Diablo 4boasts an impressive number of optional side quests that help players level their characters and explore the game world, but one in particular stands out to horror fans as a particularly clever piece of storytelling. The short quest Unyielding Flesh reenacts several well-known elements of one of the most beloved horror movies of all time, making it a delightful Easter egg for fans of the popular film franchise.
Cosmic horror has long been a staple of theDiabloseries, andDiablo 4maintains that throughline with its focus on the rise of Lilith. The demons that populate the game’s numerous eerie dungeons, the vicious cultists that greet players in the game’s unforgettable prologue, and the player character’s own unwilling connection to Lilith herself carry on the series' commitment to a cosmic horror gaming experience.Unyielding Flesh, a side questfound in the Fractured Peaks, cements that legacy by referencing a film that many cinephiles consider the quintessence of cosmic horror:Hellraiser(1987).
RELATED:Diablo 4: Complete Guide Hub - Quest Walkthroughs, Best Classes, Materials, Tips, and Mor
The Side Quest: Unyielding Flesh
The quest begins innocently enough. Standing alone in the town of Yelesna, players will find a woman named Krystyna. She will ask the player character to find her husband, Feodor, whom she believes has abandoned her for “another woman.” Should the player accept her quest, she will accompany them to a nearby location in the wilderness called the Gnarled Timbers. Here, they will discover a grotesque sight: Feodor has been skinned and strung up in chains by his arms and legs.
As it turns out, a demon—Yulia the Hellbound—has taken possession of Feodor. The player will need to dispatch her to finish the quest. If they stick around long enough however, before killing Yulia, players will get to experience an Easter egg: Feodor will mutter, “Such sights… I have witnessed… Such pleasure… such pain… I must have more….” The player will then need to kill Yulia andclaim a special daggerfrom Feodor’s chest.
TheHellraiserConnection
Fans ofthe classic filmHellraisermight recognize Feodor’s dying words as a reference to several of its most iconic moments.Hellraiserfollows the story of Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), a young woman whose unsavory uncle Frank (Oliver Smith) escapes hell and returns to life by murdering people with the help of Kirsty’s stepmother Julia (Clare Higgins). Although reconstituted, Frank is still on the run from a group of demon-like entities known as Cenobites. These creatures function as secondary antagonists—at least in the firstHellraiserfilm—but they have become the face of the franchise. Their leader, Pinhead, stands alongside Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers as one of the great movie monsters of cinema.
In the last scene of the movie, Pinhead delivers perhaps the film’s most famous line as he closes in on Kirsty: “We have such sights to show you.” This obviously bears a similarity to Feodor’s reference to “such sights… [he has] seen.” Just asPinhead and the Cenobitesbring human victims to their hellish realm to torture them for eternity, it seems that Yulia has done the same to Feodor.
Uncle Frank, though, gets the lion’s share of this homage. The chains that bind Feodor look an awful lot like the ones used to tear Frank apart at the film’s gory conclusion. Moreover, Feodor’s remarks about “pleasure” and “pain” echo Frank’s account of his time with the Cenobites: “The Cenobites gave me an experience beyond limits—pain and pleasure, indivisible.” Feodor seems altogether in a position rather like Frank’s; both men’s names even start with the letter “f.”
WhyHellraiser?
So, why did theDiablo 4writers include a nod toHellraiser, of all films?The answer, as with many mysteries inDiablo 4, lies with Lilith. Like her, the Cenobites harbor an obsession with feeding the desires of mortal victims. The demon-adjacent beings only come when summoned by someone who willingly solves the puzzle cube known as the Lament Configuration, and they take Frank not because he deserves punishment, but because he wants it.
That concept should ring a bell forDiablo 4players;Lilith operates in much the same fashion. Over the course of the game, players see her coerce humans to give in to their base desires, even to their own detriment. The player character themselves must contend with Lilith’s seduction at several points in the story. She has a lot in common with the Cenobites, only instead of chains and eerie blue lights, she marks her arrival with a flurry of blood petals.
Ultimately, this Easter egg serves to remind players that Lilith is just as terrifying a monster as Pinhead and thatDiablo 4is in many ways a cosmic horror game. Amidst the hacking and slashing, it can be easy to forget about theDiablogames' demonic theme. Including a reference toHellraiser, however, suggests thatDiablo 4takes pride in its cosmic horror roots. Moments like these lend the game a cinematic quality that help it to stand out among other similar RPGs.
MORE:This Underrated 2012 Horror Remake Is Scary And Stylish
