Review of Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) by Mark D — 17 Oct 2010

Surprisingly entertaining despite how silly it feels. This fourth entry of the Hellraiser series starts off fairly weak but eventually finds its groove in the twisted performance of Pinhead, who gets more screen time here than in most of the following sequels combined.

Unlike the original Hellraiser (which depicts Pinhead as more of a "judge" in the Hellworld, punishing humans for their own sins), he is instead depicted as a straight-up badguy which is something of a letdown as it takes away a lot of the complexity of his character.

However, this also allows him to indulge a little more in his evil theatrics, producing several of his best one-liners. There are some truly shocking and memorable scenes of gore and cenobite-terror to be found; and the fact that the plot takes place across three different eras of human history ties the whole thing together in an interesting way.

Unfortunately, the protagonist is actually quite forgettable, although Valenta Vargas does a great job as a secondary "femme-fatale" character. In the end, it's better than some of the other Hellraiser sequels but pales in comparison to the original.