The first in a series of films about cenobites and forbidden pleasures, and probably the most iconic. Written by Clive Barker himself, the creator of the series and author of the novella Hellbound Heart. The cast includes Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Andrew Robinson, Sean Chapman and Doug Bradley as Pinhead.
The main character is Kirsty Cotton, who moves into a new house with her father Larry and stepmother Julia. The house belonged to Larry’s brother Frank, with whom Julia had an affair a long time ago. Frank disappeared without a trace, but it was the peculiarities of being… Frank. The house is falling apart, bugs and rats are nesting in it, but Larry is in good spirits. Julia, on the other hand, remembers her fiery affair with his brother. Frank, however, has not run away and has not disappeared. When Larry leaves his blood in the attic, Frank rises from hell, literally. He once bought a mysterious puzzle box from an old Chinese merchant in Morocco. Supposedly, when opened, it would summon beings that would provide incredible physical and sensual experiences. When Frank opened the puzzle, the chains slammed into his body and literally tore him apart, all thanks to the mysterious beings. Now Frank rises to rebuild his body, and he needs the help of Julia, his former lover. Julia turns out to be no less sinister than her fiancé. She agrees to help the bloodied Frank and lures the men home so that Frank can suck the life out of them. Kirsty accidentally runs into Frank, takes his Creature Summoning Cube and runs out into the street in a panic; someone takes her to the hospital.
At the hospital, Kirsty opens the puzzle and beings calling themselves Cenobites, travellers from another dimension and explorers of sensation, take over. They want to take Kirsty to where they took Frank, but Kirsty offers them a refugee in exchange for her life. Meanwhile, Frank kills Larry, and when Kirsty returns home, she finds Frank carrying her father’s skin stretched over his body.
When she realises that something is wrong, Frank wants to kill her too, but then the Cenobites appear again. Again, out of nowhere, they shoot chains to rip Frank’s new body apart and send him back to Leviathan’s home.
The Cenobites also want Kirsty, but she closes the box and sends them back to Hell. The house collapses and the the box disappears, only to be taken away later by a mysterious creature – presumably back to the Chinese vendor.
Needless to say, Julia is also sent back to Hell, as Frank’s dark sidekick, seeking forbidden sensations herself.
Hellraiser is a landmark film that combines horror, the macabre and a specific BDSM atmosphere. Personally, I first saw it as a child and, for obvious reasons, didn’t understand it in its entirety. But even then it made a huge impression on me and left a unique aftertaste in my brain. Now, of course, I understand more, and I can honestly say that even after all these years, no film has been made that has such a unique atmosphere and works on the imagination like Hellraiser.