BloodLine Revisited

From my Hellraiser page:
http://www.kittysafe.net/reviews/hellraiser

"He who summons the magick, commands the magick."

Bloodline gives the viewer what we'd been asking for these last 3 Hellraiser movies, and not been granted, and that is background story. The funny thing about Hellraiser films is just this. Half of the fans are upset if Pinhead does not have alot of screen time. The other half is upset if he has too much, stating Pinhead has become as meaningless a killer as Jason or Michael, in a mysteryless slasher flick. No matter how you slice it, you can't win.

But, the cannonical fideism is to create a story that has background, while leaving just enough up to the viewer to spark the archetypal mind into drawing it's own feelings, clarifying it's own possibilities.

Bloodline begins in the year 2127 on Spacestation Minos. Minos in Greek mythology was the king of Crete, the son of Zeus and Europa, who was made one of the three judges in the underworld after his death.

We begin our story on the spacestation with a man who resembles a GQ Luke Skywalker type, working an experiment with the Hellraiser's fabled and infamous LeMarchand Box, of the Lament configuration. If you listen real close as he darns his VR gloves, one can hear what sounds like Darth Vader faintly in the background, perhaps exploiting atmosphere, perhaps not, either way I wouldn't worry about it.

When a toymaker, Phillip L'Merchant makes a puzzle box, working to a commision, with very specific requests, discovers he has created a tool of darkest black magick, and unleashed hell.

"This is only the beginning, I can feel it..." I've always been a fan of foreshadowing, especially of the sutble and macabre variety.

Enter Angelique (Valentina Vargas). Young, beautiful, gullible. Led to the house of an aristocrat, to a spectacular feast of souls, and unwittingly to her darkest demise.

"He who summons the magick, commands the magick. As long as one does not stand in Hell's way."

The plot begins to come clear, when LeMerchant meets has with a colleague about his concerns about his self created box, who states, "You've designed a machine that you fear can bring forth demons. Then design a machine that can destroy them." Certainly destory is not the opposite of summoning. Banish perhaps would have been a more suitable word choice.

Jump a few hundred years in time. JohnMerchant dreams of puzzle boxes, and Angelique, his wife concerned for her and their son Jack.
Angelique discovers the Merchant line still lives, and decides to seek out the last of the toymaker bloodline, John Merchant. When Jacques (Adam Scott) forgets the rule of his first lesson in magick, not to stand in hell's way, he is given a new lesson, a lesson in death. And if Angelique tells you to close your eyes... run.

When Angelique reclaims the toymaker's puzzlebox, all hell breaks loose - literally.

The only thing that didn't really work for me is that one must use the box in order to be subject to Pinhead and his Cenobites, but in this movie Pinhead does not seem bound by any laws whatsoever, free to roam around as he wishes, while John Merchant and his family must confront him without provocation. How was Pinhead allowed access to their condo, he would look rather odd hailing a cab. One must assume he can come and go as he pleases once he is initially summoned via the puzzle box, until he is forcefully removed.

The movie moves to the 7th floor office where Merchant and his family live. Seven being according to Aliester Crowley and the Tarot, the most imbalanced of numbers. The floor has been supplanted itself by Hell, and here John faces the Cenobite.

Hellraiser 4 may not be as dark and relentless as part 2, but it by far has better cenobites then part 3 that's for sure. And the ending is neither anticlimactic or overthetop, as Pinhead utters his last "Amen." is strangely apropos and prophetic. An enjoyable chapter in the Hellraiser mythos.

Hellraiser is a series known for it's haunting and very memorable dialogue. And Bloodline holds true to the formula. Below are a few I enjoyed.

1. "This is only the beginning, I can feel it..." - Bruce Ramsay as Phillip L'Merchant

2. "He who summons the magick, commands the magick." - Mickey Cottrell as Duc de L'Isle

3 . "I have such sights to show you." - Valentina Vargas as Angelique

4 . Hell is what I'm going to catch." - Bruce Ramsay as Dr. Paul Merchant

5. "You don't remember, but your blood knows." - Valentina Vargas as Angelique

6. A pity the mirror will not show your true beauty, princess. Your human admirer may not sense it, but I can smell the exquisitive stench of what you really are. - Doug Bradley as Pinhead

7. Pain? How dare you use that word. What you
think of as pain, is only a shadow. Pain has a face; allow me to show it to you. Gentlemen, I am Pain. - Doug Bradley as Pinhead

8. "What's wrong with this is I don't believe in Hell." "But it believes in YOU."

9. "Ah, glorious is it not? Perfect. The creatures that walk on it's surface always looking toward the light, never seeing the untold oceans of darkness beyond. There are more humans alive at this moment then in all it's pitiful history. The garden of Eden -- A garden of flesh." - Doug Bradley as Pinhead

10. "I am so exquisitely empty." - Doug Bradley as Pinhead