Chatterer - Appearances

Appearances

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."

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 sensual 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.

Chatterer would reappear in the film adaptation of The Hellbound Heart, Hellraiser, in which he was given a name in the film's closing credits. Unlike in the novella, this Chatterer is completely mute, only capable of communicating by clicking his teeth together.

In Hellbound, Chatterer is renamed "Chatterer II" following aesthetic modifications to the mutilations on his face. After Kirsty Cotton reminds Pinhead of his own former humanity, the revelation causes his fellow Cenobites to remember their own former lives and they turn against the newly created Cenobite, Channard, in order to protect Kirsty. Chatterer, along with the rest of the Cenobites, are killed by Channard following a short fight; like the other Cenobites, Chatterer reverts to a non-mutilated human form after he dies – which is incidentally the form of a teenage boy.

Unlike the other members of Pinhead's entourage from the first two Hellraiser films, Chatterer has made appearances in later entries in the series. The mechanism of his revival has never been explained. He is the only consistent member of Pinhead's entourage in Hellraiser: Inferno (in which he lacks legs and is called "Torso"), Hellraiser: Hellseeker, Hellraiser: Deader, and Hellraiser: Hellworld.

The only films in which he does not appear are Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, and Hellraiser: Bloodline, the latter of which features a dog-like creature with Chatterer's head called "The Chatter Beast." The latest entry in the series, Hellraiser: Revelations features a cenobite identical to Chatterer except that it has a pair of visible breasts; this Cenobite has been alternately identified as both "Chatterer" and "Female Cenobite."

Chatterer has most recently appeared in Clive Barker's Hellraiser comic book series for BOOM! comics, where he is identified as Pinhead's page. Midway through the series, Pinhead betrays him (along with the rest of his fellow Cenobites) to Kirsty Cotton as part of a plan to retake his own former humanity. After "pleading" with Pinhead (in the form of clicking his teeth), Chatterer is torn apart by a series of hooked chains.