Rated R (Strong Horror Violence and Gore,
and for Some Sexuality and Language)
Running Time: 1 Hour & 25 Minutes
Cast:
Bruce Ramsay-Phillip Lemarchand/John
Merchant/Dr. Paul Merchant
Doug Bradley-Pinhead
Valentina Vargas-Princess Angelique
Christine Harnos-Rimmer
Paul Perri-Edwards
Pat Skipper-Carducci
Wren T. Brown-Parker
Tom Dugan-Chamberlain
Adam Scott-Jacques
Mickey Cottrell-Duc de L'Isle
Charlotte Chatton-Genevieve Lemarchand
Kim Myers-Bobbi Merchant
Courtland Mead-Jack Merchant
Jody St. Michael-Chattering Beast
Michael Polish-Twin Cenobite #1
Mark Polish-Twin Cenobite #2
Directed by Kevin Yagher (as Alan Smithee)
and Joe Chappelle
 |
| Pinhead goes to space in "Hellraiser: Bloodline"! |
Oh, how the mighty have fallen! As with
the “Leprechaun” and “Friday the 13th" franchises, the fourth (and last to
be released in theaters) film of the “Hellraiser” series, “Hellraiser:
Bloodline” sends our favorite Cenobite Pinhead to space, the final frontier!
With a dearth of new ideas, writers seem to favor sending our favorite horror
icons, whose long-running franchises have already overstayed their welcome, to
space in a last, desperate attempt to squeeze out just one more film and
whatever pennies leftover from gullible moviegoers. The original “Hellraiser”
was released twenty-four years ago in 1987 and was wildly inappropriate for a child when
I viewed the film around the ages of four or five. I consider “Hellraiser” to
be a horror classic because it didn’t fall into the usual slasher conventions
that were popular at the time. The ‘villain’ known as Pinhead, played by Doug
Bradley, wasn’t necessarily evil but was an articulate, intelligent, demonic
angel that granted the person that summoned him unimaginable pleasure. Too bad
that pleasure involved extreme flesh-ripping pain and suffering, among other
sadomasochistic acts! The second film, 1988’s “Hellbound: Hellraiser II” is an
inferior, yet still worthy follow-up but the series showed signs of wear when
“Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth” arrived in 1992 and by 1996, the release of
“Hellraiser: Bloodline” proved that it was time to put Pinhead out to pasture.
While this fourth film remains watchable and features the prerequisite blood
and gore, “Bloodline” scrapes the bottom of the barrel with its lackluster and
incoherent storytelling, laughable dialogue, and atrocious performances from
its no-name cast.
In the year 2127, Dr. Paul Merchant (Bruce Ramsay) hijacks
the orbiting space station Minos, which he built, and solves the puzzle box
known as the Lamont Configuration by remotely controlling a robot. The
diabolical Cenobite known as Pinhead (Doug Bradley) is summoned from Hell but
before Paul can enact his plan, security guards led by Rimmer (Christine
Harnos) capture and detain him for interrogation. Paul reveals that time is of
the essence but seeing no other way, begins to tell the story of his cursed
bloodline to convince a skeptical Rimmer. Four hundred years ago, his French ancestor
Philip Lemarchand (also Ramsay) was a struggling toymaker who creates the
Lamont Configuration for a wealthy aristocrat named Duc de L'Isle (Mickey
Cottrell). Unbeknownst to Lemarchand, Duc de L'Isle plans to use the puzzle box
to summon forth a demon. He skins an innocent peasant woman to use as a vessel
for the demon, who is revealed to be a Cenobite named Princess Angelique
(Valentina Vargas). Lemarchand witnesses this and furiously works on a new
design called the Elysium Configuration, which can destroy summoned Cenobites
and permanently close any portals to Hell. This design is worked on by his
descendants but one of them, a brilliant architect named John Merchant (again
Ramsey) living in present-day New York City, encounters Angelique, who is
working with Pinhead and seeks world domination. In order to stop him, his
future descendant, Paul, must convince Rimmer of the truth and face the enemy
that has haunted his bloodline for generations.
“Hellraiser: Bloodline” wants
to be both prequel and sequel but ends up botching it all with a rushed and
confused storyline. This fourth installment wants to explore the origins of the
Lamont Configuration and tie up any loose ends to the series but everything
feels like a rough outline of a longer film. Here, Pinhead has quite a lot of
screen-time but he’s been reduced to a clichéd, cookie-cutter megalomaniacal
monster. He sits in the shadows stroking doves while going on these long
monologues about how he’s so powerful and that he’s going to dominate the world
but the dialogue Doug Bradley’s forced to recite ends up feeling artificial, as
if the writers were trying too hard to make him sound deviously poetic. Often
times, it just eats into the running time and his monologues become nothing but
nonsense. Sure, Bradley looks and sounds awesome and the film is at its best
when he appears but it has no story impact at all. In fact, it works against
the character and makes him look foolish such as near the end, Pinhead
encounters Paul as he sets up the space station to self-destruct (this is
before he uses the hologram as a distraction). He could’ve just ended him right
then and there, securing total victory for Hell but no; Pinhead just stands
there and yaps some more nonsense! The final third of the film becomes a
generic slasher flick as Pinhead slowly stalks his victims in sparse, cheaply
built sets. In fact, everything has a cheap-vibe with its minimalist sets,
making it feel less of a film and more of a low-budget, direct-to-video
feature, which ironically is what became of the “Hellraiser” franchise.
Although there’s some exploration of the sadomasochistic themes that populated
the original and, to a lesser extent, its sequel, all of it feels tacked on and
goes nowhere. Angelique is presented as a seductress and a dominatrix but we
don’t get anything showing how she works. There’s the usual blood and gore but
it’s edited too clumsily to allow us to appreciate it. Heads get lopped off,
hooked chains rip apart flesh and twins even get their skin painfully connected
to form a new Cenobite. You'll notice that the director’s name is Alan
Smithee. No such person exists and it is in fact a pseudonym used by directors
who disowned the final product because of dissatisfaction or lack of creative
control. The real director is Kevin Yagher, whose original version was more
graphic, longer, and more coherent plot-wise but the producers wanted Pinhead
to appear sooner and edited the film behind his back. Dissatisfied, he left the
project and Joe Chappelle was brought on to finish the remaining scenes and
re-shot footage that includes the framed narrative device. Although I doubt
Yagher’s version was a masterpiece, I am curious in reading the script he had
in mind.
The acting is amateurish and fits into the low-budget vibe. Of course,
Doug Bradley is still awesome as the malevolent Cenobite Pinhead but he does
very little in the film. He stands around, laughs, says some sinister dialogue
and that’s really about it. I half-expected him to stroke his evil mustache and
cackle! Valentina Vargas is mostly there for eye-candy and even when
transformed into a Cenobite with her flesh ripped open on her head, revealing
her skull, she is still sexy. It must be all that tight leather. She also has a
great sex scene that shows off her…assets. Everyone else either overacts to
comedic effect or does very little to hide the fact that they’re slumming for a
paycheck.
“Hellraiser: Bloodline” arrives as a stand-alone Blu-Ray or part of a
double feature that includes 2000’s “Hellraiser: Inferno,” the first
“Hellraiser” film to be released direct-to-video and certainly not the last.
Picture quality is average at best but close-ups reveal some nice detail.
Darker scenes unfortunately end up being too murky. Audio is the same as it
musters up every ounce of energy but still comes up short, failing to add
any real atmosphere. There are absolutely no special features (not even
subtitles or other languages!) but the back of the case proudly states that
there is a menu you can use to navigate the film’s chapters. Wow, how amazing!
It just blows my mind!
“Hellraiser: Bloodline” was released into theaters on
March 8, 1996 and failed to scare up the box office with a paltry domestic
total of $9 million against a $4 million production budget. There’s only
eighteen reviews counted on Rotten Tomatoes with 27% but most critics agree
that it was scraping the bottom of the barrel. I’m surprised Clive Barker is
listed as an executive producer but he must’ve had little input on the project;
otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten this half-baked space adventure. While not a
total abomination, “Hellraiser: Bloodline” is still a bad horror flick and it’s
really sad that this is how Pinhead went out in his last appearance in
theaters. Of course, we all know this isn’t the end, as Dimension Films
released five direct-to-video sequels after this one. This is one of the few
times where I want a remake!
Final Rating: 2 out of 5
“Glorious, is it not? The creatures who
walk its surface, always looking to the light, never seeing the untold oceans
of darkness beyond. There are more humans alive today than in all of its
pitiful history. The Garden of Eden. A garden of…flesh!”
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