The Lament Configuration, also known as the Lamerchand Configuration is one of the most notorious puzzle boxes in the world as it held the power to open a gate way to a domain of Pain, mostly referred as Hell. Once this gate is opened, the Cenobites come to claim their prize and drags the unfortunate victim to hell. The puzzle box is a key element in the Hellraiser series.
History
The box was created by Phillipe Lemarchand in the 18th century.
The Lament configuration has two origin stories. The first tells the story of a French Toymaker, named Phillipe Lemarchand. Lemarchand was a morbid libertine mass murderer who crafted boxes, using human fat and bone. According to this story, he had built over 270 boxes, this with the help of unknown cenobite, only known as Baron. This story was first mentioned in the novel: The Hellbound Heart and later completed in the Hellraiser Epic Comic series. The existence of those 270 boxes has proven true as in both Hellraiser: Hellbound and Hellraiser: Hellworld, we see several boxes besides the Lament Configuration.
This story was retconned in Hellraiser: Bloodline. In Bloodline, Lemarchand was simple but gifted toymaker who was one day visited by a rich aristocrat. He ordered the creation of a puzzle box like no one ever had seen. Price was no objection. Foolishly he agreed and made the box. The aristocrat, Duc de l'Isle, then used the box to summon the demon Angelique, letting her posses the body of garroted girl. Lemerchand discovered what he had done, how he cursed his bloodline by creating a portal to hell. He created a sketch for the Elysium Configuration but was killed by Angelique before he could made it.
This version of the story was never mentioned again in the series and more likely, they returned to the original story. This was proven in Hellraiser: Deader, as Pinhead mentioned that evil really runs in the 'family' as he speaks to Winter Lemerchand.
Use
"It is not hands that call us...it is desire"
-Pinhead
By solving the puzzle, the victim summons a gash of Cenobites (mostly Pinhead's Gash). They will see if the victim is worthy to become a Cenobite. If he or she is worthy, they will be sent to hell and given to the Engineer. If not worthy, they will be trapped in Hell for eternity or simply vanished. That last happens especially to people who try to cheat on theù. There are a few ways to escape this fate.
- Make a bargain with the cenobite: one can escape their unfortunate fate at hands of the cenobites by offering information or souls in exchange for their own. Kristy Cotton escaped them in three times by making a bargain with them. The first time she brought them the news that her uncle escaped them and leading them to him. The second time by giving them information about their former lives and a third time by offering them 5 souls in exchange for her.
- Resolve the Lament Configuration: many survivors of the cenobites escaped by resolving the box, like Kristy Cotton in the first two movies.
- Form the Leviathan-shape (Diamond form) with Lament Configuration: Joey Summerskil used this technique to stab Pinhead and send him back to hell in Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth.
- Commit Suicide before they can take you to hell: Amy Klein committed suicide before Pinhead could claim her soul in Hellraiser: Deader.
Appearances
Books:
- The Hellbound Heart
Movies
- Hellraiser
- Hellbound: Hellraiser II
- Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth
- Hellraiser: Bloodline
- Hellraiser: Inferno
- Hellraiser: Hellseeker
- Hellraiser: Deader
- Hellraiser: Hellworld
- Hellraiser: Revelations
Comics:
- Epic Comic: Hellraiser
