Hellraiser: Bloodline is a better film than Part 3. I'm aware that's not the cool thing to say, but it's true. This doesn't mean Bloodline is a marvel of awesome cinema; it just isn't the dilapidated snoozer that last installment was. Imagine you have diarrhea for two days. This is Hellraiser III. You wake up the third day, pop a squat on the toilet, and you find that your dookie is solid again. It's a relief, though it's still shit. That sums up Bloodline.
The production problems on this film are notorious, at least in the horror community. Kevin Yagher was initially hired to direct, which, given Yagher's horror pedigree, was a wise move on the part of Dimension Films. Alas, in true Weinstein form, Yagher was displaced from the editing bay, and a different cut was assembled behind his back. Gone were graphic bits of gore and terror, as were vital elements of the story that actually explained what the hell was going on. Dimension wanted Pinhead to appear sooner, even though they green lit a script that didn't have him show up for forty minutes. Yagher went back in time, explaining how and why the puzzle box came about, and laid out an epic story of fate and sacrifice.
All in all, twenty-eight minutes were snipped. Dimension asked Yagher to shoot additional scenes in order to make the new mess understandable. Feeling duped, Yagher told them to shove the picture up their ass and walked away. Enter Joe Chappelle, a man who was no stranger to the Weinstein problem due to his time as director of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Since Yagher never directed another film, it's hard to say whether he would have panned out as a good filmmaker. What is certain is that he had a better cinematic eye than Chappelle. The movie jumps across time, allowing the differences in directorial quality to be more noticeable. Whereas Yagher pays attention to lighting, composition, and mise en scene, Chappelle just aims the camera at a flatly lit surface and rolls the film. This is most apparent in the spaceship sequences.
Yes, this is the "Pinhead in Space" entry. Honestly, out of the all the franchises that have ventured into the deep realms of the galaxy, Hellraiser feels the least forced of them all. Something about its otherworldly nature sort of goes along with the dark inexplicability of the universe. Leprechaun and Jason Voorhees simply made no sense. Bloodline isn't entirely successful in carrying out the space motif, but it doesn't stink to high heavens like Jason X.
The picture opens on a dreary space station, which looks like the puzzle box unfolded. A group of galaxy cops (or whatever) rush on board. Meanwhile, Billy Corgan-lookalike Paul Merchant (Bruce Ramsay) straps on a pair of power gloves and controls a robot that he is using to figure out the puzzle box. The gate to Hell is opened, the robot is blown up, and Paul is whisked away by the cops as Pinhead and his buds appear. A woman named, of all things, Rimmer (Dazed and Confused actress Christine Harnos) interrogates Paul, and we go tripping back in time to 18th century France.
Phillip, obviously pissing his pants, decides that something needs to be created to battle the Lament Configuration. A quick montage shows him sketching what becomes known as the Elysium Configuration, another box that will repel Hell. Feeling he needs the Lament box for some reason, Phillip breaks into the Duc's house, finding him dead and Angelique fucking Jacques. Things go awry, Angelique kills Phillip, and time jumps forward.
This whole section is the best portion of the film. My suspicion is that Yagher had more of a hand in this part since it feels so different from most of the rest of the movie. The chateau belonging to Duc is rich in menace, a dark, murky housing of man's worst drives. The French section is so good that you can overlook its weaknesses, namely that it seems to end abruptly. Given the structure of the movie, one's initial thought is that the abruptness is okay. There's plenty more movie ahead.
Of course, the film begins to wet the bed in the next section. It is now 1996, and Phillip's great-great-great whatever, John (yes, it's Ramsay) is an architect who has constructed a building patterned after the Elysium Configuration. The explanation is that the Lament box, dumped into a concrete bed in the climax of Part 3, is trapped in the foundation and influencing John's designs. This sounds okay, but halfway through this time period, it becomes readily apparent shit has been cut. Angelique tracks John down, asking him build another box. It turns out the building is one giant box, and soon enough Pinhead and her are trying to get John to set the mechanics off, so that the gates of Hell stay open and...truthfully, I'm confused. Phillip creates Elysium to counteract Lament, but the Cenobites now want it to work for them. Do they not know what Elysium does? If they do, why the sudden rule change? The 1996 bit ends up making little sense.
"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."
This wouldn't be so funny, except that Paul up and leaves while Pinhead rambles on. There's a bizarre, awkward silence after the villain finishes his speech, like the movie had been edited by The Office crew. Pinhead looks like an even bigger goober when he's fooled by a hologram. When the image disappears, the Cenobite has the gaze of a lost dog. He has no clue what the hell just happened. Why put these things in there? Turning your antagonist into Elmer Fudd, and having him stumped by wascally tricks just kicks your film in the balls. Don't make him into a dingleberry. Who could be scared of a demon when it's made abundantly clear you can just walk away during one of his monologues? The fact that he "dies" a few minutes later in the Elysium deal just pees all over the character. So dopey.
There's some good stuff here, though. Valentina Vargas is nice and menacing as Angelique. They had a cool thing going with her character, which made Pinhead's belated appearance perfectly acceptable. She's a compelling villain, like Kirsty's stepmom in the first two films. Dimension couldn't leave well enough alone, though. Poor Doug Bradley tries to do something with Pinhead, but there ain't much to work with. He just soapboxes and barks orders at the other Cenobites. The devolution of the villain was in full swing here. Everyone else is just okay, even though I suspect their 'meh' performances had more to do with the reshoots than their acting.
So, all in all, a step up from Hellraiser III. I won't watch it again any time soon, but it's slightly better than I remembered it being. Rumor has it a cut of Yagher's film is floating on the bootleg market. I'm curious to see if it really is better, or if Dimension was right to panic. If anyone knows whether the bootleg thing is legit, hit me up. I'll do a dance and make a sandwich for you in exchange.
Next up, we head in the Direct-to-DVD period. This might suck.
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