again, my thanks to him.

And final plaudits here to Paul and Marie. For being mad enough
to take this project on board and patient enough (in my own case at least, above and beyond the call of duty) to see it through to the finish.

So there you are. Thank you for coming. Please take a moment before you leave to look around and make sure you have all your personal belongings with you. Like your souls, perhaps. . . .

Doug Bradley

London

February 2009

CLIVE BARKER was born in Liverpool, England, where he began his creative career writing, directing, and acting for the stage. Since then, he has gone on to pen such bestsellers as
The Books of Blood
,
Weaveworld
,
Imajica
,
The Great and Secret Show, The Thief of Always
,
Everville
,
Sacrament
,
Galilee
,
Coldheart Canyon
, and the highly acclaimed fantasy series
Abarat
. As a screenwriter, director, and film producer, he is credited with the
Hellraiser
and
Candyman
pictures, as well as
Nightbreed
,
Lord of Illusions
,
Gods and Monsters
, and
The Midnight Meat Train
. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

STEPHEN JONES lives in London, England. He is the winner of three World Fantasy Awards, four Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards, and three International Horror Guild Awards, as well as being an eighteen-time recipient of the British Fantasy Award and a Hugo Award nominee. A former television producer/ director and genre movie publicist and consultant (the first three
Hellraiser
movies,
Night Life
,
Nightbreed
,
Split Second
,
Mind Ripper
,
Last Gasp
, etc.), as an editor and writer he has had around one hundred books published, including
Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide
,
The Essential Monster Movie Guide
,
The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide
,
Clive Barker's A–Z of Horror
,
Clive Barker's Shadows in Eden
,
Clive Barker's The Nightbreed Chronicles
, and
The Hellraiser Chronicles
.

PETER ATKINS is the author of the novels
Morningstar
and
Big Thunder
and the screenplays for
Hellraiser II
,
Hellraiser III
,
Hellraiser IV
, and
Wishmaster
. With Glen Hirshberg and Dennis Etchison, he cofounded the Rolling Darkness Revue, which tours the west coast each October, bringing original ghost stories, live music, and theatrical effects to bookstores and libraries. His short fiction has appeared in several award-winning anthologies, and he has also written for the stage and television. His latest novel,
Moontown
, was published last year, and a new collection of his short fiction is forthcoming.

CONRAD WILLIAMS is the author of the novels
Head Injuries
,
London Revenant
,
The Unblemished
, and
One
. His novellas include
Nearly People
,
The Scalding Rooms
,
Rain
, and
Game
. Some of his short fiction was collected in
Use Once then Destroy
. As Conrad A. Williams, he wrote
Decay Inevitable
. He is a past recipient of the British Fantasy Award and the International Horror Guild Award. He lives in Manchester with his wife and three sons. At a convention in the 1990s he picked up, from a display table, one of the actual models of Lemarchand's Box used in the
Hellraiser
films. He apologized profusely when its guardian had a conniption fit and is happy to report that, to date, he has not suffered any kind of Cenobitic visitation, punitive or otherwise.

SARAH PINBOROUGH is the author of five horror novels—including
The Hidden
,
The Reckoning
,
The Taken
, and
Tower Hill
—and various short stories. She has been short-listed twice for the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel and lives in Milton Keynes, England, with her cats, Peter and Mr. Fing. Her next horror novel,
Feeding Ground
(Leisure Books)—a sequel to her popular book
Breeding Ground
—will be out in all good bookshops in the United States in October 2009. Her first thriller,
A Matter of Blood
(Gollancz), will be out in the UK in 2010. Sarah is also a member of the MUSE writing collective with fellow authors Sarah Langan and Alexandra Sokoloff. To find out more about her, visit
www.sarahpinborough.com
.

MICK GARRIS is an award-winning filmmaker who began writing fiction at the age of twelve. By the time he was in high school, he was already writing music and film journalism for various local and national publications. Garris hosted and produced
The Fantasy Film Festival
on Los Angeles television for nearly three years, and later began work in film publicity at Avco Embassy and Universal Pictures. It was there that he created “Making of . . .” documentaries for various feature films. Steven Spielberg hired Garris as story editor on
Amazing Stories
for NBC, where he wrote or cowrote ten of the forty-four episodes. Since then he has written or coauthored several feature films (including
The Fly II
and
Riding the Bullet
) and teleplays (such as
Quicksilver Highway
and
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
), as well as directed and produced in many media: cable (including
Psycho IV: The Beginning
), features (like
Sleepwalkers
), television films (such as
Desperation
), series pilots (
The Others
), and network miniseries (
The Stand
,
The Shining
). He created and executive produced the
Masters of Horror
anthology series of one-hour horror films written and directed by names like John Carpenter and George Romero. He also created the NBC series,
Fear Itself
.
A Life in the Cinema
, his first book, is a collection of short stories, and his short fiction has been published in numerous books and magazines.
Development Hell
is his first novel. Garris lives in Studio City, California, with his wife, Cynthia.

CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the author of such novels as
The Myth Hunters
,
Wildwood Road
,
The Boys are Back in Town
,
The Ferryman
,
Strangewood
,
Of Saints and Shadows
, and (with Tim Lebbon)
The Map of Moments.
Golden cowrote the lavishly illustrated novel
Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
with Mike Mignola. He has also written books for teens and young adults, including
Poison Ink, Soulless
, and the thriller series
Body of Evidence
. Upcoming teen novels include a new fantasy series coauthored with Tim Lebbon and entitled
The Secret Journeys of Jack London
. Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His original novels have been published in more than fourteen languages in
countries around the world. Please visit him at
www.christophergolden.com
.

MIKE MIGNOLA is best known as the award-winning creator/writer/ artist of
Hellboy
. He was also visual consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on both
Hellboy
and
Hellboy II:The Golden Army
. Most recently he was coauthor (with Christopher Golden) of the novel
Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire
. Mignola lives in Southern California with his wife, daughter, and cat.

TIM LEBBON's many novels include
The Island
,
Bar None
, the
30 Days of Night
movie novelization,
Hellboy: The Fire Wolves
, and
The Map of Moments
(with Christopher Golden). He's published on both sides of the Atlantic, and has won the British Fantasy Award (three times), the Bram Stoker Award, and a Scribe Award, among others. Several of his novels and novellas are currently in development as movies.

KELLEY ARMSTRONG is the author of the
Women of the Otherworld
paranormal suspense series—which includes
Bitten
,
Stolen
,
Dime Store Magic
,
Industrial Magic
,
Haunted
,
Broken
,
No Humans Involved
,
Personal Demon
, and
Living with the Dead
—the
Darkest Powers
YA urban fantasy trilogy, and the Nadia Stafford crime series. She grew up in Ontario, Canada, where she still lives with her family. A former computer programmer, she's now escaped her corporate cubicle and hopes never to return. Her website is
www.KelleyArmstrong.com
.

RICHARD CHRISTIAN MATHESON is an acclaimed novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter/producer. He has written and cowritten feature film and television projects for Richard Donner, Ivan Reitman, Steven Spielberg, Bryan Singer, and many others. For TNT's
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
miniseries, he wrote the critically hailed adaptation of Stephen King's short story “Battleground,” starring William Hurt and directed by Brian Henson. As a prose writer, his critically lauded fiction has been published in major, award-winning
anthologies, including multiple times in
Best New Horror, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror
and
Year's Best Fantasy
. Matheson's stories are collected in
Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks
and
Dystopia
. His critically acclaimed debut novel,
Created By
, was Bantam's hardcover lead, a Bram Stoker Award nominee for best first novel and a Book-of-the-Month Club lead selection. It has been translated into several languages. Matheson is considered an expert on the occult and worked with the UCLA's parapsychology labs, investigating haunted houses and paranormal phenomenon. He also plays drums with Smash-Cut, a blues/rock/jazz band, which recently recorded a live album,
Live at the Mint.