Few horror movies have creatures and horrors like Hellraiser, akin to Lovecraft in its originality. The cenobite designs are unlike anything audiences had seen at that point. Pinhead is interesting, but the others also imply complex stories.

The overall plot of the franchise focuses on a puzzle box, the Lament Configuration. It opens a gateway to the Hell-like realm of the Cenobite lifeforms. The Cenobites are an order of former humans who have become monsters who harvest human souls to torture in their sadistic experiments.