Hellraiser – 1987 | 94 mins | Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

For Clive Barker’s feature-film debut Hellraiser, he was allowed to direct the film using a script based on his own novella The Hell-Bound Heart. This was a wise move; Barker knew exactly what he wanted from his script and actors, and handled the film with skilful direction, lighting and special effects despite the constraints of an obviously tight budget.

The story is about a puzzle box that unlocks theistic Frank (Sean Chapman) purchasing an intricate puzzle box from an oriental dealer. Frank returns home to London, and whilst sitting in his attic solves the rather strange puzzle box, consequently opening the door to a hellish alternate universe, and is promptly ripped apart by a network of hooks and chains; his strewn body parts are subsequently collected by three summoned Cenobites – grotesque elementals whose stock in trade is fear and pain. Several years later, Frank’s half brother Larry (Andrew Robinson) and his new wife Julia (Clare Higgins), move into Frank’s abandoned house along with his daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), and proceed to clean it out. Whilst Julia is in the midst of reminiscing about a pre-wedding affair she had with the departed Frank, Larry is busy moving furniture and cuts his hand on a nail, he goes to his wife in the attic and blood proceeds to drip from his hand into floorboards. Somehow this triggers Frank’s hideous resurrection, and his skeletal remains begin to regenerate in attic room.

Later, when Julia investigates strange noises emanating from the attic, the semi-composed body of Frank confronts her; he seeks her implicit assistance in luring men back for him to feed him on. Julia agrees and is soon bringing men back to the house under the pretext of a sexual liaison, the more victims Franks feeds on the more his body becomes whole. Soon Frank’s regeneration is nearly complete, and together with Julia they kill Larry and allow his brother to take her husbands place in the household. Meanwhile, Kirsty becomes suspicious of her hated stepmother’s activities, and begins to suspect her of having an affair, to her horror she discovers the still-incomplete Frank at their house, narrowly escaping with her life and the puzzle box. Kirsty awakens in hospital, where she manages to solve the box’s intricate mechanism and summon a trio of Cenobites – including their apparent leader; Pinhead (Doug Bradley). Kirsty offers them a better deal in exchange for her soul; she will lead the Cenobites to the escaped Frank – with whom they have particularly evil plans for. They come back for him, and in a scene of graphic torture; literally pull him apart with hooks and chains.