MovieChat Forums > Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) Discussion > NOT Hellraiser in space

NOT Hellraiser in space

posted 12 years ago by Riding_With_The_Valkyries
10 replies | jump to latest

Anyone who lets that to be the draw will be sorely disappointed. The space sequences take up about 25 minutes of the whole movie, with the bulk of it taking place on Earth. The space setting is just a plot device than a premise. What a let down! Arguably it's lame for a franchise to move its characters into space, but for Hellraiser it was perfect. What's more terrifying than meeting creatures of hell in the dead of space? As a fan of Doom and Event Horizon I really wanted this to be a hell in space movie. What a missed opportunity. Even as a Hellraiser movie it was disappointing. The scares were predictable and repetitive. The monsters weren't half as creative as the earlier ones. And I even wished Pinhead would shut up. All in all a terrible case of missed opportunity.

If you say "my cocaine" aloud, you're also saying "Michael Caine" in his own voice

[–] HellboundHero 12 years ago

When people say "Hellraiser in space" they don't mean it as a compliment or to imply that that 9/10s of it takes place there. Movies that take traditionally earthbound characters into space are mostly frowned upon (Leprechaun, Jason X, there was even a rumor that John Carpenter wanted to make Halloween in Space).

[–] cybopath 9 years ago

Carpenter didn't even want to make Halloween II so I doubt very much he would have taken Michael on such a cheesy route. Only way I could possibly see Carpenter making a Halloween film in space would be if they had continued the anthology aspect started in Halloween III.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] nendaiki 12 years ago

More space would have done nothing for this movie. That's a very misguided assessment methinks. I think that the amount of space in the movie is one of few things done right. The concept behind it is sound... The story is not about space, but about the bloodline of the man who created the box, and his descendant eventually finding a way to completely defeat Pinhead forever. Focus on the future character would only bog the movie down with irrelevant sequences, when the story's focus needs to be on what led to that point in the future. The space part of the movie exists only because it happens to be the future when a descendant figures out how to stop Pinhead, and a trap in the isolation of space is doable and the best option.

The rest of the movie does not live up to its promise, but altering this into a "Pinhead in Space" would destroy the one successful part of the movie, which is having an inventive way of truly defeating a super villain and telling that story in a epic sort of way. If the stories had been scripted and directed better it could have been one of the better endings to a horror series.

Long story short, it is called Bloodline instead of "Pinhead in Space" for a reason.

[–] ElectricWarlock 12 years ago

It reminded me of Dracula A.D. 1972 since all of the rest of the Dracula films took place long into the past and that one chose to move into the present with Van Helsing's ancestor. I would've liked if the entire movie was a prequel that focused on the making of the box but since that would've been long before Pinhead's time, he wouldn't have been in it and that would've been a gigantic complaint from viewers.

Come, fly the teeth of the wind. Share my wings.

[–] fiatlux-1 12 years ago

The poster that said that when this film is described as 'Hellraiser in space' it is NOT a compliment is correct. This was heavily criticized as such when it came out, and I avoided it on this premise actually.
I didn't actually watch the movie until years later, and now I'm sorry I waited so long!
This is easily one of the best installments of the series, in fact. Yes, Pinhead is a bit much in being chatty but that still doesn't detract from the film.
I thought the Cenobite-dog was chilling, and creative.

The addition of the extremely beautiful & wickedly tempting Valentina Vargas as Angelique was just brilliant! She should have stayed in the series from then on.

"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."

[–] cybopath 9 years ago

I think it's a great end to the series and followed on from the Box building revealed at the end of part III.

V onward were just disparate stories with no connection to anything. They may have been interesting stand alone horror movies on their own but throwing cenobites in for the sake of it was just weird.

[–] beersandshots 9 years ago

No, it's not. As I pointed out almost five years ago (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1716747/board/nest/187260234?d=189901764#189901764), and just saw Peter Atkins confirm in the doc Hell on Earth: The Story of Hellraiser III (2015), it's actually "Hellraiser IV: Pinhead in Space".

"In a time of universal deceit,
telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
George Orwell

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] TheSolarSailor 8 years ago

It was an incredibly stupid idea. The series should have culminated with the final Merchant offspring sometime in the near future, not some ridiculous nonsense future with laser guns and spaceships zipping around. It was outlandish and completely takes one out of the Hellraiser experience.

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