Hellraiser is a British horror franchise that consists of eight films, a series of comic books, as well as merchandise based on the series. The franchise is based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, who would go on to write and direct the adaptation of his story, titled Hellraiser. The films, as well as the comic book series, continually features the Cenobite Pinhead.

The series’ storyline focuses on a puzzle box that opens a gateway to another dimension, where the Cenobites come forth to take whomever opened the box back to their world, delivering an eternity of torture. Although Clive Barker wrote the original story, as well as wrote and directed the first film, he has not written or directed any of the succeeding sequels. In the original Hellraiser (1987), Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman) escapes from the Cenobites, who take pleasure in torturing him in an endless living Hell, when his brother Larry (Andrew Robinson) spills his own blood on the spot where Frank died opening a puzzle box that opened a gateway to the Cenobites.

With the help of Larry's wife Julia (Clare Higgins), Frank begins regenerating his body with the blood of victims that Julia supplies him. Larry's daughter, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), accidentally unleashes the Cenobites, but makes a deal to deliver Frank to them in exchange for her own life. After taking Frank, the Cenobites go back on their deal and try and take Kirsty as well.

Solving the puzzle box, Kirsty sends the Cenobites back to Hell. In 1988, a sequel titled Hellbound: Hellraiser II follows Dr. Philip Channard (Kenneth Cranham) as he resurrects Julia, who was stuck in Hell with the Cenobites.

Kirsty is pulled back into the Cenobite world, where the demons decide to keep her, but, having discovered the human identity of the Cenobites early, Kirsty appeals to their latent humanity, specifically the Cenobite leader Pinhead (Doug Bradley). Pinhead decides to release her, but he and his followers are killed by Channard, who has become a Cenobite himself. With help of a teenage girl, Tiffany (Imogen Boorman), who unknowingly assisted Channard in opening the box, Kirsty and Tiffany escape the Cenobite world and close the gateway behind them.

In Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), the Cenobite Pinhead is trapped, along with the puzzle box, in the surface of an intricately carved pillar. The pillar is found by a night club owner, J.P. Monroe (Kevin Bernhardt), who begins assisting Pinhead in his resurrection. A television reporter, Joey Summerskill (Terry Farrell), begins to learn about Pinhead and the puzzle box, which leads her to Monroe's night club.

Pinhead is eventually resurrected, and begins creating new Cenobite followers in an effort to establish Hell on Earth. Joey is able to use the puzzle box to send Pinhead back to his dimension; afterward, Joey submerges the box into freshly laid cement at a construction site. Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) tells the story of the creator of the puzzle box, referred to as the Lament Configuration.

A toymaker named Philip Lemarchand (Bruce Ramsay), commissioned by a Duc de L'Isle (Mickey Cottrell), a wealthy Aristocrat and master of the dark arts who wishes to open a gateway to Hell in order to enslave a demon. Beginning in the distant future, and tracing the history of the box from its creation in 1784, Bloodline shows how the Lemarchand family attempts to close the box forever after learning what L'Isle uses it for. Eventually, Dr.

Paul Merchant creates the Elysium Configuration, a space station capable of closing the gateway for good, and he traps Pinhead inside and destroys him and the box. Hellraiser: Inferno (2000), the first of the succeeding sequels to be direct-to-video, follows Detective Joseph Thorne (Craig Sheffer) as he discovers the puzzle box while investigating a series of ritualistic murders. As time goes on he begins to uncover clues that suggest that he is the killer.

Eventually, Pinhead shows up and informs Thorne that he is in his own personal hell, and will be reliving the same series of events for eternity. In Hellraiser: Hellseeker, Ashley Laurence returns to play Kirsty Cotton. In the 2002 film, Kirsty is married to Trevor (Dean Winters) when the two end up in a car accident that kills Kirsty.

One month later, Trevor wakes up in a hospital and realizes that his wife is missing, but because of a head injury, his memory is uncertain and he cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality. Trevor finds himself the prime suspect in a murder case. Pinhead appears in the end, and informs Trevor that he was the one that died in the car crash, a sacrifice of Kirsty's, who had opened the puzzle box again.

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