Hellraiser Bloodlines (1996)

We begin in the year 2127, where Dr. Paul Merchant has taken over a massive space station he himself designed and modified it for his own purposes.  A team of Space Marines (or the like) comes aboard and easily places him under custody, but not before he has already set his plans into motion, having used a robot to remotely activate the puzzle box his ancestors made which opens a portal to Hell itself.  Now it’s time for him to try to explain himself to one of his captors.  He does so by starting from the beginning when his Ancestor, Phillip L’Merchant, a French toymaker, built the puzzle box in the first place.  The puzzle box was originally built for the Duc L’Isle, a wealthy French Aristocrat who used it to open the gates of Hell and summon forth a demon to do his bidding.  The demon, Angelique, takes the form of a beautiful woman that was sacrificed during the ritual to summon her.  The next step of the story involves another of Paul’s ancestors, John Merchant, who lives in modern times.  John is an architect who has had strange dreams all his life, driving him to continue in his ancestor’s footsteps.  Angelique finds him and tries to get him to open a permanent gateway to hell.  During this time the puzzle box is used to open another gate to hell and Pinhead makes an appearance with his merry band of Cenobites.  Pinhead and Angelique have a few differences in philosophy and strategy, but are both working towards the ultimate goal of Hell on Earth.  They use different methods to try to persuade John to do their bidding, but eventually neither one is able to get their way.  Now it is 2127 and it is Paul who has answered the calling of his blood and created what he hopes will bring about an end to his families curse.  He used the puzzle box to open a gateway to hell and was just about to put his plans into motion when the invading Space Police through a monkey wrench into the works.  He begs them to let him finish his work and warns them of the danger they are in.  They of course don’t listen until it’s too late.

I’m pretty sure a lot of the hardcore Hellraiser fans don’t like this movie, but I really dig it.  It’s a fun mix of Horror and Sci-Fi and does a lot to tell the background story for Hellraiser from the beginning.  I really liked Valentina Vargas as Angelique and thought she made a nice counterpoint to Pinhead.  The special effects were awesomely gory practical effects that you would expect from the Hellraiser series.  There were several moments where a ghoulish sense of humor is used, especially in a scene where a pair of twins working as security guards are made into Siamese Cenobites by Pinhead.  As they are unknowingly approaching their fate they make comments like “From now on we stick together!” and “Someone’s messing with our heads!”.  The storyline was pretty solid and I liked how everything tied together.  Some of the acting wasn’t the best, especially by the Space Marine types at the end, but overall it wasn’t that bad.  At least it didn’t detract from the blood, gore and spookiness that is the hallmark of Hellraiser.

I liked this movie.  It was fun to watch and less serious than a lot of the Hellraiser flicks.  It still had all the sick special effects, but didn’t try to make it too serious.  I’d watch this if you were in the mood for horror with a sense of humor but still retaining a dark side. 

3 out of 4

reviewed by Scott Schwarzwalder

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer