Hellraiser 4: Bloodline
[DVD Info]

In the year 2127 the most successful space station in the world, Space Station Minos, is hijacked by Dr. Merchant (Bruce Ramsay), the creator. He shut down most of the ship and routed all the power to his room. When the space police arrive he’s already used a robot to open the box. While he’s being interrogated by Rimmer (Christine Harnos), he tells her that he made the ship as a trap. He’s trying to open the gates of hell so he can flood it with light. He begins a tale of his ancestor Phillip L'Merchant who designed a puzzle box on commission for a black magic user. The box is then used to open the gates of hell and to summon a demon, Angelique (Valentina Vargas). Phillip is killed by Angelique, but his wife is pregnant and his bloodline lives on. Unfortunately, his bloodline is now cursed till the end of time for creating a box that opens the gate of hell. Will Dr. Merchant be able to achieve his ancestor’s concept to beat Pinhead (Doug Bradley) and his minions? Or is he too cursed to follow the fate of his ancestors…

Never trust French people.
Hell used to be unorderly, yet fun.
Rent-a-cops are, as always, completely useless.
People from hell have dogs.

"Do I look like someone who cares what God thinks?!" ~Pinhead.

Hmmm...nothing with the actors...

Since I was unable to see the third movie in the Hellraiser series…I don’t know if it reflects any on the 4th one…so I’ll just treat it, as it’s own movie. With that said…this wasn’t a bad movie. The original director, Kevin Yagher disowned this movie because the producers went behind his back and did a bunch of cuts and Yagher got pissed off (understandably) and never finished filming some of the final scenes, and a new director was brought in to finish them. So that explains the utter tameness of this movie. Compared to the first two (and the 5 minutes of the 3rd one I managed to catch), this movie was practically bloodless. Most of it was insinuated and the stuff they did show wasn’t that awesome. Now…assuming that this movie was explaining the origin of the box and Angelique was there in 1996 (which the movie states) …where was she in 1987 and 1988 when the Cenobites came for Kirsty? She was Pinhead’s lackey until the year 2127. There were a few other plot holes but let’s not spoil the movie. The best thing the Hellraiser franchise has going for it…are the Cenobite costume designs. The story hasn’t gone down hill that much from the first two (like how Freddy got terribly lame after his third movie), but I think that people keep coming back for the awesome character designs. This wasn’t a bad movie but it was lacking the same power the first two held, which is understandable under the circumstances. Check it out just to understand the origin of the box (which kinda contradicts the other movies but oh well). Because of this, the jury gives this flick:

(Indifferent)

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