Sex addict Frank Cotton is always willing to try anything to get a new sexual thrill. And it's the promise of such that while visiting an unnamed foreign country, he buys a strange Chinese puzzle box. He takes it back home to England to open it it, only to find that he has found a gateway to Hell. He is dragged through the gate into another dimension by the Cenobites, who subject him to delicious torture by pulling him apart with tiny fishhooks. Some time later, his brother Larry moves into the house with his family. Through the medium of some spilled blood on the floor, the shredded form of Frank appears, Helped by Larry's wife Julia - with whom he once had an affair - Frank begins sucking the life out of human bodies in an effort to regain his former robust form and escape from Hell. However, Larry's daughter from a previous marriage, Kirsty, notices her stepmother's strange behaviour and, willing to believe the worst about Julia, suspects she is having an affair. Investigating further, she soon finds herself caught up in the nightmare of the puzzle box, the Cenobites and her Uncle Frank. Horrormeister Clive Barker's directorial debut is a really scary affair, with excellent, occasionally stomach-churning special effects; though the standard of acting is also fairly horrific, its Barker's visual flair which counts here and horror fans will love this one.