31 Days of Horror: Days 12 - 14 -- Hellraiser 4 - 6

I opened the box, and I don’t think it’s going to close until I’ve watched all nine “Hellraiser” movies.  Thankfully, the experience has so far involved more pleasure than pain.

I ended my post about the first two Hellraiser sequels by criticizing “Hellraiser 4: Bloodline” (1996) because it begins in space with a robot opening the puzzle box, but it seems I was a bit hasty with my judgment.  As ludicrous as the idea of Pinhead in space sounds, “Bloodline” is actually the best “Hellraiser” sequel I’ve
seen so far.  It traces the history of the puzzle box from its origins in 18^th century Paris, to New York City in 1996, and then to a space station in 2127.  The “Bloodline” of the title refers to Philip L’Merchant, the toymaker who designed the box, and his descendents, who also have connections with the box. 

“Bloodline” is an anthology film consisting of three different segments.  It begins and ends in the space station with Dr. Paul Merchant summoning Pinhead for what he hopes will be his family’s final encounter with the Cenobites.  The future segment serves as a framing story for the other two, the first of which shows Philip L’Merchant designing the box for a magician who uses it to summon a female demon, Angelique.  Two hundred years later, Angelique seeks out John Merchant, an artist who is attempting to create an exhibit based on his ancestor’s sketches for the original puzzle box. Angelique summons Pinhead and together they try to make John create a permanent pathway between our world and hell, so they will no longer be bound by the rules of the box.

Although I can think of several bad horror anthologies—most notably “Creepshow 2”—I sometimes think horror works best in short segments because there’s no time for bullshit. “Bloodline” definitely benefits from this format.  Each segment works well because the Cenobites appear almost immediately, and characters either die or send the demons back to hell before they have a chance to become annoying.  The unifying narrative is the conflict between the Cenobites and the Merchants for control over the gateway to hell, and it moves beyond the box itself to explore the patterns that the box utilizes and the control they have over the Cenobites.  The gore effects are believable without being unduly disturbing and even the space station and robot look real.   

“Hellraiser 5: Inferno” (2000) and “Hellraiser 6: Hellseeker” (2002) are both psychological thrillers that use Pinhead and the puzzle box as vehicles to illustrate the personal hells that their protagonists create for themselves.  In the first case this works well, but the second has very little to do with the puzzle box and seems like a case of Dimension Films attaching an unrelated script to the Hellraiser name as a marketing ploy. 

In “Inferno,” a hardboiled police detective finds the puzzle box at a crime scene.  The detective is corrupt and unfaithful to his wife; he never visits his parents in the nursing home; and he double-crosses his partner.  When he opens the box, the Cenobites begin tormenting him in his ways that remind him of just how low he has sunken.  He hopes to end his suffering by locating a mysterious figure known only as “The Engineer.” Although “Inferno” places less emphasis on the puzzle box and the Cenobites than other movies in the series, it still works well as a Hellraiser movie because it continues to explore the pleasure-pain duality that lies at the heart of the series, and it does so in such way that moves the series in a new direction while staying true to its roots.  The same is not the case with “Hellseeker,” which takes the same approach and applies it to an unfaithful husband whose wife dies in a car wreck.  Pinhead and the other Cenobites appear so briefly that they seem to have been added as an afterthought.

Three more to go before the box will close, but it seems that I’ve gotten the worst out of the way.