A man finds he is given more than he bargains for when he solves a Chinese puzzle, a doorway to hell, but his ex-lover has found a way of bringing him back, and his niece finds herself bargaining with the Cenobites whose greatest pleasure is the greatest pain, glamorous sadists with a penchant for ripped flesh, steaming viscera and flayed muscle. Barker's dazzling debut as a director creates such an atmosphere of dread that the astonishing visual set pieces simply detonate in a chain reaction of cumulative intensity.