Hellraiser 4: Bloodline (1996)

Attempting to fully explain the mystery of the puzzle box this fourth entry does propose, at least story wise, a fairly unique way of explaining the history of the box and all of it’s terrible secrets within. The film takes place in three settings: 18th century France, present day, and a spaceship set in the future. Yes, that’s right…a spaceship.

The box’s origins are shown as being made by a French toy maker who in turn sold his creation to an occultist and his apprentice. These two then used the box to call forth Angelique, who was apparently the top demon in hell before Pinhead. The apprentice kills his master to control the demon (since he raised her, he controls her) and the toy maker, after witnessing the ritual through a window, shows up to get the box and thus send Angelique back to where she came from. Right at this point, either because I was to drunk or I’m just not that bright, the film started to lose me. Was the box already evil, or only after the “occultist” dude used it, or was it evil simply by it’s design or something? Damned if I know…explain that to me Dave?

The film then skips to present day and then the future, with Angelique and Pinhead following the descendants of the original toy maker so he can create basically a giant size puzzle box and thus unleash all of hell on the world. I think. The whole vibe to this one just felt off for some reason. Pinhead once again talks way to damn much and is about as scary as Ronald McDonald. His character is completely played out at this point, and is really sort of sad. Doug Bradley as Pinhead does what he can, but the dialogue for his character and everyone else’s really blew. It was sort of interesting to see Angelique and Pinhead interact, but even that got old after a bit. We do get some new Cenobites, a sort of dog/Chatterer mix, a “twin” Cenobite and of course Angelique...though none of them are anything special.

The worst segment was the one that took place in space, why the hell was Pinhead stalking those army types like he was Jason or something? Like I said, the whole thing just felt off. The “Hellraiser” films are not slasher flicks. I did enjoy two things about the movie; the opening scene of Angelique being called forth is pretty good…and the nice tit shot we get of her. That’s about it. The gore is plentiful, though not in the “nasty” way like it was in the first two. I have a feeling there were plenty of cuts made, for lots of things did not add up…but who knows. I think this one was doomed from the get-go, cuts or no cuts, and a major reason why the next installment was released directly to video.