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.

Parents need to know that Hellraiser is extremely gory. Killing and mutilating befalls both humans and animals (rats), with bloody death by knife, hammer, and hooks. Nightmare imagery includes a vampire-like man without skin cannibalizing others to regenerate, and the cyborg-like demons called cenobites.