Hellraiser IV: Bloodline (1996)

Hellraiser IV: Bloodline (1996)

- written January 2004

          We begin with the descendant of the puzzle box creator, Lemarchand, who is preparing to meet and destroy everyone's favorite torture expert, Pinhead, aboard a space station in the 22nd century. He retells the creation and history of the puzzle box, which opens the gates of hell. Philip Lemarchand, a toy maker, creates the box in the 1700's for a French aristocrat, Duc D'Isle, who knows exactly what to do with it, summon a female demon from hell, who takes the body of a poor French girl, Angelique. But not before she deals with him first and runs away with the servant. We follow the family bloodline of the puzzle box creator into the 20th century as a building is being constructed with an amazing resemblance to the box and of course Pinhead must make his appearance, for this new building is more powerful than the box - the building is itself a box which can open the doorway to hell, forever.

          Overall: What makes this movie bearable is the fact you knew there'd be no more - Clive Barker said so. Plus if you accept the fact Pinhead could not be eliminated as per part 2 and could continue to remain as an entity via part 3, then this film is semi-reasonable. Because I hoped they'd end this series before they created any more blunders, I accepted Pinhead's existence so he could be finished off for the final time. As for originality, the story is fairly interesting and has some good stuff but the movie is too disjointed as it travels through 3 separate time periods. It has too many ideas with too few reasonable connections to make it worthwhile. The cenobite dog was a cute change but too many changes from the first two makes this film hardly resemble the basic storyline. Better than part 3 but worse than Candyman 2.

          1/7/05       And so I wrote the above review in 1999, 1 year before Part 5 was released. How naive was I back then? Now we are waiting for part 7's release sometime in mid-2005. I caught this film on the Cinemax channel this past week and the watching caused me to re-write the first 3 reviews and append to this one. What made parts 1 & 2 so great was that Pinhead wasn't the focus...everything else was. He wasn't a bad guy...just a demon looking to enhance people's pleasures. Part 3 and the successive sequels made the films about him removing any mystery about him, Leviathan and the various Hells. And frankly that's what is so sad.

          Anyway, read below for the "drama" behind this film. Anytime you read the director is "Alan Smithee," you should know some major problems had to have occurred. For the uninitiated, this "name" is a fake name that gets used whenever the actual director refuses permission for their name to be associated with a movie. So you can either download the original script below or check out the list of differences, from IMDB:

          Just before release, Miramax had some scenes deleted and others reshot, causing director Kevin Yagher to disown the film (the theatrical release has a director credited for 'Alan Smithee'). A new director, Joe Chappelle, was brought in to shoot the additional material.

          The original cut, titled "Hellraiser IV:Bloodline Story", begins in 1784. LeMarchand builds the box, gives it to the evil man seen in the theatrical version, and watches as him and Angelique and some others play cards. Some lose the game and lose their lives on the new puzzle box. LeMarchand goes to Augustine, who is later killed by Angelique. LeMarchand and his wife go to a party, where Angelique shows off her new box, and LeMarchand's wife barely escapes alive to America.

          The central part of the film is mostly the same as the theatrical version with the addition of a new character, a neighbor who is killed by Pinhead, who then comes back to life later and promises Pinhead a good fight in the future.

          The last part is set in the future. Dr. Merchant and his crew are about to board the space station, when they realize something else in on board (Pinhead). The reincarnated neighbor returns to finish off Pinhead forever. Then, the space station turns into the box and destroys Pinhead.

Comparison: 2001 meets Halloween 2

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Hellraiser 4 Original Script

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