Hellraiser IV: Bloodline is a 1996 horror film and the fourth installment in the Hellraiser series, which serves as both a prequel and a sequel. Directed by Alan Smithee (Kevin Yagher) and Joe Chappelle (uncredited), the film stars Bruce Ramsay, Valentina Vargas and Doug Bradley as Pinhead.
This was the last Hellraiser film to be released in theatres.
Plot
The story revolves around the maker of the Lament Configuration, a French toy-maker named Philip Lemarchand, commissioned by Duc de L'Isle, a wealthy Aristocrat, master of the dark arts who wished to open a gateway to Hell in order to enslave a demon. The story takes place in 1784 in Paris. It presents the story of the later Lemarchand/Merchant blood-line and their unconscious bond with the Lament Configuration, and a plot for a new design, the Elysium Configuration, able to close the gateway opened by the first box and destroy the Cenobites.
The film begins at Space Station Minos in year 2127. Paul Merchant, the man who built the station, has a robot solve the Lament Configuration (the robot is subsequently destroyed). However, several guards led by Rimmer capture Paul. Paul tells Rimmer the story of his bloodline.
A flashback is shown to around 400 years ago. Phillip L'Merchant, a French toymaker, makes the Lament Configuration for a wealthy aristrocrat named Duc de L'Isle, who is obsessed with dark magic. He and his servant, Jacques, kill a woman and remove her insides from her skin, and L'Isle uses dark magic with the Lament Configuration to summon a demon princess named Angelique in the woman's skin. She is theirs to command unless they stand in Hell's way. However, Angelique and Jacques betray and kill L'Isle, and Angelique kills L'Merchant, who was in the process of inventing a design (the Elysium Configuration) to destroy the demons. However, his wife survives.
Around 200 years later, John Merchant has built the building witnessed at the end of Hellraiser III. Upon realizing that the Merchant bloodline has survived, Angelique kills Jacques for "standing in Hell's way" and attempts to seduce John. She finds the Lament Configuration in a cement pillar in the basement and makes a man solve it, and he is killed by Pinhead.
Pinhead wants to make John use the Elysium Configuration to keep the gateway to Hell open so he can come and go as he pleases. After turning two twin security guards into a two-headed Cenobite, Pinhead tells Angelique that the best way to make John go along with their plans is to threaten his child, Jack. He gets John to use the Elysium Configuration, but it does not work, so Pinhead kills John. John's wife, Bobbi, sends Pinhead, Angelique, and a beastly demon called Chatter Beast back to Hell.
Returning to the present, in 2127, Rimmer has Paul locked up. However, he has already summoned the demons: Pinhead, Angelique (now a Cenobite), Twin Cenobite, and Chatter Beast. One by one, the guards are picked off by Cenobites. Parker is killed by Pinhead, Carducci by Angelique, Chamberlain by Chatter Beast, and Edwards by Twin Cenobite. Rimmer releases Paul, who has a plan to destroy the Cenobites (and built Minos for that specific reason). Rimmer escapes to a space shuttle, and kills Chatter Beast by raising the pressure in a hallway.
Paul distracts Pinhead with a hologram while he gets on the shuttle with Rimmer, and activates the Elysium Configuration, which uses perpetual light and mirrors to blow up Minos and destroy Pinhead and all the other Cenobites aboard.
Production
The film was reedited lacking director Kevin Yagher's consent by Dimension Films and Yagher substituted the generic Director's Guild pseudonym "Alan Smithee" They called in director Joe Chappelle to reshoot large amounts of material[1] and many viewers found the film difficult to follow. The original film was more story-based with no appearance by Pinhead until halfway through the film. The science fiction element of Bloodline is at times compared to Aliens, Pitch Black, the first Resident Evil movie, and especially Event Horizon, which has several embedded Hellraiser references in it.
The script, a fourth draft written by Peter Atkins, may be found at The Hellbound Web. Kevin Yagher cut four different director's cuts, ranging from 82 to 110 minutes. Chronic constraints with other projects and increasing uneasiness between the producers and Kevin Yegher led to friendly departure of the director and the studio brought Rand Ravich (writer) and Joe Chappelle in to write new scenes and do two more weeks of shooting. By this time, the story had changed far from the original script.
Complete Cast
References
External links
