FRANCHISE ME: HELLRAISER IV: BLOODLINE

Really, really cool idea for a film completely let down by execution (and Dimension).

 

EDIT:

I don't think your trivia is right.  The space sequence is in early drafts of the script, and Yagher certainly shot a ton of it before Chappelle came in.  The difference being the film was never intended to begin in space.  The whole future  story framing was a reshoot.  (And LeMerchand is never mentioned in Hellraiser, but in fact The Hellbound Heart; now I'm just getting geeky.)

Thanks for the heads up. Further poking around on-line shows that I was misreading the details on Yagher's departure.

 

Can't really argue the mention of L'Merchant or Lemarchand is the first film, as I'm certainly not going to rewatch the whole thing to look for it. I watched the movie and read the story at the same time, so its possible I got some wires crossed.

I quite like that the missing footage moves the French wizard's death off-camera. Without the tedious banishing and resummoning (did the prostitute have a twin?) the viewer is left to assume that the conjuror was betrayed and killed by the demon he thought he had tamed, just as he had done to the poor hooker he had invited into his home. This implication of Angelique's untrustworthiness bears fruit in the modern day Paris scene, where she calmly behearts the cocky apprentice who thought he'd had her on lockdown all these years.

I totally agree that the wizard should have been L'Merchant. Saying you're going to trace the story back to the beginning and then turning him into a contractor simply puts off the question of where the ball got rolling, and we're left in the same position as the atheist who asks who created God. Even if the murder of the prostitute and summoning of Angelique was necessary to "consecrate" the box or somesuch, making L'Merchant the primary mover would have done much more to provide a reason for Future Bald Self to think his bloodline was cursed.

The modern day sequence is such a bizarre mixture of good and bad. I love the sense we get from Pinhead's first words to Angelique that Hell was once all succubi and Faustian pacts, but a new and more alien management has come along to remake Hell in its own image. I would love to have seen that sequel.

The twins are trifling bullshit. Here we have a repeat of the problem from the previous movie; not that the transformations are ironic, but that these new Cenobites are conscripts instead of people who sought Hell out. What the fuck is that? And Pinhead reads minds to find out what people's worst fears are now? Is that just a tacit admission from the writers that the character's presence isn't frightening on its own anymore?

Moving along to the future scene, Angelique's mirror kill is brilliant. I don't think these characters should be acting like slasher film monsters instead of temptors and temptresses, but that is one cool kill. The cynic in me admires the balls it took not only to ape the trend of going to space in the fourth installment, long after it had become a parody trope, but also to use the future to give the franchise its own "Freddy's Dead" or "Jason Goes To Hell" knock-off, while putting Pinhead's death far enough into the future that we can have some more sequels in the intervening years.

You lucky bastard, Miller! The direct to video market has such sights to show you!

Can anyone explain to me why the fourth film in a horror franchise is nearly always set in space?  Critters?  Leprechaun?  Hellraiser?  I'm sure there's more.  Is there some kind of point to it, or do hacks basically all arrive at the same well at about the same time?

Hold on to your hat, Joshua. Because it all goes downhill from here on. WAY downhill.

Loved the (attempt at) tension between medieval superstition and Enlightenment science during the 18th century segment. The autopsy scene, in particular, offers up fascinating ruminations.

 

The rest of the film is kind of hit and miss...

It so doesn't.  Inferno and Hellseeker are better than Hell On Earth and Bloodline.  By quite a bit.

 

They hell they are. (See what I did there?) Hell on Earth and Bloodline are merely terrible. Inferno and Hellseeker are blights upon humanity.

Much agreed (well, at least with regards to Inferno; Hellseeker I'm just slightly iffier on... just slightly). Now Hellworld on the other hand... THERE'S some irredeemable, totally outright worthless dogshit right there (poor, poor Lance Henriksen, how the mighty have fallen).

 

Deader still remains the only one of these I haven't seen yet. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing really, considering the utterly fucking massive quality gap between Hellseeker and Hellworld. Were it not for the complete and utter drying up of brick and mortar video outlets in my neck of the woods, along with my bullheaded, cantankerous refusal to latch onto Netflix out of pure hateful spite for said drying up, I would've certainly seen it ages ago most likely, seeing as how I'm as easy a mark for these as it gets. C'est la vie and all that.

Pinhead's dog mystifies me. Is it a dog who sought ultimate pleasure? Or was it a human with a dog fetish who was then turned into Cenobite dog?

 

Anyway, I like Oblivion a lot more than Hell on Earth. Hellraiser is all about ideas and though it may not always be succesfull in executing them, this film has a lot of them. Pinhead is a lot better here than in part three as well. I love him schooling Angelique in the new ways of hell. I also like his "The worst agony of a parent is the death of their child" threat. It makes him an active villainous force, but it doesn't break character from his portrayal in part one and two.

 

And as some one who watched parts 5-8 for the first time this weekend, I'll tell you that the sequels don't get nearly as bad as this thread makes it out to be. Hellworld is horrible, but Inferno and Hellseeker are quite watchable. As far as I'm concerned, only part three and Hellworld feel like betrayals of the original concept. I've seen far worse franchises.

Hellraiser Inferno, is that the one 

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

 

Yeah.  It wasn't bad, but the further you get the more and more awful they are.  There were some interesting ideas.

I sort of like the basic premise behind Hellworld, but yeah, it's awful.  And Doug Bradley's last on-screen line as Pinhead... ever... yikes.  (To this day I'm confused -- are we pulling a New Nightmare and living in a world where Hellraiser's a movie, or have these people fashioned a game around the puzzle box and managed to get up close and personal quotes of Pinhead's iconic lines?)

 

Inferno's my favorite of the DTV bunch, but it's really morally Christian, which defies the universe as set up before.  Hellseeker isn't as good (and is really, really similar), but it plays things off in a much more Clive Barker-esque way.  And I love the ending.

 

Deader's not ridiculously awful or anything, it's just sort of there.

Witness the upcoming horror!!!! 

 

Not a spoiler, but it's strange.

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

 

Fuck That Face.

Just wait till you really hear the voice.

Disagreed.  The next entry is my favorite entry of the franchise since the second and the sixth film isn't too bad either.  I also remember the seventh being fairly decent (albeit forgettable).

 

We're pretty much in complete agreement here...........................though I haven't seen Hellworld yet.  I'll be popping that cherry when the time comes for the article.  I'm not looking forward to it.

 

Going off of my memory of the DTV sequels, I'd rank the franchise as such:

 

1. Hellbound

2. Hellraiser

3. Inferno

4. Hell On Earth/Bloodline

5. Hellseeker

6. Deader

 

It will be interesting to see how (or if) that changes after watching installments 6&7 again, as I have only seen each of them once before.  I still haven't decided whether or not I will brave Revelations.  I guess it will depend on how I feel after seeing Hellworld for the first time.