Double-dipping into Hellraiser world this October? Are these movies awaking deep-seated masochistic tendencies?
Space. The final refuge of horror franchises that have run out of other ideas. Just as Jason Voorhees and the Leprechaun would eventually make their way beyond Earth’s orbit to continue their murderous ways in a fresh setting, Pinhead did the same thing in 1996. The fourth entry of the series feels a little early to resort to the space plot (can’t wait ’till the Cenobites show up in the hood!), but you’ll recall that Hellraiser III was a hot mess, so maybe it was time. Not only does Bloodline take things interstellar, it introduces a complex time-jumping narrative set in the 18th century, “present day” 1996, and the distant future. The story involves a toymaker who is commissioned to make an intricate puzzle box (you know the one) and his ancestors doing battle with Pinhead across the centuries and attempting to close the gateway to Hell that he inadvertently created.
By all rights, Hellraiser IV should be a disaster. This is a film franchise that ties itself in knots trying to tell much less complicated stories. The production was so troubled that the director chose to disassociate himself from the movie and it was released as an infamous “Allan Smithee Film”. Its HELLRAISER IN SPACE, for God’s sakes! It should be in the pantheon of terrible genre movies like Jaws IV and Troll 2. But… you know what? I liked it! It was definitely better than part three! Now, “I liked it” is not precisely “it was good”, and there is plenty to pick apart here if you are so inclined. The production quality is reminiscent of a SyFy original series, and the dialogue is grandiloquent nonsense. Yet I love the ambitious story-telling, and it really does hang together surprisingly well given the production challenges that resulted in several re-writes and re-shoots late in the game. I like the way the scripts expands on the idea of the Lamentation Configuration and comes up with interesting new ways that it can be achieved besides the iconic puzzle box – through the architecture of a building or the design of a spaceship, for example. The acting is fine for this sort of thing, but I was especially geeked to see a young Adam Scott (Parks and Rec, Party Down) in a relatively prominent role as an assistant to a rival demon of Pinhead’s. For half an hour I thought “man, that guy reminds me of Adam Scott” without considering that the math could actually work out to be him. Sure enough, though, he joins Johnny Depp, Patricia Arquette and Kevin Bacon as actors who would go on to successful careers from humble, horror movie beginnings.
Mostly though, I just love this universe. I love that is such fertile ground for creative concepts, regardless of how those concepts are executed. Again, I think the execution is pretty decent here, all things considered. I dogged on Hell on Earth for the dorky new Cenobite designs and the silly way that those transformations occurred. There is another such sequence in Bloodline, but its actually pretty great, while keeping a high camp factor. Two security guards, played by twin actors, find themselves investigating a disturbance in present day which of course turns out to be related to Pinhead. They are fun personalities if not good actors, and the scene’s conclusion which results in their faces swirled together in a burst of gonzo body horror is a perfect example of the unrestrained imagination that this franchise can harness on its best day. When we see them again in the distant future, now official members of Pinhead’s squad, it is a delightful capper to the earlier scene. That’s how you introduce a new Cenobite. I know that there is still a long way to go in this Hellraiser journey, but I have been emboldened by the bump in quality relative to the last installment. I can’t wait to see what sights they have to show me across the next several films.
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