Lemarchand's box

From Free net encyclopedia

Lemarchand's box (or a Lemarchand box) is a fictional lock puzzle or puzzle box appearing in horror stories by Clive Barker, or in works based on his original stories. The best known of these boxes is the Lament Configuration which features prominently throughout the Hellraiser movie series. A Lemarchand box is a mystical/mechanical device that acts as a door — or a key to a door — to another dimension or plane of existence. The solution of the puzzle creates a "Schism" or open pathway to another realm through which beings may travel in either direction. The inhabitants of these other realms may seem demonic to humans. An ongoing debate in the film series is whether the realm accessed by the Lament Configuration is just a reality of unending pain or if it is the actual Judeo-Christian Hell. Other boxes that appear in Clive Barker's work include the Elegy Configuration, the Ornate Box, Orno's Puzzle Box, and the Dreamweave Cube.

Philip Lemarchand

The boxes were created by Philip Lemarchand, who is only mentioned in The Hellbound Heart (the novella upon which the movie Hellraiser was based) as a maker of mechanical singing birds. He first appeared as a character in the Epic Hellraiser comics series and was portrayed as an older man, though still a creator of toys and singing birds. This version, created with the support of Clive Barker, was a mass murdererer who used human fat and bone in the construction of his boxes. He was aided by a material given to him by the Cenobite known as Baron. However, the film Hellraiser: Bloodline, written several years later, portrays the character as much less morally reprehensible. In this version, Philip Lemarchand is a young ingenious toymaker known for his intricate mechanical designs.

According to Hellraiser: Bloodline, the Lament Configuration was commissioned from Lemarchand by the Duc de l'Isle in 1784 (and is perhaps only the first of several such commissions). As this version of events was in fact a story told by the character of Paul Merchant several centuries after the fact, it is possible to speculate that Merchant's facts were in error.

Other Lemarchand boxes appear throughout the Hellraiser film series. Dr. Channard is depicted as a collector in Hellbound: Hellraiser II; he has several on display in his study. The Host in Hellraiser: Hellworld also possesses several, including a non-working box created by his son, Adam. This implies that there may be other boxes based on Lemarchand's design but created by others. Most of the boxes seen in the films are not named or used onscreen, so their powers — if any — are unknown.

The Lament Configuration

The Lemarchand box that has become known in the film series as the Lament Configuration was introduced in The Hellbound Heart as "the Lemarchand Configuration". It appeared as an antique black lacquered cube, stylistically patterned after ancient Chinese puzzle boxes, of unparallelled workmanship. A clever individual with a passion for solving the puzzle might spend the better part of a day loosening the first piece. As described by Barker on the first page of the novella,

...The interior surfaces were brilliantly polished. Frank's reflection — distorted, fragmented — skated across the lacquer...Lemarchand, who had been in his time a maker of singing birds, had constructed the box so that opening it tripped a musical mechanism, which began to tinkle a short rondo of sublime banality.

The tune continues to evolve as each additional piece is moved,

And there was music too; a simple tune emerged from the box, played on a mechanism that she could not yet see. Enchanted, she delved further. Though one piece had been removed, the rest did not come readily. Each segment presented a fresh challenge to fingers and mind, the victories rewarded with a further filigree added to the tune.

The puzzle draws the player onward until suddenly the puzzle is solved and the gateway is opened. As the puzzle is nearly completed, the sound of a large bell can be heard tolling mournfully. The sound comes from the realm of the Cenobites, and announces their impending arrival. Once the gate is opened, the box begins reassembling itself.

An important difference between the book and film versions — aside from the name — is that the film version of the box is merely twisted into new alignments or shapes, whereas the version in the novella is completely disassembled and reassembled. The film version is also trimmed in brass or gold, and appears to have archaic symbols etched on its surface. The novella version has the unusual property of displaying the faces of its recent victims on its surfaces.

Template:Hellraiser