Hellraiser is a British horror franchise that consists of eleven films, a series of comic books, as well as merchandise based on the series. The franchise is based on the novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, who would go on to write and direct the adaptation of his story, titled Hellraiser. The films, as well as the comic book series, continually features the Cenobite Pinhead. The series' storyline focuses on a puzzle box that opens a gateway to another dimension, where the Cenobites come forth to take whoever opened the box back to their world, delivering an eternity of torture and experimentation. As well as the Cenobites other recurring characters include heroine Kirsty Cotton and several others.

Amy Klein is a character in the film Hellraiser: Deader, where she is portrayed by Kari Wührer as an adult and Maria Pintea as a young girl. A gonzo-style reporter, Amy was physically (and possibly sexually) abused by her father as a child, which led her to stab him to death. After viewing a videotape her boss Charles received in the mail which depicts a member of a cult known as the Deaders committing suicide and subsequently being resurrected by Deaders leader Winter, Amy travels from London to Bucharest to look into the Deaders. Finding another tape and the Lament Configuration puzzle box in the apartment of a heavily decayed-looking Deader named Marla, who subsequently appears to her several times, Amy tinkers with the box, causing her to have a brief encounter with the Cenobite Pinhead. Tracking down Winter and the Deader's home, Amy is forced into experiencing something of a vision quest by Winter, who wishes to use her to solve the Lament Configuration, something neither he nor his followers can do. Eventually snapping out of her trance-like state, Amy is almost goaded into killing herself (so she can be resurrected later) with a knife by Winter, but relents and inadvertently solves the Lament Configuration by hurling it at a wall. Summoning Pinhead and the Cenobites, Amy witnesses them rip Winter (revealed to be a descendant of box creator Phillip Lemarchand) apart with hooked chains and subsequently kill the Deaders once and for all. When the Cenobites turn their attention on her, Amy, to rob them of collecting her soul, commits suicide by stabbing herself, causing the Lament Configuration to make the Cenobites vanish and cause the Deader's lair to collapse.

Butterball is one of the first Cenobites introduced in the franchise, appearing both in the initial novella, The Hellbound Heart, as well as the films Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II. Butterball also made an appearance in Clive Barker's comic book sequel to Hellbound, the Hellraiser comic book series published by BOOM! comics in 2011. Despite appearing to be the second-in-command of the Cenobites in The Hellbound Heart, in the film and comics he primarily functions as a member of Pinhead's entourage.

Like the other Cenobites, Butterball has undergone extreme body modification and ritual scarification; other than his massive size and obesity, Butterball's other distinguishing feature is a series of stitches through his eyelids, which he usually keeps hidden by a pair of round sunglasses. Although he is apparently a high-ranking member of the Cenobites in the novella, and has the most dialogue in the book, in the films he is the most removed of Pinhead's entourage. Butterball is completely stationary and silent, occasionally licking his lips with a bloated tongue. He only becomes physically aggressive during climactic battles, attacking Kirsty at the end of the original Hellraiser, Channard at the end of Hellbound, and Kirsty again in the seventh issue of Barker's BOOM! Hellraiser series.

Actor Simon Bamford met Clive Barker through a friend who was doing prop work for Barker's plays. Bamford and Barker became friends, and Bamford joined his theater company. After the company disbanded, Bamford contacted Barker to see what he was doing, and Barker invited him to join his latest project, Hellraiser. Bamford wore a fatsuit and foam latex mask. He was designed to look as if it would be impossible for him to eat anything else. His torn-open stomach was meant to give the impression that he could directly interact with his organs at will.

Butterball is first introduced in the novella The Hellbound Heart, in which he is the first of the Cenobites to appear, and their apparent second-in-command behind the Engineer, whose presence is only summoned in special circumstances:

"...the hooks that transfixed the flaps of its eyes... were wed by an intricate system of chains passed through flesh and bone alike..."

Along with the other Cenobites, Butterball takes antagonist Frank Cotton back to the Cenobite realm after Cotton opens the Lament Configuration, expecting to find a hedonistic paradise that will cure his sensual nihilism. Despite being warned that what he finds may not be what he is expecting, Frank willingly goes along with the Cenobites, only to find that—past an initial euphoria—the experiences to which the Cenobites subject him are so intense as to be torturous. Butterball is later part of the Cenobite contingent that makes a deal with Frank's brother, Rory's friend, Kirsty, to return Frank to them in exchange for her own freedom, after she unwittingly makes a deal to return to the Cenobite realm by opening the box.