TV reporter Joey Summerskill is on assignment at a local hospital when a bloodied teenaged boy is rushed to the ER and is literally torn apart by chains impaling his body. Fleeing the carnage, Joey follows the victim's girlfriend to a downtown nightclub, the Boiler Room. In the apartment above rests the owner's newly purchased sculpture: a pillar etched with distorted figures and faces, among which is Pinhead. Tonight, he shall be released.