Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)

Very well executed

That was an excellent one.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

In the 22nd century, a scientist attempts to right the wrong his ancestor created: the puzzle box that opens the gates of Hell and unleashes Pinhead and his Cenobite legions. Hellraiser: Bloodline is the Jason X of the Hellraiser Movies it's dumb, loud and quite confusing as a whole plus once again the acting and dialogue were far from being good, the storyline easy to forget and the whole movie is just a waste of time plus way too many stories taking place threw different times that did not add up anything new to the messy series. (0/10)

Oh man... Hellraiser, where to even begin with you. Alright, let's start from the beginning of the Hellraiser story - first two movies were absolute perfection for the horror genre, it had all the elements a horror should have and the cast was just amazing. Then comes' the third part which did some changes to the Pinhead I accepted and the movie was just little below the previous ones; however that should have been the end of Hellraiser movies.Then came the Hellraiser: Bloodline, the last warning that the title needs to die while it still held it's glory. Let's make it clear, the movie does have its amazing moments, e.g when referencing to the past events - but they aren't enough in the bigger picture to make the movie stand up to its previous sequels.

The fourth instalment of the already-tired Hellraiser franchise signalled the last time that original creator Clive Barker would be involved, and also the final film of the series to be shown on the big screen, with the subsequent sequels heading straight to VHS or DVD. Doug Bradley, who at this point was the only surviving cast member from Barker's terrific 1987 original, described Hellraiser IV: Bloodline as the "shoot from Hell", and its troubled production saw director Kevin Yagher demand his name be removed from the credits, instead opting for the go-to pseudonym Alan Smithee. While things never looked good for the film, Part IV of Miramax's cult franchise isn't actually quite as bad as you would expect.In 2127, engineer Dr. Paul Merchant (Bruce Ramsay) uses a robot to solve the Lament Configuration puzzle box on board space station The Minos. The opening of the box destroys the robot, and Merchant is taken in for questioning by a group of armed guards suspicious of his intentions. Whilst being interrogated by the groups leader, Rimmer (Christine Harnos), Merchant reveals that he is part of a cursed bloodline that stretches back to 18th-century France, where his ancestor, toy-maker Phillip L'Merchant (also Ramsay), builds the box for a rich aristocrat who desires to summon a slave-girl from Hell. While L'Merchant fails to prevent the demon Angelique (Valentina Vargas) arriving in our world, generations later New York architect John Merchant (Ramsay again) is haunted by visions of the box, building a skyscraper resembling the Lament Configuration.After two sequels with little to recommend other than Kenneth Cranham's wonderfully over-the-top thesping, Bloodline at least attempts to inject a fresh take on the Hellraiser universe. The decision to portray the arrival of Hell on Earth over three vastly different time periods is an interesting one, even if it is somewhat clumsily handled and often poorly acted. Yet for the bulk of the film we are stuck in the less-interesting modern day, or 1996, and it is here that Bloodline suffers from formulaic storytelling. The introduction of the demon Angelique offers the chance for some twisted sexual tension between her and Pinhead (Bradley), yet this isn't explored enough, and ultimately fizzles out in favour of more time with the over-exposed, iconic Cenobite, whose role was significantly beefed up by the studio following Yagher's departure. It's certainly one of the best of the series' sequels, yet given how bad the movies that followed are, that's hardly saying much.

Written by Peter Atkins, with Clive Barker serving as executive producer, Bloodline is the century- spanning origin story of the puzzle box that featured throughout all the Hellraiser films up until this point - and the sequels which followed.Director Kevin Yagher disowned the film when the studio began re-editing it, ordering re-writes and re- shoots, and generally preventing him from realising his grand vision. And what a vision this could have been. Sadly the budget, and aforementioned studio interference renders it a run of the mill, rather underwhelming slasher movie with but a few moments of surprising creativity.Yagher had previously made a name for himself as a master of special effects, working on such titles as A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, Child's Play and The Hidden. He was so aghast at the changes imposed on Bloodline, he removed his name from it and replaced it with the Directors Guild of America approved pseudonym, Alan Smithee. Directors can do this when they feel that their artistic vision or creative control has been severely compromised by the interference of pesky studio executives more interested in money than creativity. Apparently many of Yagher's more elaborate designs and ideas never even made it to the screen, including Cenobites decked out in French period garb. When Yagher walked away from the project, just before it wrapped, Joe Chappelle was hired to film the remaining scenes, reshoot some material - including the narrative framing device onboard the space station - and tie everything up. Chappelle had previously directed the equally misguided- but- strangely-fascinating Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.Again, as with the prior films, there is a strong sense of continuity present in Bloodline, and kudos must go to writer Peter Atkins, a veteran of the series at this stage, who, with the character of Angelique, creates what actually feels like a bona fide Clive Barker character. Alluring, seductive and deadly, she is a demon inhabiting the skin of a beautiful prostitute offered in sacrifice to her. When she emerges at the finale, complete with full-on Cenobite make-over, her appearance harks back to earlier female Cenobites, and reeks of the same morbid sensuality; a sensuality that was markedly absent from the prior instalment. Bloodline gets one thing right at least; it feels like a Clive Barker film. Albeit a rather flawed one. "Bloodline" was clearly intended to be the final installment in the flailing "Hellraiser" saga and in chronological order if watched as a prequel and a sequel its the final chapter of the hellraiser franchise.