Hellraiser: Bloodline

For about half of its running time, Hellraiser: Bloodline is watchable. In fact -- let's throw around the superlatives -- it's mildly entertaining. [9 March 1996, p.B3]

They are also bloody and sadistic. There are two basic gore effects: In one, heavy chains fly through the air to impale people with sharp hooks, which then separate those people from their skin, or worse. Elsewhere, flesh crawls and melds with nearby flesh. There are also close-ups of various bloody, flesh-dripping tools and assorted maggots. All this is decidedly gross but not particularly frightening. [9 March 1996, p.H03]

A dialogue polishing by Barker, plus his own direction, might have made a crucial difference. What it got instead was a script inescapably convoluted by the need to justify a third sequel...Like the other sequels, Hellraiser: Bloodline goes in for elaborate special effects and decor, but the film is murky and morbid, laden with a heavy dose of grisly sadomasochism that's more repellent than intriguing.

Ambitious though it may be, this fourth entry in the HELLRAISER saga is easily the least of the film series.

As cinematic Armageddons go, this one is a real bust...Although it succeeds in crudely outlining the fable of a magic toy box and the demonic secrets carried down in the bloodline of its inventor, it is otherwise incoherent and (except for Mr. Bradley's Pinhead) wretchedly acted. Farewell, Pinhead and company. You won't be missed.

A bloody mess...The effects are nothing you haven't seen before; the acting is so broad, it borders on the ridiculous; and the story, once intriguing, has become ludicrous. [11 March 1996, p.C3]

This fourth and, presumably, final entry into the ever-deteriorating Hellraiser series is by far the worst of the lot: a jumbled, unsatisfying, and ultimately boring glimpse into the past, present, and future of the notorious cenobite affectionately known as “Pinhead”.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I appreciate that they tried to do something different with the story, it’s not just more of the same and the extra lore adds depth. The bookend reminded me of Event Horizon (1997) but not as good and Jason X (2001) but way better. Overall Bloodline has a very high production quality with lots going on. There are no boring moments and it is very visceral. It’s less fun then the previous but more engaging and actually better acting. It’s a worthy entry into the franchise and feels like a great end to the series but it isn’t!

Oddly enough, I thought that despite being Hellraiser in space, It wasn't that bad of a movie. The cast did a solid enough job and there are plenty of quality kills throughout to warrant a watch. It's cheesy but in a good way.

And the downward spiral continues. Hellraiser: Bloodline is the fourth film in the Hellraiser franchise, and it’s the worst one so far. There were some bits I liked, the entire film has a cool framing device of an interrogation. Doug Bradley’s back as Pinhead, and I liked seeing the origin of the puzzle box. Adam Scott was entertaining while he was onscreen, you can see he was a real pro, even back then. There was some really bad writing, but his delivery almost convinced you it was good. And now for the bad, the writing and acting are plain bad. I sort of liked the new villain, Angelique and her dynamic with Pinhead, but at a point Pinhead isn’t even the main villain, and I know that was the case in the first movie, but Frank and Julia were really interesting, and the rest of the movie was good. In that movie, Pinhead was used as a foreboding background character, and when he was put on screen you really felt his presence, and that’s not the case in Hellraiser: Bloodline. Doug Bradley’s great, but Pinhead’s just kind of thrown in randomly, and Angelique was just discarded to make way for the climax, whereas in the original, Frank and Pinhead are both incorporated into it. The cinematography is completely uninspired even compared to Hellraiser III, not to mention the first two. The three main characters are all the most bland things I’ve ever seen put on a screen. The special effects are all pretty boring when compared to its predecessors, nothing is shown that hasn’t been seen before in previous instalments, and, after the beginning, they don’t even get really intense until the end. The Cenobite designs are also lacklustre, there are only two new ones, and no returning ones other than Pinhead, one is just a boring design and the other is cool, but at a point, the effect gets too ambitious and ends up looking pretty bad. Hopefully the fifth one’s better.

The writer had to of been super high when he wrote this, crazy that its the same one as 2 and 3. This was a little early in the series to go completely off the rails with the story. Hellraiser with wonky 90s era sci fi mixed with a period piece is a unsuccessful combo. 18th century France scenes voiced all in English with no accents was a ?