Although audiences (me included) were mixed on Hell on Earth, it still made money in the box office, which hinted at a sequel by the end of that film. The last scene of the third film showed a building designed as the Lament Configuration, sparking ideas for the fourth movie.
Clive Barker, as an executive producer, wanted a fresh turn for the series. Barker suggested a three-part film set in different time periods and Peter Atkins added the storyline of the Lemarchand bloodline with each ancestor appearing in the past, present, and future. The story actually had a lot of potential at the time and many great things could've been done with it. I mean this all involves Phillip Lemarchand, the maker of the Lament Configuration box. That's a pretty big deal and considering that Clive Barker was more involved than anything. He really wanted to make this work. So what the hell happened?
This all started with Miramax who got the pitch but without an outline, which is very important to have given how complex of a movie it was. It wasn't cut and dry. I can see that Clive Barker was very detailed into making this work because he's a very methodical writer and he is very intent on putting details in his work but given his history with movie studios, of course, they bought the pitch without an outline.
When Miramax was unwilling to provide the special effects the screenplay demanded, the film was scaled back. Gee, I wonder?
A slew of directors came into the call until Kevin Yahger stepped in. Since he had a hand in horror films such as the Nightmare on Elm Street series and the original Child's Play, Yahger took control of the director's chair. But, it wasn't long until problems arise.
Filming actually began in 1994. Cinematographers were switched, the assistant director had an emergency leave, several crew members got sick, and the art department was dismissed within a week. So yeah, that's not a good start.
The original cut was shown to executives in early 1995 and the reaction was not good. There was a call in demand for reshoots and Kevin Yahger was not having it. So, that was the beginning of the end. Kevin Yahger dismissed all involvement with the film, even going so far as to change his name to Alan Smithee. And that's when Dave Chapelle came in to 'fix' the movie after finishing the final touches on the mess that is Halloween: The Curse Of Micheal Myers.
The result is...very disappointing and lackluster. I can see Clive Barker's vision in this but the execution is...just not good.
The Story: Far into the near future of the 22nd century, Dr. Paul Merchant abandons his crew ship in order to manipulate a robot to solve a Lament Configuration box.
Once he fails to do so, destroying the robot in the process, a group of armed guards takes him into custody. During the investigation, Dr. Merchant explains why he abandoned his crew ship.
It is due to a family curse that had plagued him from centuries ago. His ancestor happens to be Phillip Lemarchand, a French toymaker who created the cursed Lament Configuration. It was one of his proudest inventions since toy cubes were uncommon in those days. He pitches his new toy to the libertine aristocrat Duc de L'Isle, who delightfully accepts his offer, only unbeknownst to Lemarchand, L'Isle uses the puzzle box as a portal to hell.
Along with his assistant Jacques, they lure a local peasant girl to kill and skin her body, therefore conjuring the demon princess Angelique in her new form.
But then Jacques betrays Duc de L'Isle with him and Angelique taking joy in torturing and mutilating the French aristocrat. Phillip witnesses this and flees but only to be caught and killed by Angelique, carrying the curse of Lament Configuration.
Flash Foward to 1996 New York, Phillip Lemarchand's descendent, Architect John Merchant, has built a skyscraper that resembles the Lament Configuration. Now, immortals, Angelique and Jacques discovers John's invention. Unfortunately for Jacques, Angelique wants to work alone. So she kills Jacques and goes on her quest to find the descendant of the toy maker.
Along in her mission, she unleashes the hell priest Pinhead to further her plan. In the midst of terrorizing John and his family, Pinhead and Angelique is sent back to hell once John's wife successfully solves the puzzle box.
Now once again in the 22nd century, Paul Merchant has to warn the guards that Pinhead, Angelique, and their league of cenobites are out for blood and it's up to him to stop them.
Whew! That was a lot. As you can see I had to spoil some of the story to get the flow going but it is what it is. Like I said, it is a complicated plot to explain. Anywho, let's get to the cast.
You would think they would cast an actor to carry on a meaty role like this. I mean it's a triple role with many layers in each character but Bruce Ramsay just comes off as bland. It's not his fault because the script portrays him like a blank slate, a reactionary character if you will. He really has nothing to work with, not really expanding who each of the Lemarchand members is. The character development is just non-existent.
The character I found the most interesting is Angelique played by Valentina Vargas.
Valentina Vargas has a naturally alluring presence about her that made the character work and I believe she gives quite a strong performance. She has this command about her that clashes well with her sensuality. It's such a shame by the end of the film that her character is wasted as another one of Pinhead's minions. After all, Miramax has put in their money to have Pinhead headline the rest of the Hellraiser franchise.
To be fair, I found Angelique to be more of the main character than Phillip, John, and Paul, considering that she is the one who drives the plot with motivation. When I think about it, Angelique sort of remind me of a puesdo-Julia. Speaking of which, what if Angelique was Julia. This goes back to the developing process of the third movie where Julia was anointed as the queen of hell. So what if, through some cosmic circuit, Julia emerges in the 1700s as an immortal demon with her new skin? Just a thought I had to make the connection to the first two films more organic. In conclusion, I find Angelique to be far more interesting than the rest of the cast.
Oh my gosh. L...O...freaking L! Is that Adam Scott in a Hellraiser movie? unbelievable. The thing is Adam Scott is known for comedies like Parks and Recreation, Hot Tub Time Machine 2, and recently he's starring in the soapy dramedy Big Little Lies. As for his role in Bloodline, it's pretty small. Jacques starts off as a meager henchman to an evil aristocrat, only to betray and kill him to take over his riches. It does seem like it would be a much meater role but unfortunately, Jacques is kind of wasted and the movie never explains how he became immortal. Maybe Angelique anointed him as immortal? Oh, I don't know. Do you see how messy the script is? Jacques' role was actually bigger in the screenplay but somehow the makers of this film found him useless enough to have Angelique kill him off out of the blue.
It's nice to see Kim Meyers again after her stint in Nightmare on Elm Street 2. I like that she has earnesty in her presence even though her role is basically a cameo. She isn't given much to do until the end of the segment. She's the one who saves the day once she closes the box after her husband fails to break a deal with Pinhead with the cost of his life. All I have to say is, Kim Meyers did okay with what she was given.
I know Rimmer is less of a character than the rest of the cast since I see her basically as a Ripley-ripoff. But the interesting thing about her character was that she was originally to be written as a descendant of Kirsty Cotton and a possible love interest of Paul. Somehow, this got lost in translation during the rewriting process. It's not so much the romance subplot of this because the chemistry between Bruce Ramsay and Christine Harnos is nowhere to be found and it's unnecessary, even for the script. It's more so of the connection of Kirsty Cotton, which would've made the Rimmer character a tad more interesting.
Last but not least we have the incomparable Doug Bradley as Pinhead. Throughout all this movie's faults, Doug Bradley does what he does best. He gets so lost into his role as Pinhead, inserting a sense of authority and command in his performance. Which is why Miramax was so eager to place Pinhead front, line, and center. I know when people think of the Hellraiser franchise, Pinhead always come into their mind. But the point is, Pinhead isn't the meat of the story. He's not the focal point. The real main centerpiece of the story was, and always has been, the puzzle box. This movie had the chance to explore its origins. To be honest, the movie would've worked if it was an anthology series surrounding the puzzle box. But sadly that's not what came to be. By two-thirds of the film, Pinhead takes over. Not that I don't mind that but the lore surrounding the puzzle box is tossed out in favor of a slasher movie in space. If there was any mention of Leviathan, I'd probably give this film more compliments.
So the problem I have with Bloodline's handling of Pinhead is that within the first minute, his face flashes across the screen and already the space segment is put into motion without any buildup. And that's what I like in horror movies. It takes time to build up the monster. However, Miramax was so anxious to put Pinhead's image beyond the Hellraiser franchise, turning him to a basic mascot in stale direct-to-video sequels, which is wasteful to Doug Bradley's gothic Shakespearian eloquence that brought the character to life.
Now let's examine Pinhead's cenobites:
First, we have Angelique in her new cenobite form from where the skin of her head is split open like a nun's habit.
This is one of the coolest cenobite designs and it doesn't take away from Valentina Vargas' sex appeal. Even through her makeup, her presence and command shine through.
We have the twin cenobites which gives the design a unique artistic touch. Though I would say their introduction is a bit clunky. They start off as a pair of clumsy security guards who happens to be twins. Unfortunately, once they meet Pinhead, it doesn't end well for them. I think their introduction would've played off more organically if they were co-workers of John who just happens to stumble across the puzzle box which therefore turning them into the twin cenobites instead of just random Joe Schmoes who runs into the wrong place at the wrong time.
This is the most gruesome Hellraiser sequel so far. The violence is nowhere near cartoonish as the third. It is deep down to the bones raw and it even got passed through the MPAA! Yes, I will again give this movie another compliment for at least sticking to the feel of the first two films.
Of course, the directing isn't really anything to praise about. For most of the production troubles, it's one half of a movie merged together with another. Then we have worse special effects this movie series have to offer with the lousy addition of the chatterbeast who doesn't look all that frightening up close.
The dwindling budget sure does shows as most of the climactic scenes of the "present" segment takes place at a New York apartment. As you can see there really wasn't much scope to explore on. Whatever happened to the labyrinth of hell? It would've benefited the movie more.
Even in the "future" segment, everything seems lower budget than usual. Like I said, most of the segment is basically a slasher movie in space. Which leads me to the less than climatic ending in which I will discuss later.
Now let's get to the writing.
I know writer Rand Ravich had to tighten up most of the script but as you can see in the character section, it leaves out potential character development. The main character in each segment isn't really given much to do. Angelique, the villain of the movie, is who really drives the plot but then to leave her out in the cold for Pinhead to take over as the ultimate villain, losing the focus on each character to take over the story. All of these character setbacks is what hinders the movie from letting it flow organically. Story plots and themes are just rushed without a solution. When it comes to a script and when things are rushed, it gives the result a lazy effort. For much of the film's running time, it is no more above than 85 minutes. Lots of important deleted scenes were cut out. Yeah, all that cutting down and tightening actually made the script rather weak.
Which brings us to the trivia section.
Disney at the time was pretty hesitant to land a deal with Miramax to produce horror movies. Disney was flying high with animated family hits like Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. So when the head execs at Disney agreed to the Miramax deal, they thought it would probably put a dent to their reputation if they were involved with these not-so-family-friendly films which included Mother's Boys, Halloween 666: The Curse Of Micheal Myers, The Prophecy, and especially the 90's cult favorite Scream.
Guillermo Del Toro was once offered a chance to direct but declined, which is a shame because it would given the film a special mythological touch. Del Toro's vision is what this film needed. If you got a director with the type of art cred like Guillermo Del Toro's to craft Clive Barker's creation, you are set for gold. Hopefully, in the future, this could all be but a possibility.
A slew of deleted scenes as pictured here and a and a clip here was left on the cutting room floor. There were promotional photos of cenobites in powdered wigs that never somehow made to the film.
There's also this really cool scene where Angelique invites a group of unlucky guests to a gambling party pictured here.
This was intended to be the end all, be all finale to the Hellraiser franchise since this was the final Hellraiser film to be released in theaters. But unfortunately, Miramax still wanted to gamble the series, milking it out pale and dry in the aforementioned direct-to-video knock-offs.
Last but not least, let's talk about the egregiously tacked-on ending, dissecting it from start to finish.
First off, Pinhead just appears out of nowhere in the scene. Where are Angelique and the Twin cenobites? Did they just disappear? Furthermore, you think there is going to be a battle of wits between Paul and Pinhead. However, it turns out that Paul isn't physically there. He was a hologram all along. Yes, that's right folks. Pinhead has been tricked by a hologram. When I think of Pinhead, he's much slicker than Micheal, much more cunning than Freddy, and much more powerful than Jason. Yet he gets easily tricked by a hologram.
Just like that, Pinhead gets defeated and the movie just abruptly ends Wow, what a dumb ending, but who knows, it could've been worse I guess.
So that was Hellraiser: Bloodline, a film with a lot of wasted potentials. There was so much story put into this, so many ideas to explore but nothing ever came into fruition. It became an over-bloated project that was cut short, turning it into an incoherent mess. I wouldn't say this is the worst Hellraiser movie (I'll give that honor to Hellworld or Revelations), but it's not good either. The script needed care and it would've helped if Clive Barker was the director again. Who else but bring in the creator that started it all? Though it was never meant to be, leaving Bloodline down in infamy.
My Last Word: You could probably watch it out of curiosity but it's not worth a rewatch.
