How To Watch The Hellraiser Movies In Order

When most people think about the horror icons that emerged as a result of the ‘80s slasher wave, they think of three in particular: Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger. The enduring legacy of all of these characters are a reflection of how outsized their impacts were at the time — Michael just wrapped up a reboot trilogy back in 2022, Jason is getting a prequel TV series about his Mom in just a few weeks, and Freddy is finally coming back to screens courtesy of Paramount and the Wes Craven estate. But there’s another horror franchise that got started in the ‘80s, and while it doesn’t enjoy the same spotlight as the other three, it rivals them in terms of sheer output (for better and much worse).

Part of the reason why the Hellraiser franchise never became as big as A Nightmare on Elm Street might be because the first two films, and the novella they’re based on, are so much more complex and risqué than the horror movies packing theaters at the time — the central villains are the Cenobites, interdimensional beings from a hellish plane of existence where their pursuit of extreme sensation has rendered pain and pleasure indistinguishable. The first film presents them as brutal zealots proselytizing the pleasures of suffering, but as the series went on, they began treating Pinhead (referred to by series creator Clive Barker as the Hell Priest) and his companions as traditional slashers.

While the first film became a beloved and boundary-pushing piece of body horror, and the second film has earned its place as a cult classic in its own right, the later sequels fall off a cliff into the pit of straight-to-DVD installments, each one a more torturous attempt for various studios to retain the IP rights than the last. It wasn’t until recently that the franchise received a proper second life, with a generally well-received reboot directed by David Bruckner back in 2022. Now the Cenobites live again, this time in video game form with the upcoming October 8 release of Hellraiser: Revival, a survival horror game developed by Saber Interactive — which gives fans the perfect excuse to open the box and revisit each of the franchise’s many installments.

How To Watch The Hellraiser Movies In Release Order

In truth, the Hellraiser canon really can be summed up to the events of the first four movies. The original introduces Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton, who stumbles upon the Lament Configuration and the Cenobites after her sadistic uncle Frank is resurrected by her mother-in-law Julia, with whom he’d been having an affair. The second film follows Kirsty after she’s institutionalized when no one will believe her story, only for the lead psychologist at the hospital to attempt to cross over to the Cenobites dimension using the box.

The third film departed from Kirsty’s story with the Lament Configuration ending up in the hands of a New York City nightclub owner, while the fourth served as a sort of ersatz prequel featuring three different timelines: one in the 1790s with the creator of the box, one in 1996 with his modern descendant, and one set in 2127 (beating Jason X to the punch). After that, the timeline of the films becomes indiscriminate, with each movie taking the shape of various psychological thrillers with the DNA of Hellraiser spliced into them. The franchise is one of the most eclectic in horror, with one of the steepest drop-offs in quality as well, but nevertheless each of them offer a unique experience in one way or another, which in all fairness is the Cenobites’ whole deal.

Here’s how to watch all the Hellraiser movies in order:

1. Hellraiser (1987)
2. Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988)
3. Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth (1992)
4. Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
5. Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)
6. Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)
7. Hellraiser: Deader (2005)
8. Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005)
9. Hellraiser: Revelations (2011)
10. Hellraiser: Judgement (2018)
11. Hellraiser (2022)

Despite a declining reputation brought on by eight less-than-stellar sequels, it’s a testament to how much of an impact on pop culture the first film made that Hellraiser is even still recognizable and beloved.

Hellraiser: Revival is going back to basics, closely following the lore of the original novella The Hellbound Heart and the original two movies, which means it’s bringing back the combination of dangerous sensual allure and grotesque body horror that makes the first one such an exhilarating watch. Hopefully the game is enough to generate interest in another film in the franchise; either a sequel to Bruckner’s reboot or a brand-new take on the material, because as Pinhead himself once said, the Cenobites always have “such sights to show you.”

Hellraiser: Revival releases on October 8 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.