Trauma #5
Oct 1996, pp. 12-13

Hellraiser Bloodline

Kevin Yagher, Joe Chapelle, Miramax, USA 1996
Cast: Bruce Ramsey, Valentina Vargas, Doug Bradley, Charlotte Chatton a.o.

"Hellraiser: Bloodline" is the fourth installment in the Hellraiser series, which began with the original low-budget film written and directed by Clive Barker. Unfortunately for this newest film, hardly any of the Barker-esque qualities remain.

The film was released on March 8th of this year in the U.S. I, like many other Hellraiser fans, had been waiting for this movie for a long time. It's release date had been continually pushed back -- from March 24th of 1995 to August 25th to November to March -- people had been waiting a year to see this movie when it came out. When March 8th finally arrived, I was pretty excited to see Cenobites on the big screen once again. Comfortably stoned and holding a Screamin' model of the Lament Configuration, I went to see the movie that evening with a sizable audience.

The first thing I noticed was that the very first scene -- even before title or credits -- was a quick flash of Pinhead's face (the audience, getting into it, screamed at this). This cheap scare was obviously added when Miramax decided to mutilate the original film in order to add their money-making Pinhead into more scenes. The reason the movie took so long to be released was that after it was nearly done, some of the higher-ups at Miramax-Dimension films decided that they weren't going to make enough money unless Pinhead was in the movie earlier and more often, with more lines. The original film was scripted by Peter Atkins -- a long time friend of Barker's -- from an outline by Barker himself. FX maestro Kevin Yagher was to direct the movie, which was going to be centered on the Lament Configuration box and 400 years of its history. The decision to make Pinhead the star of the show instead of the puzzle box effectively destroyed the movie. Joe Chapelle (the man responsible for the garbage called "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers") was brought in to direct the additional scenes needed, and Rand Ravich (of "Candyman: Farewell" to the Flesh fame) was to rewrite the script. After seeing the final product, Kevin Yagher, who directed the scenes from the original movie, decided to pull his name off the revised movie. "Alan Smithee" replaced his name for director, as is customary in Hollywood when someone disowns a film (other "Alan Smithee" films are "The Birds 2" and "Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh"). The result of all this was the poorly executed and terribly scripted horror movie I saw that night. If it weren't for the Lament Configuration and the hooks and chains, this movie would be better titled "Nightmare on Elm Street 8: Freddy Gets A New Look".

The movie begins in 2127 on Space Station Minos (Peter Atkin's reference to the guardian of lower Hell in Dante's Inferno). Paul Merchant, using a pair of VR gloves, has a robot solve the Lament Configuration (an excellent idea, I thought). Pinhead arrives on the station and Merchant tells him that this is the endgame. A security squad from earth breaks into the station, Pinhead disappears, and Merchant is captured. Merchant offers one officer, Rimmer, a deal: if he tells her his story, she will let him finish what he began. The rest of the movie is just a flashback. We jump to a point in the past (no date is given, although in the original movie it was 1784) in which we see the creation of the first puzzle box by Philip LeMerchand. Then the movie jumps to 1996 to follow John Merchant, the architect of the building seen at the end of "Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth." When that is through, we jump back into 2127 as Merchant finishes his story and finishes what he began. I don't want to give too much away, but if you've seen "Freddy's Dead" and "Jason Goes to Hell", you already know what Pinhead's fate is at the end of the film. I suppose that it's Michael Myers' turn to die 'forever' next.

There are so many things wrong with this movie. First, it is only 83 minutes long; barely worth the price of admission. Second, there are too many contradictions with previous Hellraisers for me to ignore. For example, Pinhead destroys the robot after it solves the box, but in "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" he spared Tiffany who solved the box, saying: "It is not hands that call us, but desire." Also, the 1784 segment's treatment of Hell just doesn't work with Barker's version of Hell; it's really closer to a traditional Hell from mythology with non-Cenobite demons, blood sacrifice, pentagrams, and all that other stuff. This movie tries to imitate Hellbound: Hellraiser II in many ways. One obvious imitation is that Angelique is like Julia: they're both female agents of Hell who aren't Cenobites, they both arrive into the world without skins by the shedding of blood, they both seduce men while working for Hell, and they both get revenge on their ex-boyfriends (Jaques and Frank). It is almost as if Rand Ravich watched "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" in order to find out what a real Hellraiser movie was like before rewriting the script.

The biggest problem with this movie is Pinhead. Pinhead in this film is nothing more than Freddy Krueger with nails in his face. In the middle of the movie, I wanted to yell at this Cenobite to stop talking so damned much. He had a witty line for everything, which only made a bad movie worse. He also killed people for no reason. The Pinhead of the first two movies was interested in taking souls to Hell to experience their flesh -- not to just end their lives. People in the audience would laugh whenever Pinhead came on the screen... some of the things he said were too silly not to laugh (especially when he imitates one character's voice for John Merchant). Pinhead's post-Bloodline appearances on MTV sealed his fate: he is no longer the horror movie monster with dignity. He's just a wise-cracking money-machine for the movie studio, even worse than the Freddy of the late '80s. It is sad to lose such an interesting character. If you're a hard-core Hellraiser fan like me, you'll want to see this movie. Just seeing the Lament Configuration and Cenobites in different situations is interesting enough, even if the movie is not cool. If you're not a fan of the series and want a good horror movie to watch, avoid this one like the plague -- it's not worth the pain of seeing a good movie franchise being flushed down the toilet. For more info on "Hellraiser: Bloodline" and Hellraiser stuff in general, visit my web site at: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rexerm/hell. If you want to talk to me, my email address is: rexerm@umich.edu

MR