When the Cenobites Come

Philosophy for nightmares

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Every once in a while, the cenobites come.

In Clive Barker's brilliant The Hellbound Heart, and his film adaptation Hellraiser, thrill seekers pursuing the most forbidden heights of pleasure get their hands on the Lament Configuration (or, in the book, Lemarchand's Box) — a puzzle box which, when solved, summons the cenobites.

The Cenobites, members of The Order of The Gash, are supernatural devotees of ecstasy that blur pain and pleasure. They torment themselves and their victims to such an extreme and peculiar degree that pain and pleasure become indistinguishable from each other.