Hellraiser 4: Bloodlines (1996)

“Hellraiser 4: Bloodlines” is my personal least favorite of the series of Hellraiser movies. The largest sin, pardon the pun, this film makes is allowing Pinhead to talk too much. And the things he says! Now that he is a full on Cenobite again and not a raging freed demon, he needs to be contained and silent, speaking only the most delicious quotable lines possible. Instead we get to see him plotting with Angelique and telling her how Hell has changed since she’s been gone. I don’t have any ill feelings towards Doug Bradley at all but this is a character that should been seen, briefly, and speak even less.

The second horrible sin this movie makes is introducing the Hell princess Angelique. This character is not a Cenobite but is a demon that was summoned using the Lament Configuration and who brings life to the sacrificed girl who died in the ritual. This is the first time that the Lament Configuration is used, showing the viewing how it gained its unholy power to open the gates to Hell, aka the Labyrinth. So Angelique is bound to the summoner’s apprentice Jacques, who lives with her for a few centuries until she decides that she has to go to America, and when Jacques says no, she kills him because the rule is to never “stand in Hell’s way”. Convenient; meh. At least it’s clear why she can walk around and exist in this realm. What I really HATE is when she has a homeless guy solve the Lament Configuration and summons Pinhead, Pinhead doesn’t return back to Hell afterwards. What??? Why not??? This movie breaks and ignores the mythos that has been carefully crafted since 1987. Boo!

The main theme of this film is exploring the creation of the Lament Configuration and creator and two of his descendants and their attempt to destroy Pinhead once and for all. First of all, Cenobites are minions of Hell and server Leviathan. They do not exist simply because the Lament Configuration was created. And again we see Cenobites created in this realm and not by Leviathan who serve Pinhead directly. Second, it takes desire to open the box which should mean that a remote controlled robot should not have the ability to open the Configuration. Third and final, before the film was made I had read a fantastic comic that describe the creation of the Configuration and Philip L’Merchant; this character might have had a different first name but he was an evil S.O.B and nothing like the whiney little punk in the movie. The saddest part of all is that this was written by Peter Atkins who wrote “Hellraiser 2 and 3” and had Clive Barker as an executive producer. Clive had the chance to save this franchise and slap Peter upside the head but I guess he was too busy with “Lord of Illusions” to look at the script before filming began.