Based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by English author Clive Barker, the franchise centers around the Cenobites which includes the primary antagonist named Pinhead.

He has stated that he signed away the story and character rights to the production company prior to the release of the first film, not realizing the critical and financial success it would be.

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.

A television reporter, Joey Summerskill (Terry Farrell), begins to learn about Pinhead and the puzzle box, which leads her to Monroe's night club.

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.

[9] Corrupt police Detective Joseph Thorne (Craig Sheffer) discovers the puzzle box while investigating a series of ritualistic murders.

[11] Reporter Amy Klein (Kari Wuhrer), is sent to Bucharest to investigate an underground suicide cult founded by a descendant of Philip Lemarchand, who claims to be able to bring back the dead and who believes that it is his birthright to open the puzzle box and control the Cenobites.

The final two victims ultimately realize that most of the events of the movie have been a hallucination, after the host—the father of their deceased friend, who blames his son's fellow players for not breaking his addiction to the game—drugged them and buried them alive.

The police rescue the surviving teenagers, Chelsea (Katheryn Winnick) and Jake (Christopher Jacot), while the host escapes to a decrepit motel with a suitcase of his son's belongings.

Bradley was offered the part but turned it down because the production company refused to let him read the script without signing a non-disclosure agreement regarding its contents.

[24] In October 2010, Patrick Lussier was hired to serve as director on a reboot of the Hellraiser franchise, with a script written by Todd Farmer.

[29] Inspired by the success of the Halloween (2018) from Universal Pictures, Miramax Films announced plans to adapt future installments in the Hellraiser franchise.

Verheiden, Dougherty, and Green will serve as executive producers, alongside Danny McBride, Jody Hill, Brandon James, and Roy Lee.

The Scarlet Gospels, a novel-length sequel to The Hellbound Heart also featuring Barker's recurring Harry D'Amour character, was released in 2015.

Hellraiser: The Toll, set before The Scarlet Gospels and after The Hellbound Heart, was written by Mark Alan Miller and published by Subterranean Press in February 2018.

Written by Peter Atkins and Stephen Jones, with a foreword by Clive Barker, The Hellraiser Chronicles is a collection of production photographs, design sketches, excerpts from the scripts, and interviews with the cast and crew.

[54] The next book, The Hellraiser Films And Their Legacy, was released by McFarland & Company on 27 November 2006; it was written by Paul Kane, and features foreword by Pinhead actor Doug Bradley.

It is being directed by K. John McDonagh and produced by Cult Film Screenings, based in Birmingham, who used Kickstarter to raise the funds necessary to conduct further interviews in the United States, although Clive Barker pulled out at the last minute due to ill health.

[58] In an interview, Doug Bradley stated that in 2002 Dimension Films received two scripts for a crossover featuring both Pinhead and Michael Myers, the antagonist of the Halloween series.

One of the pitches involved Michael Myers opening the Lament Configuration as a child and being possessed by Samhain fleeing from Hell, and the Cenobites pursuing him in the present day.

The project ultimately ended when Halloween's producer Moustapha Akkad rejected the idea and due to a negative response from the fans of both franchises.

[63] Separately in 2002, Hellboy co-writer Peter Briggs was approached by Dimension Films to pitch a continuation to the franchise, to be called Hellraiser: Lament.

His treatment, judged by Dimension Films to be "too expensive", concerned the mining town of Lament and the creation of the original puzzle boxes.

[65] Prior to the release of Bloodline, Magnet Interactive Studios developed an unrelated and ultimately unreleased video game called Hellraiser: Virtual Hell.