Clive Barker’s ‘Hellraiser’ introduces the lament configuration, an elegant puzzle box that, when resolved, opens a portal for a hellish dimension ruled by the Cenobites. Frank Cotton, looking for new pleasures, unlocks the secrets of the box, but are torn apart by the beings he calls. Later his niece Kirsty comes into possession of the box and causes a new wave of horror.
The lamentation configuration is not an ordinary puzzle – it is a cursed object that is designed to lure in the curious and damned. Solving it evokes the cenobites, who bring their victims to their empire for eternal torment. The film suggests that the box has been around for centuries, whereby every new user unconsciously offers to the horrors it has. The entire film revolves around its strength, with Kirsty who uses the puzzle box, both as a way of escaping and a weapon to banish the cenobites.
