Hellraiser (1987)

!! SPOILER WARNING !!

In a middle eastern bazaar, kinky American thrill seeker Frank Cotton buys a mystical puzzle box (later referred to as the Lament Configuration, though that term never appears in the film itself) which, when he solves it, tears him apart with a network of chains and hooks and consigns his spiritual remains to a limbo world inhabited by the demonic Cenobites, leather clad angels of pain and misery led by the enigmatic Pinhead. His physical remains, meanwhile, seem to be stashed beneath the floorboards of his north London home.

Some time later, Cotton's wimpish brother Larry arrives to claim the house, accompanied by troubled wife Julia - who earlier indulged in a brief but passionate and violent affair with Frank - and resourceful daughter Kirsty. The house is a squalid dump, infested with roaches and maggots and full of the remnants of Frank's debauched lifestyle. Finding a collection of photographs of Frank's depravities rekindles Julia's memories of her time with him.

Despite the appalling state of the place, the Cotton's decide to move in and renovate it, although Kirsty has, wisely, opted to find a place of her own. While moving in furniture, Larry's cuts his hand in an accident, his blood seeping through the floorboards to reactivate Frank's dismembered remains, starting with his beating heart that soaks up the pool of blood. Later that night, Frank is messily reborn, though he's missing most of his skin and is some pain.

During a dull dinner party, Julia excuses herself and is horrified to find a partially formed Frank waiting for her in the spare bedroom. Frank implores Julia to heal him, to help find the blood he will need to complete his regeneration. After initially being repulsed by Frank, Julia finds him still hard to resist and agrees to help. That night, Kirsty's boyfriend Steve wakes from a nightmare that he seems to be sharing with her...

The following day, Julia picks up a man at a bar and takes him back to the house where she beats him to death with a hammer and Frank feeds on his corpse. When Larry returns him, Julia and Frank have to hide to man's mutilated body in the attic. Frank tells her that he needs a couple more victims before he regenerates completely and warns that the Cenobites will be looking for him, that he has to heal completely and flee before they can find him. Meanwhile, Kirsty encounters a strange vagrant at the pet shop where she works who disgusts her by eating a handful of live insects before she chases him away...

Julia soon adds another victim to the her tally when she picks up and murders another man and this time she isn't as traumatised by it as she had been the first time. Frank is starting to look better, though he's still missing the top layer of his skin and needs one more victim... He shows Julia the Lament Configuration and tells her in flashback how the Cenobites had come to him and tortured him, bringing him "pain and pleasure, indivisible."

A change is starting to come over Julia - she no longer minds watching boxing on television which had once made her sick ("I've seen worse" she tells Larry) but Frank is suffering. Lashing out in pain, he makes enough noise to attract Larry's attention, but Frank manages to hide from him when he goes to investigate. Later, while making passionless love with Larry, Julia is horrified when Frank sneaks into the room carrying a knife... But instead of attacking Larry, he cruelly guts a rat at the foot of the bed and retreats, still unseen by Larry.

The following evening, Larry takes Kirsty out to dinner and talks to her about the strange changes that are overcoming Julia. He asks her if she'd help out by trying to get closer to her step-mother. But Julia is now beyond anyone's help - she tries to refuse Frank's demands for another victim but eventually gives in and a third body is soon added to the growing pile. This time, however, Kirsty interrupts the murder and catches Frank finishing off his victim. He captures her and is about to rape her when she finds the Lament Configuration and throws it out of a window when Frank begs for it back. She flees the house, retrieving the box as she leaves.

Shocked and exhausted, Kirsty collapses and is taken to hospital. Although she wants to phone her father and warn her about Frank, she's forced to stay and passes the time solving the puzzle box. Once she opens it, her hospital room wall cracks open and a long corridor appears. She ventures inside but is pursued back to her room by The Engineer, a hideous creature that scuttles along the walls after her. Back in her room, Kirsty meets the Cenobites who have arrived in our dimension claiming that she summoned them and that she has to go with them. She offers to lead them to Frank is if they let her go and they agree, Pinhead wanting to hear his "confession" for himself.

Back at the house, Julia shows Larry where Frank is hiding and Frank later emerges 'wearing' Larry's skin and makes love with Julia. Kirsty flees the hospital and arrives at the house where she is introduced to Frank / Larry who claims to have killed Frank. She is locked in a room with the remains of her father by Julia and the Cenobites appear demanding to be given the man who killed 'Frank.' Still believing that Frank / Larry is actually her father, she rushes to warn him but soon realises her terrible mistake.

In the ensuing scuffle, Frank / Larry accidentally stabs Julia to death but seems unconcerned. He pursues Kirsty who leads him upstairs and, after a brief chase, corners her and prepares to stab her. But in the nick of time the Cenebites return looking for their runaway victim. They snare Frank / Larry with their chains and hooks and, as Kirsty flees, the Cenobites tear him apart. But the creatures haven't finished with Kirsty yet - having solved the puzzle box, they want to take her back to Hell with them, but Kirsty manages to use the box to get rid of them, though the force of their departure causes the house to start collapsing around her.

As Steve arrives looking to save her, Kirsty finishes off the Cenobites and does battle with the Engineer that arrives trying to retrieve the puzzle box. She dispatches it too and she and Steve escape the house as it goes up in flames around them. Later, in the ruins of the house, Kirsty throws the box into the flames only for it be retrieved by the mysterious vagrant who sets himself ablaze before turning into a winged demon that makes off with the puzzle. Later still, the box is again on sale at the bazaar and another unwary thrill-seeker is about to make the most ill-advised purchase of his life...
KEVIN LYONS