Editorials
[It Came from the ‘80s] Summoning Cenobites and Engineers in ‘Hellraiser’
With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
Horror author Clive Barker didn’t initially have any intention to direct films, but the cinematic adaptations of Underworld and Rawhead Rex left him dissatisfied and feeling the need to take control. When trying to determine what it would take for someone to hire a first-time director, his producer Christopher Figg suggested something relegated to a single location with unknown actors and monsters to keep the budget small. Barker thought of his novella The Hellbound Heart, which fit the criteria. Roger Corman’s New World Pictures agreed to fund Hellraiser for just under a million dollars, and thus began the birth of one of horror’s major franchises.
It was Figg who introduced special makeup effects designer Bob Keen to Barker, and the pair hit it off immediately. The two spent weeks exchanging ideas that would still adhere to the small budget. Between Barker and Keen, they eventually settled on the design of the cenobites, with Barker drawing inspiration from punk fashion and the S&M clubs he visited. Their lengthy planning paid off. Butterball, Pinhead (though credited as Lead Cenobite), Chatterer, and the Female only appear on screen for a scant few minutes and still became instantly iconic. It wasn’t just the designs, but the performances that made horror audiences fall hard for the cenobites. Barker insisted on hiring actors when the studio felt stunt performers would have been cheaper. It allowed the cenobites’ personality to shine through when the heavy makeup and prosthetics meant the actors couldn’t even see where they were going. As cool as Pinhead looks, he wouldn’t be nearly as iconic without Doug Bradley in the role.
Keen’s work on this film extends far beyond the cenobites, though. As menacing as the cenobites are there’s still some semblance of humanity to them, and Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) is able to bargain with Pinhead when she accidentally summons them. That’s not the case with the Engineer, a monstrous demon that prowls the corridors of Hell. Kirsty Cotton barely survives her first run-in with the Engineer when she solves the Lament Configuration in her hospital room. This scene was a beast to shoot, though, as the hall the effects team had to work with was only 15 feet long. The Engineer took up 7 feet. The monster was built and mounted on a platform with wheels, with a group of guys behind it to push it forward and puppet its movements. It left Lawrence without much space left to run, so she had to run very slowly. They also had to film this several times over to help create the illusion of a much longer hallway.
The crowning achievement of Keen and the special effects team’s work on this film isn’t the extradimensional realm (though they’re great), but the gruesome and gory resurrection of Frank Cotton. When Kirsty’s father Larry (Andrew Robinson) cuts his hand on a nail, the blood seeps into the floors of the attic that begins one slimy, goopy, bloody sequence that brings Frank back from the dead as a living, skinless corpse. Rigged mechanisms were built under the floorboard to have them move while pumps poured goo through the holes. The beating heart was made from a condom, tubing, and glue to make it look like a real human heart.
Barker shot the film in order, and the budget ran out by the finale. The winged creature that takes off with the lament configuration isn’t nearly as grand as it was envisioned. The gory intensity and sexual themes meant issues with censorship, too, causing scenes to be cut. Despite all of this, the story, special effects work, and characters carved out a space in pop culture memory. For his first-time directorial effort, Barker unleashed a unique world that hadn’t been seen before. His vision and Keen’s spectacular designs delivered the beginning of one of horror’s most memorable franchises.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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