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Chatterer is the fourth cenobite of the Lament Configuration and last follower of the original Pinhead quadron. He appeared in the first Hellraiser film as well as the sequel Hellbound and he returned in the reboot.

Chatterer was introduced through the original Heart novel distributed by Clive Barker before the jump to the big screen.

Character History[]

Hellraiser Anthology Vol. 2[]

The Chatterer's origin was revealed in the 2017 short story "Prayers for Desire" written by Nicholas Vince and illustrated by Clive Barker, published by Seraphim Incorporated in the graphic novel Hellraiser Anthology Volume 2.

As a pre-teenage boy, Chatterer, known as Jim, frames his mother for the murder of his abusive father and is sent to an orphanage, where he and the other adolescents are taught that they will be useless to society. There, he engages in a homosexual relationship with a boy named Seth and regularly prays to the God of Love for affection.

Jim

Chatterer's human version in "Prayers for Desire", Jim.

After turning sixteen, Jim joins Seth in becoming a prostitute, in which his physical appearance would often be complemented by his clients, to his disgust. One day, one of the clients asks him what his deepest desire is, to which he replied, "to be loved". Later, he is asked again by the client what his desire is, this time replying "to be ugly", believing that people would love him for who he is. The client hands him a Lament Configuration, and he begins to serve who he is told is the God of Pain and Desire by distributing the Lament Configurations to various people.

Years later, he comes across a blinded Seth, who was punished by their former pimp for Jim's decision to leave. Jim is told by another one of Hell's servants to make him solve a Configuration. Instead, Jim and Seth engage in sexual intercourse and Seth begins to angrily confess how much he hates Jim during the act. That night, Seth leaves without opening the Configuration and Jim's desire is granted as he is forcibly disfigured by the jealous God of Pain and Pleasure. The story ends with him becoming a Summoning Angel with clicking teeth.

In 2021 Jim (The Chatterer) appears in the game dead by daylight suggesting that the entity took him for a home with pinhead

1991[]

As a cenobite, Chatterer joined Pinhead's Gash and in 1991, he had the pleasure of meeting actress Janice Baur. Janice declined a role from director Steven Sigourney at first, but he gave her the Lament Configuration and asked her to create the Shape of Pain as an acting exercise as a result.

Janice spent days cutting her hands trying to form the Shape of Pain, she even started dreaming of Hell. One day she woke from her hellish dream and had completed the Shape of Pain. She explained to Sigourney how she now understood the role he had asked her to play and accepts before solving the Lament Configuration. Janice goes to Hell and is tortured by Pinhead, Butterball, Chatterer and The Female cenobite to "motivate" Baur's performance, all of which Sigourney films. A year later, Janice is shown wearing a necklace puzzle, showing that she was still under Hell's influence.

Hellraiser & Nightbreed: Jihad[]

Chatterer also helped Pinhead defeat the Jihad that was being committed by Alastor's Gash. Together Pinhead and Chatterer managed to contain the rebels and most were executed.

Novels[]

Chatterer is first introduced in the novella The Hellbound Heart. Like the other Cenobites, he is identified only by the order in which he appeared to Frank Cotton, as "the third":

Now the third spoke. Its features were so heavily scarified — the wounds nurtured until they ballooned — that its eyes were invisible and its words corrupted by the disfigurement of its mouth.

The Hellbound Heart[]

Along with the other Cenobites, Chatterer takes antagonist Frank Cotton back to the Cenobite realm after Cotton opens the Lament Configuration, expecting to find a hedonistic paradise that will cure his nihilism. Despite being warned that what he finds may not be what he is expecting, Frank willingly goes along with the Cenobites, only to find that—past an initial euphoria—the experiences to which the Cenobites subject him are so intense as to be torturous. Chatterer is later part of the Cenobite contingent that makes a deal with Frank's niece, Kirsty, to return Frank to them in exchange for her own freedom, after she unwittingly makes a deal to return to the Cenobite realm by opening the box.

Films[]

Hellraiser[]

Chatterer appeared in the first installment alongside Butterball, Pinhead and the Female Cenobite as the primary antagonists threatening the Cotton Family. He first appeared at the beginning of Frank Cotton's demise and then recurred as Kirsty solved the configuration, after her encounter with The Engineer, bringing him to her in the hospital. Chatterer was the first to appear, shoving his fingers down Kirsty's throat to stop her from screaming. Chatterer kept Kirsty restrained as she made a deal with Pinhead to trade her soul for the recapture of Frank's.

Chatterer then appeared again in Kirsty's attic over Larry's dead body with Pinhead and Butterball, searching for Frank.

After the uncle was torn apart and sent back to Hell's Jailers for revealing himself to the cenobites, Kirsty found that they weren't going to be true to their word, and so she sent Pinhead and the Female Cenobite back to Hell by solving The Box again. Chatterer, who had disguised himself with a veil, was about to lay his knife into Kirsty when she solved the box again and sent him to Hell.

Hellraiser II: Hellbound[]

A year later, Chatterer came with the troop when Channard's desire for knowledge, along with Tiffany solving the box, opened the gateway to Hell. The Gash ran into Kirsty for a second time where Pinhead let her explore Hell.

Kirsty and Tiffany later meet with Pinhead's Gash once again, though this time she reveals to them that they were all human once before by showing them a picture of Pinhead as a human, which in turn, brought all their memories forward. Dr Channard, now a cenobite himself, arrives and attempts to claim Tiffany and Kirsty for Leviathan, when Pinhead, Chatterer, Female and Butterball stand up against The Doctor and start a fight, piercing him with Hell's hooked chains. This has no effect on the cenobite and The Doctor retaliates by killing all four members of the Gash, with Chatterer being the third to fall. They all convert to their human form with Chatterer being shown as a young boy.

Hellraiser (2022)[]

Chatterer is one of the few original cenobites to return in the reboot, alongside Pinhead and what it seems to be a fusion of Deep Throat and Angelique (The Gasp), and his appearance has been totally revamped, without eliminating his core features (eyeless face with clicking teeth). The leather has been replaced by a naked and extremely mutilated body whose top part is vaguely reminiscent of an executioner.

He appeared, shortly after the Hell Priestess and the Gasp, as Riley McKendry's vision. Meanwhile the two appeared as soon as Riley resolved the box, without cutting herself, The Chatterer showed himself to Riley the next day, after Matt's disappearance, when she is at Trevor's house. It was an instant, but enough for scaring her off and making Trevor worried.

He doesn't reappear until the almost end of the second act, alongside The Masque and The Hell Priestess, taunting an already scared Nora. After Pinhead pierces her with Hell's hooked chains and stabs her neck with one of her pins, Nora is face to face with the chattering cenobite. Him pushing her head towards him, her blood spilling all over her face, until she get flayed by the hooks.

After her confrontation with Pinhead, an agitated Riley, wounded by the puzzle box, is against sacrificing her friends, even though this would mean her certain death. Quickly after being found by Trevor and Colin, they meet the priestess once again, opening a portal from hell and The Chatterer coming out of it. Riley and Trevor quickly run away from him. meanwhile Colin is looking at him, completely scared, until he trips and falls. Riley and Trevor already climbed the gate of Voight's mansion, in fear for Colin, but The Chatterer isn't coming for him. He quickly goes to the locked gates and opens them, pushing the door and Riley and Trevor, trying to push back, against the wall. He grabs Trevor and bites his arm. Riley stabs the chattering cenobite with the puzzle box marking him as a sacrifice. The Chatterer takes a step back and gets immediately torn apart by Hell's hooked chains, Pinhead is shown to be slightly impressed by this.

Comics[]

In the more recently released Clive Barker's Hellraiser comic series by Boom! Studios, it was revealed that approximately 20 years after the deaths of Pinhead's Gash, Chatterer and the Female Cenobite were both revived at some unknown point, after Pinhead shed blood on the sites of both of their deaths, similar to how Pinhead needed blood to emerge from the Pillar of Souls. Chatter has since reverted to his original form and rejoined Pinhead's Gash. Here, Chatterer is identified as Pinhead's page. Midway through the series, Pinhead betrays his Gash to Kirsty Cotton as part of a plan to retake his former humanity. After "pleading" with Pinhead (in the form of clicking his teeth), Chatterer is torn apart by a series of hooked chains, and is presumably killed for good.

Alternate versions[]

As Chatterer, Vince wore a one-piece mask that rendered him blind. A fake set of chattering teeth were fitted in his mouth and were triggered when he bit down. Because of the difficulty in eating and the drooling associated with the design, the chattering teeth were redesigned to be removable. The design was changed in the sequel to give Chatterer eyes so Vince could see.

  • Chatterer II was intended to be a redesign of the original Chatterer character in Hellbound: Hellraiser II, with the updated version of the character allowing Nicholas Vince to be able to see through the makeup effects after an injury the actor sustained on set.

Due to the original version of the character's death by Dr. Phillip Channard at the end of Hellbound: Hellraiser II, as well as the character's absence from the sequel Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, several alternate versions of the Chatterer character were devised to appear in the numerous sequels in the Hellraiser franchise.

  • Chatterer III first appeared in Hellraiser: Hellseeker portrayed by Mike Jay Regan. This version of the character also appears briefly in Hellraiser: Deader, and has a more prominent role in Hellraiser: Hellworld.
  • The Female Chatterer, otherwise known as Chatterer IV or Female Cenobite II, is an amalgam of Chatterer and the Female Cenobite that appears in Hellraiser: Revelations portrayed by Jolene Anderson.
  • Torso is a Cenobite in Chatterer's likeness that appears in Hellraiser: Inferno. Torso is portrayed by Chatterer III actor Mike Jay Regan, and, as his name suggests, has the lower half of his body missing. This Cenobite was reportedly created by the original Chatterer himself.
  • The Chatterer Beast appears as Pinhead's pet in Hellraiser: Bloodline. The Chatterer Beast was moulded from human flesh by the Leviathan and designed to be Pinhead's pet in Chatterer's image.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • The Chatterer was the first and only Cenobite to be offered as a sacrifice to Leviathan in the Hellraiser remake.
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