Bloodline is easily the best of the post-part III Hellraiser films. Like many third sequels, it takes the path of going back to the series' roots; thus tracing the origins of the central prop; the box that opens the gates to hell. The film starts aboard a space ship, and we witness the seemingly insane ramblings of a madman. He then tells the story of the curse on his bloodline; starting off with the toy maker who made the box and opened the gates to hell. The man plans to create a box to counter the original, and send the demons back to hell. The rest of the more modern sequels follow plots that have nothing to do with the original films, so at least this one doesn't suffer from that. The plot isn't completely relevant to the story of Frank Cotton in the first Hellraiser, but at least it isn't merely another episode of Pinhead taking some guy's soul. On the subject of Pinhead; this film takes place in the time that he was still evil, rather than being a mere shadow of the cenobite that we all know and love. Pinhead plays a major part in this movie, and that's always welcome as far as I'm concerned.
Bloodline is more of a fan's movie than the rest of the series. That, therefore, means that if you haven't seen, or didn't like the previous three films; there really isn't much on offer here. Things that have been explained in the first three aren't re-explained here, and therefore it's really important that the other films are seen before this one. Bloodline is surprisingly gruesome, and a lot of the film is very dark and bloody. No bad thing as far as I'm concerned, as I go into Hellraiser films expecting to see gore, and tend to be pleased when they deliver. The acting here is largely terrible, with only Doug Bradley saving the film in that respect. He only does what he's done before - but it really does make the movie. It's surprising how much this deviates from the original; but I'd rather see a sequel do something a little different than merely retread the same ground, as far too many do. That's the reason I aren't slamming this film like a great deal of other's are. It may not be great, and doesn't change the fact that the series dried up after Hellbound...but at least it's not a total dead loss.
