The Scarlet Gospels (2015)

The Scarlet Gospels (2015)

Author: Clive Barker  |  Page Count: 368

'...[T]he weight of his age sat on his countenance, carving it into something that could never be manufactured, only chiselled by the agonies of loss and time.'

I've always leaned more towards the belief that the ‘Hell’ part of The Hellbound Heart (1986) title was in reference to a private hell, a reversal or distortion of the individual seeker's own desires, not the place invented by the Christian Church in which sinners suffer.

Consequently, affiliating the Pinhead character directly with the religious Hell diminishes him in my eyes. Surely having him and his like-minded cohorts exist outside of accepted notions of good and evil — in a realm behind or parallel our own, accessible by the living — makes the Cenobites much more terrifying creations?

I preferred thinking that they weren't acting under instruction of any kind of heretical higher power, but were instead a collective come together because of a shared understanding that pleasure and pain were inextricably linked, and were acting out of will and purpose.

Clive evidently saw the situation differently. He's the creator of the Cenobites so it's his choice to make, but I can similarly choose to respectfully forget it afterwards. It's not arrogant or disrespectful. The author legally owns the work, but the reader owns their own interpretation of it. It’s been that way from the very first cave wall painting.

Pinhead is a Priest of Hell. His status is essentially a revered worker enforcing the agreed-upon laws and edicts of an organised society. The version of Hell as presented is a genuinely repulsive place, but by definition it’s still a less powerful setting than what I envisioned with regards my leanings as mentioned in the first paragraph.

Yes, I referred to Pinhead as male because he now is. That raises the question of whether or not Scarlet Gospels is a sequel to the book or to the Hellraiser (1987) film. Frankly, it's not made clear, perhaps purposefully so. It could even be seen as a reboot that's also a continuation of the Harry D'Amour stories. Harry is on a mission that brings him in contact with the Cenobite.

Whatever the case, I found it impossible to care very much. Clive has an extensive vocabulary, he's never short of a suitably descriptive or depraved word, but the dialogue is frequently cringe-worthy and the events in the story didn't move me in any emotional way whatsoever. I'm glad it didn't reach the one-thousand-plus pages that he warned it might.

Sadly, the best part of the novel for me is the UK cover art of the HB edition by artist David Mack. It's the one pictured above. The US cover is different (i.e. a bit crap, really).