I guess the idea was supposed to be that Jacques became overconfident and careless after hundreds of years of living the life of a seemingly untouchable immortal, & had grown so used to treating her as a slave that he forgot just how dangerous she really was & that underestimating her would prove fatal...But yeah, I also have a hard time believing that ANYONE in his situation, who was present when this literal Princess of Hell was summoned & the conditions of the deal was struck, would be stupid enough to forget the one and ONLY rule he needed to remember to ensure his own safety, especially given what the afterlife is like for people who screw around with Cenobites >_< As for his apparent immortality, it must be a perk of having Angelique as a slave I suppose, or something he picked up studying the dark arts over the years...But given how dumb he was its more likely his longevity is a bonus feature of having power over a Cenobite, perhaps it comes as part of their contract/connection (so long as she lives, he lives etc), or he specifically ordered her to prolong & sustain his life, either way the result is the same.
My understanding of the scene is that Angelique is not just a pretty slave as she appears to be. She's a demon of untold age. I do not find it to be pure chance that she started that conversation with him intoxicated and not in a stable state of mind. The demon I believe simply exploited his weakened mental state but yes I agree it's a stretch that even intoxicated Jacque would forget the rules.
I love it when Horror franchises go to space! On a side note, I see Scorpion working part time in Hell as he trains full time for Mortal Kombat, Ninja Warrior style.
By the way, in the original script Jacques' age is explained by him being kept young with Angelique's powers, and she kills him by making him age in seconds and turn to dust. They changed it to add more gore.
Heh. Oh yah, the version they originally had in mind definitely would have been better. I honestly don't think this version is all that bad either, tho (I go more into that in Part 2).
omg, just to hear Dena's kind, enthusiastic voice right now, my depressed, frustrated mood instantly gets better. Feels like a fresh cup of coffee in the morning. :) Because I can always imagine that at least Dena would understand me right know ;)) I don't even know what topic i am listening to right now... - ah yes, a new Hellraiser video ^^ Thanks Cyborcat, you're my favourite CA-member / RU-vidr
Very good review on this so far. It looks like it has some genuinely cool ideas, and I like the lore of the toy maker and his descendants and their destiny to take on Pinhead and hell, or at least gradually work on the means to take him on. I love that Scorpion and Pinhead crossover idea, but I don't think it would happen with him being a part-time cenobite, it kind of makes sense until you think on Scorpion's motives which are usually a bit wild card, he's a freelance demon of sorts so he's never really on anyone's side for long unless it serves him. I imagine the fan fiction for such a crossover would have him following Pinhead or another cenobite through the portal , and briefly getting on Pinhead's side when he promises to get his clan out of hell (A very logical lure for Scorpion) , but seeing the damage Pinhead does and the hell he wants to make Earth out of, Scorpion knows his clan wouldn't find peace on Earth with Pinhead stirring things up and turning the status quo onto it's head, then burning it, and he'd turn on Pinhead to deliver some glorious and gory martial arts fighting as he takes on and eliminates the Cenobites, proving why he's one of the most feared entities in hell.
Not gonna lie, this is probably my 3rd favorite of the franchise. Hell on Earth was the first I actually saw (on TV, as a kid), but it really hasn't held up to well over the years. Inferno and Hellseeker were both good in their own ways, but most fans are already well aware of the fact that they weren't always Hellraiser movies and looking back it kinda shows (more with Inferno thanks to the returning character in Hellseeker). And then there's Deader, Hellworld (thanks Phelous, for showing me how this one is worse than I remembered), and Revelations, which were all varying degrees of awful (ok, Deader was at least creepy at times). So this one holds a special place for me as simultaneously a pretty good prequel, ok sequel, and...interesting finale to the series. I dug it for the uniqueness of it and I still like it quite a bit, but I won't blame anyone who doesn't really enjoy it.
Can't wait for Part 2! These videos are the perfect reminder that my wife has only seen the first film and needs to see the rest. Well, most of the rest.
Funny enough, this was the first Hellraiser film I ever saw (at the ripe old age of 10) Personally I still enjoy it more than 2, 3 and everything after Inferno. I know it suffers from many 90s tropes, but there;s something about it that just works for me. And without a doubt, a Mortal Kombat/Hellraiser crossover must happen!
Did you know Daniel Licht also did the soundtracks for Dishonored, Dishonored 2, and Dishonored : Death of The Outsider ? Dishonored : Death of The Outsider also, was one the last projects Daniel Licht worked on before he passed away, and the game was dedicated to him.
First i want to add that your very entertaining for a horror RU-vid reviewer! But ive been a huge fan of horror my whole life and bloodline is f"""""g amazing! The most perfect and classy horror in ages! And pinhead should of won an award for that performance
Dena, I think we need to petition Shout! Factory to provide a remastered Director's Cut of this movie much like the one they did for Halloween 6: The Producer's Cut. A lot of scenes from the original script were filmed and the work print footage could probably be remastered in HD. Even some of that footage contains completed special effects based on the trailers that I've seen for this movie. You should definitely check out the Trivia section of the movie's TVTropes page since I personally added detailed descriptions of the deleted scenes. It is an absolute shame that executive meddling by Miramax compromised the potential of this film, and it would be awesome if all of us Hellraiser fans could get a home video company like Shout! Factory to restore it for us.
When the new mortal kombat game will come out (maybe in four years due how long MK X after MK 2011) I wonder if they are going to add Pinhead since they are adding Horror/Slasher movie mains, in 2011 they add Freddy Kruger, in X they added Jason, Alien, LeatherFace and Predator as DLC. Also think of so many fatalties for Pinhead to use
YAY! More Hellraiser. I keep rematching Decker Shado and DeusDaecon's reviews of this, and I'm glad to see you getting to it as well. 4's got it's problems but it's leagues above 3.
i m pleased that you finally got around to do hellraiser bloodline review in 2016 (20 years after 1996) i d give this film 4 stars from 5 stars but i felt it needed 20 minutes more eg angelique ball should be included & the ending was right that 3rd toymaker lived and won but i felt after 4th cinema hellraiser in 1996 they never should have allowed any more hellraiser films to be made eg straight to dvd or the rest as they were rehashing 1st film from 1987 in different ways. and duc isle at the start it never said what happened to him did he live forever his fate was hanging after death of 1st toymaker. bloodline had potential to be a much better film but fell slightly short & it was least goriest least bloody hellraiser film from 4 cinema films!
Cyborcat its ironic that duc isle magic chants fused into puzzle box and that effects lasted long after his death with frank rising from blood etc in later centuries. Also it would have been good if duc isle was revealed to have been excommunicated priest? as woman who became angelique he required her to be not baptised and in his mansion there was a scene of a demon not cenobite holding a woman did you spot that cos i did on dvd version i have! duc isle was not the devil or demon from the film just an evil magician who knew he was damned+going to hell anyway near the end of his mortal life? (or to be turned into wandering vagrant think 1987 hellraiser?) and left a nasty gift to the world in lament configuration long after his death? why did duc isle do it? his reason is never given! also elysium configuration (in gladiator 2000 russell crowe film elysium=heaven for ancient roman soldiers & pinhead was world war 1 soldier plus he spoke of holocaust makes you think of world war 2?) Bloodline was least gory compared to 1987 1989 films it was science vs magic with 2 creators of the box eg duc isle & merchant. The film should have lasted 20 minutes longer i d give it 4 out of 5 stars on amazon but it had potential to be much greater film and its good that 3rd toymaker lived and good ending was right ending. last victims of pinhead were soldiers so they will be new cenobites taking over after lament configuration was closed? theorizing here?
I just burned through all your other Hellraiser reviews besides the first movie, which I love dearly and am saving for last. Subscribing because I like the way you do reviews.
I saw today that the original unrated work print is coming out on blu ray in a media book edition in Germany. I can't wait to get this movie on blu ray.
I still feel like, as a princess of hell, Anjellique (Apologies for the misspelling) should be more powerful than pinhead, though I guess you could also say her power has weakened the longer she's out of hell, kinda like Scorpion.
This actually reminds me of one of the sort storys that Derek Landy made for the skullduggery pleasant books, were a blood line of people were cursed to create and actervate what maybe a doomsday weapon with each generation getting closer and closer than the last, until the final member of this blood line in our time creating a small box with a single red Button on it, the heros of the series have to convince him not to press the button . They do but the creator of the box has to live out the rest of his life in an insane asylum knowing he may have saved the world but this has that itch in his brain that makes him want to press the button. And the real kicker is know one can be sure what the device dose weather it is a Doomsday device or just a box with a button on it.
It's a little knife-twisty to refer over and over again to stuff you will address at the end, when 'the end' won't be uploaded for awhile. That said, still awesome, and I still love these reviews and the Red Dwarf and the.... everything.
Well, it's only a week until Part 2, plus I want to fend off the "how come you didn't comment on X?" questions that I figure would pop up otherwise. Glad you like it so far, tho ^.^
Cyborcat We look forward to more. Your reviews and retrospectives and such are a 'together' thing for my fiance and myself, and we always look forward to hearing your take on these classic horror memories. You are animated and personable, but not cartoonish and hyperbolic like certain nerds or critics. Those aren't BAD things, but, you are... what is word.... less haha funny, more comforting. More personable And odd term for a bloody horror review, but... yeah. You are a 'comfort food' in the banquet of reviewers.
As far as giving a sendoff to Hellraiser is conserned, this is propably as good as it could have gotten out of the hands of Clive Barker and in the hands of Miramax. I can actually get behind it's ambitions. Corny or not, establishing somehting of an origin to the puzzle-box is a neat idea and it feels like they still had a few drops of passion left to squeeze out of this franchise. The end result... sucks, I'll grant you, but it's a really fun kind of suck you can't stay mad at. At least it's not... ugh, seriously, I'm fucking praying for you in regards to... the next one after this. Make sure to do that fresh in the morning after your coffee, you'll need every drop of energy to get past Inferno.
Well, that's only really for the better on your end, honestly. Less movies to hate in this franchise is only really gonna make your part alot easier. I suppose I came a bit strong though. Made it sound like it's completely deplorable, which would be easier and more fun to say, but largely inaccurate. There are some good choices going into that movie. Being a bit more subdue and less in-your-face with Pinhead is actually something I'm all for. It gives Pinhead a bit more poignancy to his presence again. More-so than Hell on earth and Bloodlines, that's for sure. In elements of horror, I can say it's on the right track. It's just that it might be out-pacing it's realities with that. The biggest sin of that movie is that it's dull. It fails to grip me, not doing anything particularly interesting with what it has. In the end, the direct-to-video Hellraiser I propably feel least annoyed by is, oddly enough, Deader. Despite having propably the most laughably shitty subtitle in the series (One which the movie itself fails to make any less stupid) and while it does faceplant rather hard by the end, but I really digged the idea of a Hellraiser-religion and it's opening act has enough promise to keep me in, I feel. I propably need to run these movies a few more times to really evaluate them and having my movie-buddy along might help paint the bigger picture, but as it stands, Deader had good ideas and was the closest to succeeding. I have yet to actually see Hellworld and my first impressions are rather mixed. On one hand, you can tell this is the pinpointed part where they just give up. It's just a generic slasher with Pinhead in it now, something that bastardizes the older movies. On the other, it's also more earnest for it. It's not pretending to be somehting grand anymore. Pretentious is a word that comes to mind with Inferno's and Hellseeker's whole "Psychological torment" angle and Hellworld seems all spent on such ideas. It propably won't make it a good movie, but it also means less dissapointment.
I remember seeing this movie in the theater and being distracted by the main actor looking so much like Mark Hamill and the lead actress looking so much like Meryl Streep. I did like this movie though, as ridiculous as it was. It was pretty creative, especially when compared to Hellraiser II, which was nearly a carbon copy of the original and Hellraiser III, which was just plain stupid.
Hearing you being a fan of the first 3 Chucky Movies mayde me ask: Have you seen Curse of Chucky? (Childs Play Part 6) It's more back to the basics of Part 1-3 excluding most of the "funny" stuff from Part 4 & 5 and at first seems like a "retcon" to the series but goes to great efforts to conecct all movies.
Thanks! This made me watch the film and I really enjoyed it. Only other one (apart from the first two) I have seen is the one with the coke snorting cop (I forget the name) which was just awful. Nice to know there are at least 3 decent films. Also, is that the same actress from the original girl with the dragon tattoo films?
Dena I'm wondering what your favourite hellraiser movie is. Personally the second is my favourite, actually seeing hell fleshed out is really cool and interesting to me. I'm not sure if you mentioned this in one of your previous reviews. Forgive my bad memory ^.^
Cyborcat Agreed I think. I think the first hellraiser might be technically better from a movie making standpoint but I just love the design of hell itself and even fleshing out the cenobites' background a little was always a huge fascination for me.
Me: Okay so despite the name the Cenobites aren't really demons as thought of in Christianity / occultism, okay that works. This movie: Oh and there are also demons as you think of them and they can even become Cenobites. Me: *head explodes* It's certainly different and maybe it's just my preconceived notions that makes that seem weird but ... I have a hard time seeing how that meshes.
Alright, I'm finally to the point where I haven't seen one of these, but I'm not yet totally sure if I want to. From what you've shown, it looks like the movie has some decent ideas in it, yet I'm guessing that they aren't executed well. Do you think it's possible, if not recommended to watch the rest of your review without seeing the movie first? I might want to watch it after part 2, but as of now I'm not convinced. So far it seems like all of the characters are hard to relate to. Is that true and does it impact the movie heavily? Are the performances any good? As for the crossover craziness, Scorpion's creator, Quan Chi would look right at home next to some cenobites, so +1 from me. :)
I recommend the movie. It has its flaws, but the characters are really interesting and everyone involved seems to have done the best they could with it.
Kind of surprised you didn't make a joke about how all the characters in the first flashback are french and yet none of them have French Accents. As for Jacque not aging, I just chalk that up to he has a demon as a slave and dabbled in black magic. Staying young doesn't seem that crazy.
Oh I figured something like that too--it just would have been nice if someone at some point mentioned that summoning a demon makes you immortal. It's not a big deal, just seems a bit lazy.
Cyborcat Eh, I suppose. Honestly never been very big into Hellraiser. Nightmare, Friday and Halloween are more my bag, but I still enjoy watching your reviews of them and look forward to your thoughts on the other part of this.
why did I ever watch this movie? oh right, my friend and I were watching a tonne of horror shlock back in the day and didn't know any better. also it was hilarious, so no ragrets!
man itd be so cool to have a beautiful female demon at your command to do your bidding oh the possibilities as long as you remember the one rule and treat her with some respect that would be quite the adventure
I didn't mean that they would literally sit there and watch it =P I just figure they'd time it so that it wasn't still in liquid form when they packed up and left for the night, so they wouldn't come back the next day to find that some animal had splashed through it and ruined it or something. Just seems like common sense to me.
I'd say it begins next movie. This one still has an irrefutable ambition, one that was unfortunately pounded to submission during production. It retains those last bits of passion left in the series despite this fact. Inferno was the first I felt was more drab with the pieces not put together properly to make something engaging, Hellseeker was even worse, more pandering Inferno and Deader *almost* got a decent movie together, I'd say. To me, there is certainly a downhill, but the plummet was softer than I think some give it credit for. Granted, I have not yet sat through Hellworld or Revelations, so as fun as it would be to trounce those movies from the word go, I don't actually know how hard those crash and burn.
