Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, based on his 1986 novella “The Hellbound Heart,” horrified and grossed viewers with what would become one of the most memorable cult horror franchises of all time.
There are 10 Hellraiser films now in theatres, with a remake of the first set to premiere on Hulu later this year. While we wait for additional details on the release date, we should review the previous flicks. This guide will explain when each film was released and in what order they should be watched.
Table of Contents
1. Hellraiser (1987)
Director- Clive Baker
The story of a man and his wife who move into an old house and discover a monstrous creature. The guy’s half-brother, who is also the woman’s former lover – hid upstairs is graphically depicting in Clive Barker’s feature directing debut. After losing his earthly form to the Cenobites, a trio of S&M demons, he gets resurrect by a drop of blood on the floor. He quickly forces his former mistress to deliver him the human sacrifices he requires to complete his body… but the Cenobites are not pleased.
2. Hellhound: Hellraiser II (1988)
Director- Tony Randel
After being duped by his nasty, occult-obsessed wife, Julia, young Kirsty Cotton swears her apparently deceased father is trapped in hell, controlled by sadomasochistic demons. Only the thrill-seeking Dr. Channard (Kenneth Cranham), who is attracted by S&M and the young woman’s bizarre stories, believes Kirsty. So Channard and Julia follow Kirsty and fellow patient Tiffany to hell in search of a rescue.
3. Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth (1992)
Director- Anthony Hickox
The gates of hell are going to reopen. After witnessing a young adolescent club-goer being ripped apart by the box’s chains in an ER room, reporter Joey Summerskill gradually learns more about the strange puzzle box, the horrible anguish it can cause, and Pinhead, the Black Pope of Hell. She follows the box and a young woman named Terri to a popular club called the Boiler Room, which is controlled by the spoiled playboy J.P., who feeds blood from club members to Pinhead, who is imprisoned in a marble pillar. As time runs out, Joey must devise a plan to return Pinhead and his newly-created Cenobites to Pinhead’s human realm, or face an eternity of anguish and suffering.
4. Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
Director(s)- Kevin Yaghar, Joe Chappelle
Dr. Paul Merchant has built the ultimate space station in the 22nd century for a specific purpose: to destroy the Lament Configuration, which has brought his family quiet disgrace for millennia. In the 18th century, French toymaker Phillip L’Merchant created the first puzzle box, which was utilised by magician de L’Isle to produce Angelique, the lovely daughter of Leviathan, Lord of Hell’s Labyrinth. L’Merchant’s descendants worked for decades to develop the Elysium Configuration, a box that would destroy the Lament Configuration, until 1996, when one of them, John, nearly succumbed to the box’s power through Angelique.
5. Hellraiser: Inferno (Video 2000)
Director- Scott Derrickson
Instead of submitting the puzzle box as evidence, a dishonest investigator, Joseph Thorne (Craig Sheffer), finds it at a crime scene and takes it with him. He solves the puzzle, but then starts having terrifying visions of a beast chasing him. He discovers a link between the murder scene where he obtained the puzzle box and a serial killer known as “The Engineer” through these visions.
6. Hellraiser: Hellseeker (Video 2002)
Director- Rick Bota
A married woman has grown up. Her recollection of what happened at her parent’s house and in the mental facility has faded, but she is still traumatised. The pair is killed in a car accident one terrible day. Her spouse then finds himself in an odd world consisting of seductive women, greed, and murder, leading him to assume he is in hell. All the way to Pinhead, he follows the clues.
7. Hellraiser: Deader (Video 2005)
Director- Rick Bota
Amy Klein, a journalist in London, watches a peculiar videotape after investigating crack addicts for an article in her newspaper. Her editor, Charles Richmond, receives film from a member, Marla, of an underground organisation of young people in Bucharest reportedly turning into zombies via the might of their leader Winter, and asks Amy to write the article. Amy accepts the challenge and arrives in Romania to discover Marla dead, holding a puzzle cube. She takes the thing to her hotel room and opens it, thus commencing her descent into hell.
8. Hellraiser: Hellworld (Video 2005)
Director- Rick Bota
Chelsea, Allison, Derrick, and Mike, all teenagers, are mourning the death of their friend Adam, who became obsessed with an online game called Hellworld. Jake, their former friend, accuses the group of continuing to play the game despite Adam’s insanity. Chelsea decides to join the group after receiving an invitation to a Hellworld party in an isolated mansion, and they are surprised to find Jake there. He explains that a girl he met in a chat room invited him. They are welcomed by the proprietor, who shows them around his private macabre collection. They discover they are at a party in hell as the night progresses.
9. Hellraiser: Revelations (2011)
Director- Victor Garcia
Steven Craven and Nico Bradley, two best friends, go on a vacation to Mexico. Nico receives a puzzle box from a vagrant they meet in a bar. He finds a key to hell when he opens the device. Steven and the kids flee after Nico introduces Pinhead, who causes him misery. Later, in Los Angeles, Peter and Kate Bradley are welcomed to dinner by Dr. Ross Craven, his wife Sarah, and their daughter Emma. Both families miss Steven and Nico and hired a private detective to find them, but all he finds is Nico’s backpack. Emma discovers the puzzle box when she rummages through her backpack, and Steven reappears, bloodied.
10. Hellraiser: Judgement (2018)
Director- Gay J. Tunnicliffe
Pinhead and the newly introduced Auditor character talk about how they’ll adjust to a future where technology limits their capacity to corrupt through sin. Detectives Sean (Damon Carney) and David Carter (Randy Wayne) are paired up with detective Christine Egerton (Alexandra Harris) to track down a serial killer known as the “Preceptor” who targets victims who break the Ten Commandments. They eventually become entangled in Pinhead and the Auditor’s plans. The Auditor is from a different faction of hell, and he interrogates persons based on their misdeeds before presenting them to the Stygian Inquisition for judgement.
