Hellbound is the second appearance of Kirsty Cotton.
Kirsty Cotton: Badass Heroine Extraordinaire
Kirsty plays an important role in three of the Hellraiser
movies (technically, she’s in four of them, but her appearance in Hell on Earth
is brief). Over the course of her tenure as The Girl Who Constantly Escapes The
Cenobites, she matures from Screaming Dingus to Hard-ass Bitch. Kirsty’s
journey is a delightful B-plot that stretches through the mythos. In Hellbound,
she starts the film a shell-shocked patient in a mental ward, having been found
in her family’s home with the remains of, well, her family. The psychiatrist isn’t
buying her story of demons and skinless uncles, so she’s kept under close
watch. All is going normally enough until she sees this:
Kirsty becomes convinced that, with the help of Dear Kyle
(played by Lt. Gorman), she needs to rescue her father from Hell. Because that’s
really helping your case for sanity, Kirsty. Fortunately Dear Kyle is a
well-intentioned and nosey kind of guy, because he discovers that the head psychiatrist,
one Dr. Channard, is actually a REALLY EVIL DUDE. [Note to readers: if you ever
find yourself in a horror film and there’s a psychiatrist hanging around, he’s
the bad guy.] Channard has not one but three puzzle boxes and is intent on
seeing all of the sights or whatever shit. He’s even gone so far as to abduct and lobotomize a
little girl’s mother because the little girl is a pale waif in a horror movie
and therefore magical.
Our Dear Kyle gets to witness the rebirth of Julia. That
bitch. Convinced that Kirsty is attractive and
sane, he rushes off before having to watch Channard make out with a skinless
she-demon. We are not spared.
While Kirsty and Dear Kyle are searching for her clothes,
Julia kills a lot of people who are mostly topless women. Our Dear, Sweet,
Trusting Kyle goes back to Channard’s to search the place and is…wooed?
Bewitched? I don’t really understand Julia’s pull, since she looks like an 80s
mom, but she mindfucks Kyle and jams her hand in his brain. While this is
happening, Kirsty is playing a point-and-click adventure with Channard’s office
and pockets a picture of a man who looks suspiciously like Doug Bradley.
Our delightful little mute albino aspie opens the Lament
Configuration. The Cenobites come, all leather and screeching noises and
disturbing sexuality. Pinhead shows his Lawful Evil alignment by stating, “It
is not hands that call us. It is desire.” The Cenobites turn on Channard and
Julia. Here’s where things get weird. Suddenly Tiffany (our mute puzzle-child),
Kirsty, Channard, and Julia are all inside the box itself, in the realm of
Leviathan, the god of desire that the Cenobites serve. Or something. Julia, at
least, serves Leviathan. She says as much when she pushes Channard into the Play-Doh Make Your Own Cenobite Machine.
The realm inside the puzzle box is pretty generic horror
fare; the nightmares of Kirsty and Tiffany are brought to life. Tiffany sees
her mother’s torture, a creepy baby sewing its own mouth shut, and a clown
juggling his own eyes. Kirsty sees her father’s house filled with candles and
naked people writhing under sheets. There is a confrontation with Uncle Frank
that ends in Kirsty setting him on fire (hell yes!).
The Cenobites decide that they are done with Kirsty’s
teasing. This scene was strange to me the first time through, because they didn’t
have much dialog in the first movie. Here, however, Female Cenobite is taunting
Kirsty for being a tease and Pinhead is stating threats low and matter-of-fact
in the way that he does. Kirsty reveals the picture she stole from Channard’s
office, exposing that the Cenobites were once human! This is an important
turning point, as the newly formed Channard-Cenobite then bursts in, singing
like a cartoon alligator and making really awful medical puns. Oh, and having a
giant, throbbing penis attached to his head.
Channard, somehow, I can’t explain it so don’t ask, manages
to best four of his obvious betters. Female Cenobite is a rather pretty lass,
revealed by her death. Butterball is, as expected, a chubby dude. The Chatterer
is a young boy, no more than twelve or thirteen. That moment was
heart-wrenching for me.
Pinhead holds off Channard so the girls can escape,
ultimately paying for his moment of heroism with his life. (Don’t worry,
Pinhead is back in the next movie and the others all come back eventually.) But
damn if Channard isn’t intent on making little spergy Tiffany into a Cenobite
too, though that’s mainly to stop her from solving the puzzle that will free
them. Kirsty, in an epic maneuver of bad-assery, puts on Julia’s empty skin and
makes out with Channard until Tiffany solves the puzzle, then rescues Tiffany
from falling to her death. Let that sink in for a second. Kirsty slipped into
the shed, slimy skin of her hated step-mother to save this little girl. Talk
about bravery. Now think…Julia’s dead and
empty skin still manages to seduce men. Yeah.
The girls get out. Channard does not. There’s a walk off
into the sunset that implies that Kirsty and Tiffany are bffs now. There is a
minor epilogue featuring a moving guy getting sucked into the cursed mattress
and a weird flesh pillar rising out. This seems like a complete throwaway, but
it’s an important part of Hellraiser III, which should tell you something about
Hellraiser III.
His name is CD. He shoots CDs.
Personally, I really enjoyed getting a more in-depth look
into the origins and history of the Cenobites, but I’m glad that it was made a
side plot, not the main focus of the film. History of the puzzle box gets to take
the fore in Bloodlines and it leaves something to be desired. (Bloodlines in
the inevitable In Space installation of any 80s horror franchise.) Ashley
Lawrence’s acting has matured a bit at this point and she delivers everything
from fear to anger to bitter sarcasm without a hitch. Imogen Boorman does a
lovely job as our wunderkind. And Doug Bradley is, without exception, amazing.
It’s hard to believe that he wasn’t an actor before a friend asked him if he wanted
to carry the mattress or wear the Pinhead makeup!
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