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 ou know a movie is in trouble when more than one person is
credited as director. But when the original director tries to uncredit
himself, that trouble has just doubled. Kevin Yagher, whose only directorial
credit was an episode of the TV show "Tales from the Crypt", opted for
the "Hollywood way of saying I was never here" moniker "Alan
Smithee" instead of having his name attached to "Bloodline". It's
not too hard to guess what happened: Yagher had one idea for the movie, but the
studio had other ideas. And in a tussle between a director with no movie credit
to his name and a big, powerful studio, there's no doubt who wins.
"Bloodline" tells the tale of the Merchant family
over, I believe, 400 years. It's actually three separate stories told in 3
separate eras, starting in 18th century France where Merchant, who is
a toymaker, first created the box that Pinhead and his fellow Cenobites come out
of -- i.e. the gate to Hell. It's also here that a sadistic French aristocrat
summons the demon Angelique (Valentina Vargas) into the world for, we assume,
sadistic purposes. Incidentally, Angelique is some sort of Hell Princess that
once ruled Hell, or something like that. Fast forward to 1996, where another
Merchant, now an architect, has built a building patterned after the box,
although he doesn't know why until Pinhead shows up and tries to kill his son.
The third segment takes place in the 22nd
century, where Mad Scientist Merchant has created a death trap for Pinhead when
he's suddenly interrupted by a group of space soldiers sent to recover a mining
ship that Merchant has commandeered. The space segment actually opens up
"Bloodline", and it's through Merchant, who narrates for space soldier
Rimmer (Christine Harnos), that the movie explains the origin of the Merchant
family and the box. Actor Bruce Ramsay also plays all 3 Merchants with the help
of two different wigs.
It's interesting to note that 1996's "Bloodline"
fits into a weird little category among horror franchises. It was in the '90s
that the studios thought up this groovy idea of killing off all of the horror
franchises' main bad guys (Jason, Freddy, and now Pinhead), in some concerted
effort to "start fresh". It was a good idea at the time, or so it
seemed, because since then the studios have all continued with their individual
horror franchises as if they had never gotten the bright idea to kill off their
main bad guys in the first place.
"Bloodline" was clearly intended to be the final
installment in the flailing "Hellraiser" saga, but as we can clearly
see from the most recent two sequels, the oddball murder-mystery "Inferno"
and the most recent "Hellseeker", killing off Pinhead didn't really
make a dent in the franchise. Although since "Bloodline" supposedly
kills off Pinhead in the 22nd century, who is to say that the events
of "Inferno"
and "Hellseeker" are somehow detouring from the movie's main timeline
as revealed in "Bloodline"?
There really isn't anything in "Bloodline" for
anyone who isn't a fan of the franchise. There are the requisite bloody deaths
by way of flying chains, and Pinhead does groovy and perverted things to his
victims, like joining twins and turning a dog into a sort of demon dog. I
commend franchise writer Peter Atkins (who is also responsible for the
"Wishmaster" franchise) for trying to close out the series with an
ambitious story. Unfortunately he's trying to squeeze at least 2 movies into one
here, and the result is unconvincing narrative and flat acting work. The only
thing "Bloodline" does well is its vast amount of gore. The movie
certainly lives up to its "Hellraiser" lineage.
So is "Bloodline" so bad that director Kevin
Yagher would throw away his first feature length directorial credit in order to
rail against? Perhaps. I don't think it's absolutely terrible, especially taking
into consideration that it's a horror sequel. Although it's interesting to note
that "Inferno",
the 2000 sequel, looks absolutely nothing like the rest of the franchise for
much of its running length, and as a result it is -- dare I say it? -- a much
better movie for it.
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