Hellraiser - Bloodline

Rating:
Summary: Hellraiser:Bloodline,the mediocre chapter in the series
Review: When I first found out this movie had a space theme to it I cringed and refused to watch the movie. Jason X anyone? Leprechaun 4? Not to mention I hated Hellraiser 3 and vowed I would not torture myself by watching anymore of the series. I finally gave in and watched and turns out this movie is much better then anticipated. Only part of Bloodline takes part in space. The majority of the movie actually gives us the origin of the box. Dr. Paul Merchant is trying to destroy the box before it can cause more damage and continue to curse his bloodline. Some military board the ship to take Merchant into custody. Merchant starts to tell the story of how the box came to be and why he must destroy the box. Turns out this box has been a curse to his family and if the hands of time could be turned back the dreadful box would never had been created. Merchants ancestor Phillipe Merchant designed the box for a decadent of French nobleman who wished to use the box for evil. After the Frenchman does some kind of ceremony, a demon named Angelique appears and starts to kill people. This box becomes the curse of the Merchant bloodline and suffer each descendant of the clan will suffer the consequences.

As the movie progresses we meet John Merchant who is the next to be cursed by the box. Angelique shows up, but so does pinhead. When Angelique tries to showdown with Pinhead she looses and is turned into a cenobite. By the time the movies ends many of the soldiers that boarded the ship are murdered by a dog like cenobite and fused pair of security guards (this effect is amazing!!!) before the final showdown, but I won't give away what happens. Part of the appeal for me with the Hellraiser series is Pinhead and you don't get to see much of him in this film. Hellraiser and Hellraiser 2: Hellbound will always be the best in the series. The most you can hope for watching further installments of the Hellraiser series are peeks of Pinhead, some newer cenobites and the gore.

This movie is better than Hellraiser 3, but not better then Hellraiser or Hellbound. In my opinion Bloodline is a worth a rental, but should not be considered a title you add to your home collection.


Rating:
Summary: Blood is thicker than Water: Gory, Flawed---& Beautiful.
Review: Nobody in Hollywood would deny that the movie business is Hell. And as we all know from General Sherman, War is Hell.

First-time director Kevin Yagher found that out the hard way. When studio chiefs brought in Joe Chappelle to fill in what they thought were gaps in the movie, Yagher walked off the set, pulled his name from this fourth Hellraiser installment and cursed it to movie development Hell, branding it with the ultimate shame of having been directed by "Alan Smithee", the Hollywood calling card of a disaffected director.

Frankly, I think Yagher acted prematurely---"Bloodline" is flawed, one of the weakest of the brooding "Hellraiser" franchise---but taken on its own terms, it bumps and grinds quite nicely and sheds plenty of the red sauce along the way.

"Bloodline" is an entertaining little wallow in the ghoulish legendry of the hellish Cenobites, their tormented minions, and the earthly conjurers who hope to bring the Demons into the material world for gain and glory, and end up giving "body piercing" a whole new meaning.

"Bloodline" feels like a film created by committee, which is exactly what it turned out to be. It is uneven, jumping from scene to scene in fits and starts; it's evident that Yagher's vision was unfulfilled and his contempt justified.

The film begins on a space station, with Science Officer Dr. Paul Merchant (played by French Canadian actor Bruce Ramsay, who does a stellar turn with all of the Le Merchant/Merchant roles) interrupted by a security team while trying to summon the demonic Cenobites using a high-tech version of the infamous Lament Configuration. Interrogated by one of the marines (played by the lovely but underused Christine Harnos), Merchant reveals that he is the last in a bloodline of inventors and scientists, and that his ancestor Phillip Le Merchant was a fabled 18th century French toymaker who first created the hellish Lament Configuration.

Here's my advice: while I bought "Bloodline" for its gaudy, gory imagery and style, I would rent it and watch the first 40 minutes, if only for the fact that Yagher commits to celluloid some of the most graphic, stylish, erotic and disturbing images ever filmed. The story of the toymaker's design and delivery of the wicked box to a French nobleman, hedonist and sadist (played to the wild-eyed feverish hilt by Mickey Cottrell) is both hellacious and eerily beautiful, shot in natural light, the candles and firelight glittering on a palette of flesh, bone and blood. It is beautiful stuff, and I can see why Yagher resigned in disgust when his vision was commandeered by Chapelle.

Oh, and Chilean actress Valentina Vargas is glorious as the demoness Angelique, with or without skin: she can rend my flesh any day of the week.

Other than that, "Bloodline" is forgettable: we move from Le Merchant to his 20th century architect descendant and a skyscraper crammed with Cenobites, and thence to the haunted space station. While some reviewers have complained that the gory sequence in which two hapless twin security guards are transformed is both gratuitous and brings the movie to a halt, I enjoyed it: it's a wickedly bloody, gory piece in prime Hellraiser style. Finally, Douglas Bradley is in fine form as Pinhead---but then again, when isn't he?

For the hardcore Hellraiser fan, buy this DVD---if you don't have it in your collection already. For the casual gorehound, a rental might suffice, if only to savor the supple, gorgeous, haunting 18th century prologue. For filmmakers, it's a prime example of how not to go about making a horror movie.