In the 22nd century, a scientist attempts to right the wrong his ancestor created: the puzzle box that opens the gates of Hell and unleashes Pinhead and his Cenobite legions.
It's the year 2127. Pinhead, the evil cenobite of the series, has found himself on board a space station in outer space, run by scientist Dr.Merchant. Dr. Merchant's mission is to close the gates to hell forever. Because his ancestor, a toymaker in the 18th century, built the evil puzzlebox that opens the gates to hell. And through the generations, the family of the bloodline has tried to stop it. But now, Dr.Merchant has built the reverse box. The box that will close the gates to hell instead of opening it.Written by
Jason Mechalek
Walt Disney Pictures came under fire in the media when they purchased the then controversial and hip Miramax Films. The initial slate of films that Miramax would be releasing under the Disney deal included Hellraiser: Bloodline, Scream (1996), The Prophecy (1995), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) and Mother's Boys (1993). The outcry was due to the fact that Disney, a family friendly film studio, would be directly involved in the marketing and release of horror movies, despite the fact that Miramax was only a subsidiary company and the films wouldn't bear the Disney logo. Lionsgate would eventually buy Miramax from Disney in the 2000's. See more »
Goofs
(at around 59 mins) As Bobbi sends the Chatter Beast back to Hell, she holds up the puzzle box and shouts "Does this pathway work both ways!?". As she says this, the shot zooms in and then back out and as it does the puzzle box changes position in her hand. In the wide shot, she is holding it with the large gold dial pointed at the Chatter Beast, but in the close up shot, it is a small brown circle pointed at the Chatter Beast . See more »
Quotes
[Parker is surveying the scrap of the robot used to open the Lament Configuration]
Parker:
What the hell is this?
Pinhead:
The remnants of a most unsatisfying victim. Still... you're here to change all that... aren't you?
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Crazy Credits
The end credits have the "Filmed in Panavision" moniker, suggesting the film was shot in cinema-scope (2.35:1), however the film was shot in flat (1.85:1) ratio. The end credit was more than likely meant to read "Filmed with Panavision cameras and lenses". See more »
Alternate Versions
There is a workprint of Hellraiser Bloodline that reflects what appears to be an early attempt to rectify the studio's complaint that Pinhead enters the film too late. It starts with John Merchant's present day story and continues with flashbacks to L'Merchant's story throughout as well as a few other minor changes.
. Opens with a shot of three planets coming into alignment then goes straight into De L'Isle bringing the French girl to the banquet, killing her, and summoning Angelique. L'Merchant is nowhere to be seen.
. John then wakes from his nightmare and there is more of him soothing Jack with his wife.
. John gives his speech and another difference is that he cannot even continue after being distracted by Angelique. Instead, he tries to demonstrate his lighting invention but it does not work yet.
. After Angelique summons Pinhead there are two more dreams. One has Angelique in front of De L'Isle's friends where she has given them all boxes. As they begin to solve them, she promises to strip but as she undresses, she becomes a monster and chains from the ceiling attack the guests. The other shows De L'Isle attempting to kill L'merchant after telling him that he plans to send Angelique back to hell for fear of L'Merchant's science replacing his magic.
. There is another alteration where, after Pinhead shoves his hook into Angelique's chest, he takes sexual pleasure in licking the hook clean then, through her blood, senses she has a secret.
. Later, she reveals to John that she wants him to use his lighting invention to defeat those that would subjugate her (i.e. Pinhead) and in the process, become more than a demon but turn into a god instead.
. Jack falls way too fast in the elevator and gets scared.
. Angelique has taken Jack and forces John to use his lighting invention against Pinhead. It briefly works and Pinhead is pinned to the ceiling by his own chains but, again, the light extinguishes after a few seconds and Pinhead breaks free. He is the one that traps Angelique in chains but, then, the rest happens at is does with John being killed by Pinhead and John's wife sending Pinhead and Angelique back to hell. One additional line is that Angelique tells Pinhead he must kill Jack and sever the bloodline after Pinhead has said John's knowledge is dangerous. They are sent back to hell before he can though.
. There is an additional scene of Dr. Merchant in the space station before the arrival of Remy and her crew. He wakes from a nightmare about John's death with a full head of hair, speaks to a priest via hologram and asks him to prey for his whole bloodline, and shaves his head.
. The Twins cenobite has a line after they tear apart from each other and before they crush the man where they say they can't stand being separated from each other.
. Additionally, there is one more flashback to L'Merchant, this time being the scene where he is told he must invent a machine to close the gate to hell because it is his responsibility as maker of the box.
. Dr. Merchant does not tell his story to Remy. As her crew is being killed, shoe simply comes to the conclusion that he is the only one that can help.
. The Angelique cenobite has clearly retained her own mind and personality. Angelique tries to convince Dr. Merchant to join her once more, but he refuses and Pinhead arrives.
. Remy escapes the space station alone and never has the discussion with Dr. Merchant about not sacrificing himself. Dr. Merchant confronts Pinhead once more, in person. They face each other down as the space station is destroyed killing them both. See more »
The year is 2127, and a descendent of the maker of the box that opens the gate to Hell is trying to figure out a way to open the box and trap the demons that come out of Hell. He has commandeered a space station (that he himself designed) for this task. He opens the box, lets the demons out, and is detained (people begin to investigate his questionable behavior on the ship) before he can capture them. Almost the entire film is told in the form of a story which he tells the people holding him, in an effort to get them to let him go so he can finish his work. Needless to say, it takes a lot of gory deaths to convince them.
There is a small bit of tension created by the fact that the entire time he is telling the guards what is going on, the Cenobites are out and are on the ship. However, this is largely forgotten about for the majority of the film because so much of it takes place in 18th century France, the time when the box was created. Basically, some toymaker makes the box, opens it, demons show up, and they terrorize his family for generations. You'd think they'd be grateful because he let them out into the world of the living. Anyway, the guy in 2127 has taken upon himself the task of building a NEW box that will be sort of an antidote to the first box, one that is designed so that it can actually trap LIGHT inside.
It's an interesting enough story, and it was actually fairly entertaining, but the film itself was still somewhat lacking. The acting was pretty bad (but at least Ashley Laurence was blissfully absent again), and there wasn't much effort put into the directing. The movement back and forth from the distant future to the distant past was also a bit detrimental at times to the tension of the story, but luckily the film did present a few cool new cenobites (one that was satisfactorily created out of a couple of idiot security guards), and Bloodline also displayed probably one of Pinhead's best performances ever. I would say that Bloodline is more of an informational movie than a good Hellraiser movie. While it is interesting to watch, it is almost more informational than entertaining. So even though the movie itself may have been disappointing, I think that it is a good addition to the series as a whole. It works better within the Hellraiser series than it does by itself.
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The year is 2127, and a descendent of the maker of the box that opens the gate to Hell is trying to figure out a way to open the box and trap the demons that come out of Hell. He has commandeered a space station (that he himself designed) for this task. He opens the box, lets the demons out, and is detained (people begin to investigate his questionable behavior on the ship) before he can capture them. Almost the entire film is told in the form of a story which he tells the people holding him, in an effort to get them to let him go so he can finish his work. Needless to say, it takes a lot of gory deaths to convince them.
There is a small bit of tension created by the fact that the entire time he is telling the guards what is going on, the Cenobites are out and are on the ship. However, this is largely forgotten about for the majority of the film because so much of it takes place in 18th century France, the time when the box was created. Basically, some toymaker makes the box, opens it, demons show up, and they terrorize his family for generations. You'd think they'd be grateful because he let them out into the world of the living. Anyway, the guy in 2127 has taken upon himself the task of building a NEW box that will be sort of an antidote to the first box, one that is designed so that it can actually trap LIGHT inside.
It's an interesting enough story, and it was actually fairly entertaining, but the film itself was still somewhat lacking. The acting was pretty bad (but at least Ashley Laurence was blissfully absent again), and there wasn't much effort put into the directing. The movement back and forth from the distant future to the distant past was also a bit detrimental at times to the tension of the story, but luckily the film did present a few cool new cenobites (one that was satisfactorily created out of a couple of idiot security guards), and Bloodline also displayed probably one of Pinhead's best performances ever. I would say that Bloodline is more of an informational movie than a good Hellraiser movie. While it is interesting to watch, it is almost more informational than entertaining. So even though the movie itself may have been disappointing, I think that it is a good addition to the series as a whole. It works better within the Hellraiser series than it does by itself.