Hellraiser: Bloodline, the fourth in the series, was the first Smithee film I ever watched, when I was a teenager. Having been an avid Fangoria reader, I knew about the film's troubled production, and was an admirer of the actual director, Kevin Yagher. Yagher was a top-of-the-line animatronics and puppetry effects creator, most famous for designing the Cryptkeeper and directing the opening and closing segments of "Tales from the Crypt."
The film was taken out of his hands during production, and the script by Peter Atkins (who'd been on board the series since part II) was heavily rewritten. Whole subplots, like one featuring Kenneth Tobey of The Thing from Another World, we're dropped. Joe Chappelle, whose name was already mud among horror fans for ruining Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, was brought in to fill in the gaps. (To be fair, Chappelle has done some good things since, having directed many episodes of "Fringe" as well as the enjoyable Phantoms, in which Lawrence of Arabia teams up with Ray Donovan and the director of Argo to fight an ancient subterranean life form.)
So what's left of Hellraiser: Bloodline is a mess, but, upon recent rewatch, I was surprised to find it an entirely watchable mess. The plot is incoherent, as are the philosophical ramblings of the villainous Pinhead (Doug Bradley), who sounds like H.P. Lovecraft would if he were high at a Phish concert. But it's quickly paced and occasionally inventive in its sadism.
We begin in space. Yep, in space. Aboard the space station Minos, Dr. John Merchant (Bruce Ramsay) opens a puzzle box which fans of the series will find familiar. The crew wonders what he's up to. Explaining that he is attempting to destroy a demon, he tells the story of the construction of the puzzle box, from the distant past to the relative present and then back to the future, where the demon Pinhead is confronted.
Thanks likely to postproduction tinkering, the story structure is awkward, beginning in the 22nd century, flashing back to the 18th century, to the future again, to the 1990s, and then again to the 22nd century for the finale. It doesn't help that the dull Ramsay appears as the protagonist in all three settings; he has the demeanor of a kinder, gentler Billy Zane, but fails to conjure any character or personality to go along with the demonic torture.
The film also shows little evidence of the talent of Adam Scott, who reportedly enjoyed working on the film but betrays none of that enjoyment on the screen. As an 18th-century gentleman who (thinks he) enslaves a demonic princess (Valentina Vargas), the future Mr. Leslie Knope exists for a few dull scenes before he makes an inauspicious exit, though not before proudly displaying one of the Laughable Haircuts of Film History.
The film hops on to a present-day architect (also Ramsay) who unwittingly designs a building-sized replica of the puzzle box that could be the pathway for all manner of demons. It's here that Pinhead makes his first appearance, threatening the architect's wife (the underused Kim Myers, of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2) and young son (Courtland Mead, best known as the really irritating Danny from Stephen King's miniseries of The Shining).
Thanks likely to postproduction tinkering, the story structure is awkward, beginning in the 22nd century, flashing back to the 18th century, to the future again, to the 1990s, and then again to the 22nd century for the finale. It doesn't help that the dull Ramsay appears as the protagonist in all three settings; he has the demeanor of a kinder, gentler Billy Zane, but fails to conjure any character or personality to go along with the demonic torture.
The film also shows little evidence of the talent of Adam Scott, who reportedly enjoyed working on the film but betrays none of that enjoyment on the screen. As an 18th-century gentleman who (thinks he) enslaves a demonic princess (Valentina Vargas), the future Mr. Leslie Knope exists for a few dull scenes before he makes an inauspicious exit, though not before proudly displaying one of the Laughable Haircuts of Film History.
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| Not even hell on earth will stop the Catalina Wine Mixer. |
The film hops on to a present-day architect (also Ramsay) who unwittingly designs a building-sized replica of the puzzle box that could be the pathway for all manner of demons. It's here that Pinhead makes his first appearance, threatening the architect's wife (the underused Kim Myers, of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2) and young son (Courtland Mead, best known as the really irritating Danny from Stephen King's miniseries of The Shining).
Though the film is by no means a cohesive piece of anything, it's probably the best of the Hellraiser sequels so far, if we don't count Scott Derrickson's surprisingly decent Hellraiser: Inferno, which is barely related to the series at all. Bloodline's underlying pretentiousness elevates it above your usual run-of-the-mill sequel hackery. The finished product is a total disaster, but it's clear that somebody at some point had high expectations for this movie. You don't see the kind of high-minded philosophizing that spews from Pinhead's mouth in a Friday the 13th movie.
** out of ****
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