The carnage is downright overwhelming by the end of the book. It's like that Stalin quote about one death being a tragedy and a million deaths being a statistic. This book's ending is heavy on the statistics.
Basic story: Pinhead- Barker's villain from "Hellraiser"- is up against Harry D'Amour- Barker's protagonist from several books, stories, and movies.
Now this was a wise move because the cosmic stuff is so large-scale, it would completely drown out any new human characters. It needs a familiar and established human element to ease us in.
Now even so, it doesn't work. D'Amour and his assistants are just doddering about and bickering and reacting for the majority of the book. They all blend together. I've already forgotten all of them except for Harry and his best friend.
Pinhead2 has decided he's had enough of Hell's status quo, so he hunts down every magician on Earth to gather all the magical knowledge and use it to take on Satan.
Pinhead wants Harry D'Amour to serve as his scribe, witnessing his acts to write a new testament of his ascension and takeover of Hell- his "scarlet gospel," if you will. Pinhead says Harry's reputation in occult circles would make his account objective and unimpeachable.
D'Amour politely refuses. It's terrific that when Pinhead first appears, D-Amour doesn't hesitate, just shoots Pinhead in the face repeatedly. It doesn't do any damage, but credit for the attempt!
So Pinhead responds by kidnapping D"Amour's best friend and it becomes a cat-and-mouse game with Harry and his friends chasing Pinhead through every area of Hell, ending in a showdown with Lucifer.
Lucifer is an interesting, sympathetic character. Everything he does and says is compelling.
Pinhead's portrayed as the monster he is. In the "Hellraiser" movies, his carnage and violence was always cold and a degree removed. Here, he beats and abuses and tortures people with his bare hands. He's jaw-droppingly cruel to his assistant, who becomes the most gruesomely mutilated demon in Barker's oeuvre.
Barker seems to be taking Pinhead back by doing this. He reminds us that this is not a friendly movie monster, he's a demon from Hell.
Barker also ignores everything that happens in the "Hellraiser" film sequels. It would take a mega-spoiler to explain how it contradicts the ending of "Hellraiser IV," which I reviewed here, but trust me- Barker rewrites history here. And Berker's version is better.
There's some neat stuff with ghosts, a new element in Pinhead's world, and it pays off with a nice, heartfelt ending.
The book has WAY too many f-bombs. It's like Barker's trying to prove he's not writing kids' fantasy books anymore by making this as pottymouthed as possible. But it has the reverse effect- this approach comes off as less mature, not more.
There are sections where two groups are just traveling from one place to another. This is a trope that drives fantasy fiction and helps keep the page count high.3
The book's philosophy, when it settles down to preach, is a pretty shallow YOLO. Disappointing, but Barker's always been a trendy, neon-morality kind of guy.
The "Hellraiser" world is known for its blurring of pleasure and pain- which I've never appreciated or understood- but Barker doesn't dwell on it much here. This pain and mutilation is mostly just ugly here. The sense of dread is palpable- you realize how high the stakes are when there's a constant prospect of brutally intense, long-lasting mutilation. Barker's vision of Hell and suffering is terrifying.4
This was random, but there's this fundamentalist preacher thrown in there at the end and he never acted as anything but an axe for Barker to grind. His raging, irrational homophobia dehumanized him so the characters could feel okay about stealing his car. It was an out-of-the-blue, pointless tangent after the huge showdown in Hell. And it made a big point about two forgettable supporting characters, who I didn't even notice were gay. Barker underplayed that, which made it kind of odd when it became a big deal in the last few pages.5
And speaking of Barker, have you seen him lately? His author photo in this book is rough. Look him up on YouTube. Oof. He says he has throat polyps but it looks like complications from HIV.
And there's the rub. Barker lived with a partner from 1996 to 2009, when his partner left him and sued him for giving him HIV. I don't know anything more than that and I don't want to. It's tough to realize that one of your favorite writers did such a horrible thing.
It certainly explains why he's writing horror again. Barker was in an abusive relationship when he wrote the "Books of Blood." And it's pretty clear he's in a dark place again.
So this was an interesting piece of work. Flawed, imaginative, and fresh. But I wish Barker was happy and healthy and still writing fantasy and kid's books. The best horror book in the world isn't worth an author's life falling apart.
* * *
1. His stuff has been fantasy since, but there's been some DARK fantasy, in fairness. "Great and Secret Show" was more intense, twisted, and violent than anything by Stephen King. Oh, and Barker wrote "Mister B. Gone" in 2006, which was about a demon and it kinda resembled horror, but it was totally a fantasy book.
2. This book reveals that he prefers being called "Master" or "Hell Priest"- he HATES the nickname "Pinhead" and will make your death extra-painful if you use it.
3. Lookin' at you, George R.R. Martin. You got so many people uneventfully walking from place to place, Tolkien thought you were dragging it out a bit.
4. I remember as a very agnostic kid, "Hellraiser III" made me think seriously about the whole issue of Hell. Horror is conservative in a lot of ways- have sex, get killed- and Barker's Catholicism-fueled vision of Hell is so intense, he could easily scare some people into believing. You don't want your flesh shredded by hooks and rusty chains for eternity, do you? The notion sure gave me pause!
5. Reading Barker as a kid, I didn't know or care that he was gay. I tend to be oblivious to people's sexual orientation.
-Phony McFakename
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