Note: I'd really like to rewatch this series and basically scrap and rewrite this entire thing.

Hellraiser opens with the introduction of Frank and a mysterious box, performing an occult ritual. As he opens the box, naked, hooks appear out of nowhere and light appears to be so violent it slashes the walls of the house he is in. The smoothness of Frank's sweating flesh increases the impact of his torture; the metal hooks pierce his skin and drags it down and open, the body's largest organ torn away. The dark metal contrasts with the bloodied flesh. Pinhead, a Cenobite with a priest attire, pieces together a face, "the haptic affect of this makes us painfully aware of the fragility of our own facial features" (deleuze, 85)

Frank's brother Larry and his fiance move into an old family home which is littered with religious figurines. Larry emphasises: "we can be happy" which is funny as his fiance Julia was not happy with Larry at all. She wants to return Frank back to a human state so she could be with him the entire course of the film. Even before she meets him, she fantasizes about Frank, and paints a picture of him in her mind which seems to be occurring in reality. A nail rips into Larry's hand, and Frank's disembodied organs come together once again (although it's not really explained how he got trapped in the room for so long without a body and survived) We see the organs begin to self-generate out of the floor, the blood gathering to form body parts which start to move on their own. A weird slimy ooze solidifies and shines, jelly-like substances forming as well. Two arms, come up from under the floorboards, followed by what resembles a head, brain forming. We see the rats scrambling around, frightened by this occurrence, which doubles the repulsive feeling.

Julia acts very distant at dinner, as she is still thinking of Frank. She enters the attic where he is--and can hear a heartbeat. His hand grabs her as she sees the mess that Frank's body has left on the floor. He repeats "don't look at me" as Julia's idealized image of Frank may be destroyed. "The validity of the couple's sado/masochistic contract extends beyond the grave [as] she helps to reanimate him." (deleuze, 86) Kirsty, Larry's daughter, sees in her dream sequence her father on a stone slab, bleeding out under bed covers. A child screams in the background; she does not know it, but it lets the viewers realize what might happen to her father later on in the film. Julia's first victim is hit with a hammer, which allows Frank to take back some of his bone structure, although still transparent, with his arteries showing. "The sight of his fragility compels the viewer into sympathetic sensory awareness of our own corporeal nature, and our wish to maintain it intact." (86) Julia is both attracted to and repulsed by him, though she is aroused enough to kiss his fingers and play with them. Julia continues to bring Frank other victims, though he is unable to totally reform, as he does not have his soul. Although he looks complete, parts of his body remained exposed, and he does not have his skin. Frank states that "we belong to each other now", and says this to lure her in despite accidentally killing and then draining her body of life at the end of the film, eventually "taking her" as she belongs to him.

The Cenobites are enigmatic creatures, and for me, they were the most interesting characters of the film. The Cenobite's bodies are modified, and their engineer is a mixture of human baby, reptile, and insect. The Cenobites consider matter to be fluid and permeable, they turn a wall into organic matter at one point within the hospital. For them, all living matter is a potential source of the blood they crave, "Their costumes resemble a second skin, made from purloined organs. Ribs and lungs are wrought into the fabric's patterns of reversed and externalized organs. One Cenobite...wears a human face as a mask...their clothes are organically connected with their bodies, and one of the creatures' costumes enters the back of his head through a bloody wound. (87) Their costumes are strikingly post-punk, with S&M aesthetics. By appropriating stolen organs into costume, they become their past victims.

When Kirsty leaves the hospital; Frank has now wriggled his way into his brother's skin, which has not fully attached to his face, as there are bloodied scar lines throughout his head. He does however, have his brother's voice. Kirsty rips Frank's skin, revealing how the skin is just another costume, the face is a mask. The Cenobites arrive, and Frank is captured by them for further torture; the pillar appears and the chains swing at the audience. As in the beginning of the film, the hooks pierce into Frank's flesh, tearing it out. His body is suspended by the hooks and chains, spread wide as his face reveals the organs beneath. "In Hellraiser, a basically religious paradigm aligns the sins of the flesh with physical torture in a Hell on earth and its parallel process of spiritual damnation." (88) The film comes full circle as Kirsty disposes of the puzzle box, which is picked up by a man who appears to be human but turns into a dragon-like creature with wings; and deposits the box with the original seller which Frank obtained it from.