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.
Comics
‘Spider-Noir’ Comic Changes Explained: How the TV Series Reinvents Marvel’s Darkest Spider-Man
A little while back, I wrote an article chronicling the Hellraiser franchise’s affinity for Film Noir and touched on how that genre has, historically, always been connected to horror.
This connection can be observed in everything from the cannibalistic serial killers of Frank Miller’s Sin City to the disturbing criminal plots fueling neo-noir thrillers like Stuart Gordon’s underrated King of the Ants. That’s why it came as no surprise when I finally sat down to watch all eight episodes of Prime Video’s recently released Spider-Noir series and was confronted with plenty of classic horror tropes.
What did come as a surprise, however, was how showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot approached these horror elements when compared to the 2009 comic book that the show is based on. From the heavily altered rogue’s gallery to an equally terrifying yet completely different origin story for Nicolas Cage’s take on the webslinger, there are plenty of changes here that I feel might be of interest to genre fans.
With that in mind, I’d like to invite readers to take a closer look at all the adjustments that Spider-Noir made to the story in order to bring this incarnation of Spider-Man to life in all of its monochromatic glory (unless you watched the True-Hue color version of the show, in which case you’ll be treated to a surprisingly comic-booky palette that you don’t usually see on television).
The Dark Origins of Marvel’s Spider-Man Noir
Our first order of business should be to examine the origins of the Noir comics themselves. Originally published as part of the Marvel Noir alternate universe that reimagined several characters as hard-boiled crime-fighters, Spider-Man Noir became the most successful book in the entire run. This highly politicized story about Peter Parker coming to terms with the capitalist evils of the Great Depression seemed to have struck a nerve with audiences looking for a darker take on the wall-crawler, which is likely why we’d soon see several sequel stories as well as a video game adaptation of the character in 2010’s underrated Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
Of course, it wasn’t just Spider-Man’s darker disposition that made this version of the character a hit, as 1930s New York City was depicted as being much more hostile than what we generally see in the standard Marvel Universe. From Peter’s powers coming from an Eldritch Spider God that spawns man-eating arachnids to Vulture being an ex-Freak-Show Gimp with a taste for human flesh, you can definitely understand why this Web-Head isn’t pulling his punches.
Unfortunately, this alternate universe was a little too popular for its own good, with each subsequent sequel/adaptation further diluting the political anger and classic horror influences that fueled the original comic-book run in order to appeal to a wider audience. Spider-Man Noir was nearly unrecognizable once we got to the Spider-Verse crossover that turned the character into a household name, though this would at least lead to an interesting adaptation in 2018.
The Classic Horror Influences Hidden Throughout Spider-Noir
Jack Huston as Sandman in ‘Spider-Noir’
When Phil Lord and Chris Miller finally translated Spider-Man Noir to the big screen, with Nicolas Cage bringing the character to life in an unexpected case of pitch-perfect casting, he was still mostly relegated to comic relief as his nazi-punching antics and over-the-top edginess were played for laughs. However, while this version of the character had little to do with the comics that spawned him, Spider-Noir’s newfound popularity eventually resulted in the announcement of a darker live-action spin-off – a spin-off that I was cautiously optimistic about.
While the showrunners ultimately decided to go in a completely different direction than the 2009 comic, the new team of writers appeared to understand Noir as a genre in ways that even the folks at Marvel Noir couldn’t quite grasp. That’s likely why 2026’s Spider-Noir boasts plenty of horror elements, just not in ways we’ve seen them before.
The series is obviously borrowing tropes and aesthetics from period-accurate monster movies, with Universal’s 1930s output being a particularly big influence. From the re-imagining of Sandman and Tombstone as tragic figures to The Spider even being operated on by a mad scientist with hilariously antiquated techniques, this bizarre collection of super-powered freaks could have easily shown up in a classic creature feature.
The scares aren’t all retro, however, as the showrunners also injected plenty of body-horror into the mix during their attempt at unifying the origin stories for all these larger-than-life characters. Hell, the Spider himself is now revealed to have gained his powers after being bitten by a half-mutated Man-Spider during World War I, and the aforementioned mad scientist keeps a disturbing collection of failed experiments in her basement, proving that not all of her patients were lucky enough to simply gain superpowers after being experimented on.
Nicolas Cage Reinvents Spider-Man Noir for Television
Ben Reilly/Spiderman (Nicolas Cage) in SPIDER-NOIR
Photo: Aaron Epstein/Prime
© Amazon Content Services LLC
I also really appreciate how Cage insists on depicting Ben Reilly as an arachnid trapped inside of a human body, with his uncanny physical performance and classic Hollywood impressions keeping your eyes glued to the screen while also providing some of the show’s funniest moments.
I still think it’s a shame that the character is no longer politically motivated, and I miss the detail about Uncle Ben having been cannibalized by Vulture after his social activism ruffled too many feathers, but at least this time our protagonist actually feels like someone who could have been written by Raymond Chandler if he were a fan of Superheroes.
In fact, the writers nailed the snappy back-and-forth that Noir authors like Dashiel Hammett used to refer to as the “riposte”, and it’s fun to see supervillains being depicted as horrific movie monsters instead of specialized henchmen – with The Spider feeling like just as much of a Freak Show attraction as the rest of them. Purists might be put off by the lack of reverence for the source material, but I think that’s a small price to pay when even the show’s most clichéd moments intentionally harken back to the golden age of Hollywood.
That’s why I’d argue that Amazon’s Spider-Noir isn’t really an adaptation, but rather an equally valid take on the same premise that inspired Marvel back in 2009. And in a world filled with recycled storylines that only serve to advertise future releases, I’d rather have two completely different visions of the same character than a straight-up retelling of the same handful of ideas.
At the end of the day, there’s enough space inside this comic fan’s heart for both man-eating Vultures and a Cronenberg-inspired Man-Spider. And if you’re also a fan of nostalgic creature features with comic book flair, I’d highly recommend this street-level superhero story with a spooky twist.
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