Hellraiser’s Ancient Beginnings

I was recently inspired to do a piece based on the historical account of Hellraiser. The movies date the earliest box to the late 1780’s. That being said, Dr Channard’s office (second movie) is full of artifacts that seem to have some reference to the box. When he brings the insane man into his office and puts him on the mattress, this is the image that is shown.

Because of this image I figured there had to be an ancient reference to the box, and I was going to make it.

I knew that I wanted to make an account on papyrus using hieroglyphics, and that it should be fairly close to size and dimensions of writing of the time. There are some technical details that get fuzzy about the last sentence, but they will be cleared up later. I figured the best place to start is where anyone who’s heard of ancient Egypt has heard of – The Book Of The Dead, or more technically, The Papyrus Of Ani. This wonderful papyrus was taken from Egypt in the early 1900’s, and is today in the British Museum. Also in the early 1900’s E. A. Wallis budge made a facsimile copy of the papyrus and sold it in a book. Why is any of this important?

It’s all about sizing. How big were the glyphs? How wide were they? Without a starting point, it’s just a guess.

The measurements of the papyrus can be found almost anywhere, but I really needed straight on shots of the full papyrus. Thank you Internet Archive Digital Book Collection. They have a copy of the 1913 facsimile of the Papyrus Of Ani.

Now I have sizes and I can extrapolate the size of the glyphs. One problem, I still don’t have any idea on how to find glyphs that I can use. The glyph structure that is used today came from a man named Sir Alan Gardiner. All glyphs were arranged by type. All people were bunched together, birds, and so on. It is known as the Gardiner Sign List and can be found online.

Since I wanted to actually have a story, and not just random glyphs, I needed a dictionary. I found the Mark Vygus Middle Egyptian Dictionary and was on my way.

I wrote my short story and began to translate.

After the story was translated, I printed out the whole thing on transparency film and taped it to the back of the papyrus. From there I used a light box to ink all the glyphs.

I wrote my story from the point of view of an ancient lowly priest who witnessed messengers from the gods give a box to a high priest. After solving the box, hearing screams, and returning to the room only to find blood and the box. The box was destroyed and a piece of metal was displayed as a warning to future generations about the dangers of the box. Of course there’s more to the story, but that’s the gist.

Before showing the finished product, there are a few things about the work that aren’t technically correct. Hieroglyphics were primarily used on walls, and in Books Of The Dead. Technically, Hieratic script would be used on papyrus. I did not use the correct sentence structure. Theirs and ours differ, but I had to make sense of what I was writing. Some of the words are not correct due to the Determinative. A series of symbols that represent a priest will end with a person that represents a priest so the reader knows for sure they are reading about a priest. Sometimes I used words without the correct determinative for ease of use and space issues.

There are also some fun things that are in the story, and in writing in general. Hieroglyphics can be read many ways, this one is written from top to bottom, from left to right. If you ever want to know which way to read the glyphs, look at the animals and people. They all face the beginning of the script. Some of the words have hidden meanings. The word I used for messenger can also mean demon. The E.A. Wallis Budge mentioned above is the same Budge that Daniel Jackson references in Stargate, “I don’t know why they keep reprinting his books”.

Enough yammering. I did spend a bit of time figuring all kinds of things out and I hope some of you enjoyed reading all my blathering. The papyrus sheet is 13 x 17 inches. Here’s the finished product.

There is a version 2.0 that is being inked currently that has cleaner borders and such.

Website Update Coming & Comments

While I haven’t done much with the website lately, I’ve made lots of new things and there will be a drastic change to the layout of the website. Please bear with me through the change. if you have any questions about things we have recently discussed, please email me …

summonme@ (the url of this site… thedarkpope………com)

The above nonsensical riddle is only to keep out robots and spammers.

Comments have been turned back on until the hackers try to take over again 🙂

New Exposure System Part 1

I am embarking on making a new light exposure system for my metalwork. I got the idea from this page…

UV LED Exposure Box Project

I have decided to go a bit overboard – in my usual style. Instead of 100 LEDs I’m first making a board with 460-something LEDs. I’m not going the direct route of just hooking up the wiring to something that connects all 460 led’s as that would be more juice than I would ever want to have flowing at a time. Instead I will be making a concoction using the LEDs, an Arduino, a LED Backpack from Adafruit, and a bunch of optoisolators. I’ll go into the details in following posts. There’s a lot of information, and I will likely turn these posts into a video when I’m completely done.

As for new things – yes I know I’m behind on posting. I do have a 3 x 3 x 3 inch clear acrylic box for sale on Ebay. At some time, I’ll do a post about that.

The light up cube is no longer a prototype, and will be coming soon. I’ve worked out all the kinks, and no longer have wildly protruding bits.

There are a few more things that are in the works and I have a fire under my butt to get them done – soon.

Comments Turned Off And Other Goodies

I’ve been overwhelmed by over 800 messages in the last few days. All of them gibberish or seeming attempts at something devious. Due to that, I have turned off comments for now. If you’d like to get ahold of me, there are several ways to do so. I am a member of the last 3 forums in the links section under the username thedarkpope. I can also be reached through Ebay, Youtube, or the Etsy link on the left. If you have a business card of mine, that address is also directly linked to my phone.

Other things…

I’m a bit behind on posting, but I do have several fun bits that are in the works. One of those is a new exposure system for my metalwork. I’m documenting my making of it and will post it on Youtube when it’s completely done. That way if anyone feels like some self torture, they can make one for themselves.

Other Other things…

I have videos of new designs that will be posted soon. I have some clear Hellraiser boxes as well as several prototypes of light up boxes. If all goes well, I should have everything written up over the weekend and lots of posts next week.

Hard Drive Crash

Didn’t this just happen not so long ago? Well it happened again. Different computer than last time. All projects were lost – completely. I thought I had backed them up and I was wrong. I may or may not delve back into those projects. The box panels I do have on multiple drives, so I will still be making boxes of varying sizes and opacity.

A Little Behind With The Site

Things have been crazy recently and I haven’t updated the site as much as I would have liked. So now that Monsterpalooza and Wondercon are over, I have some time to do those updates. My Ebay and Etsy pages need boxes put on them, I have new types of boxes that need to be put up for sale. I have a “How I Made It” for a glowing box that’s almost all written up. And to top it all off, I got a great idea from someone at Wondercon – Alle(n)(x) – I’m so sorry I didn’t write down your name and it’s escaping me at the moment. Anyway, I’m going to be spending some quality time making more Hellraiser fun things. Stay tuned.

The See Through Portal To Hell

I joined a laser makerspace and got to combine my 2 favorite things – deadly beams of light, and Hellraiser. About a year ago I made a hollow Hellraiser box, and thought it would be fun to make a few out of solid acrylic. So here are the fruits of my labor. Enjoy!




I happen to have a UV flashlight, and wondered what the cube would look like with a bit of a blue glow. Enjoy this too!

Why I Sell My Boxes For Less Than The Other Guys

The easy answer is that I make everything myself. I don’t use a prefessional etching house to do my metalwork. No matter what anyone tells you, they charge an arm and a leg to do the work. Workers cost money by the hour to employ. Electric bills need to be paid by the etching house. The metal they sell is marked up as well as any hourly work. Bosses and managers also need to be paid. I have none of those costs because I do it all myself. I do equal quality work for a fraction of the cost. I pass all that on to you. I think the prices the other guys charge are obnoxious. The “extras” they give you are easily found items on the internet that can be printed by you for little to no money. Certificates of Authenticity are to prove what? There are no boxes made by anyone that are 100% screen accurate. They’re all close, so what does a useless piece of paper authenticate? That it’s a box that’s close to screen accurate? Completely worthless! All these things are an attempt to present a value that justifies obnoxious prices. I sell boxes. Not worthless pieces of paper, or things you can print out yourself. I will never charge for shipping.

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Rubik’s Cube

I’m currently working on making an etched brass Hellraiser Rubik’s Cube. There are others who put the Lament Configuration on stickers and put those annoying stickers on a fresh box. I’ll have nothing to do with stickers! While I’m still trying to work out some bugs, I thought I’d show off a quick pick of my first attempt. Enjoy!

Hellraiser Rubik's Cube

Museum Or Bust Was, Well, A Bust

So I got my hopes up for not much of anything. I went to the museum to get a glimpse at some paper and writing form long long ago. Alas that was not to happen. I went to this museum because it had pictures of some things I wanted to look at on their website. However what’s on the site and what’s on display are 2 very different things. There were around 20 pieces of art there. 6 with carvings, 7 with writing on wood, and 1 with writing on stone. No paper whatsoever. An hour drive there, an hour and half drive back (thank you Los Angeles traffic), $20 for parking and entry, and a day mostly wasted. I say mostly because I did get some pictures of the carvings. While not what I was wanting, I was impressed by the detail.