Quick Look: Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)

This is fourth Hellraiser film, and the last to be wide-released to movie theaters (the rest are all direct to DVD).  There are 3 timelines examined, and the plot focuses mainly on the history of the puzzle box and its creator.  Bloodline stars Bruce Ramsay, and Doug Bradley; it is directed by Kevin Yagher and Alan Smithee.  'R' rating is for violence, gore, language.  As a standalone (meaning you had never seen any of the prior films) the movie still works as most elements are explained.
The movie opens on board a space station in the future.  We see a man named Paul Merchant (Ramsay) "commandeer" the station and then use a robot to open the infamous puzzle box.  Merchant is then captured by a security team, so he decides to "tell his story", which involves 2 ancestors of his we learn about.
Merchant is a descendant of an 18th century toymaker named Philip Lemarchand (Ramsay) who built the puzzle box for a rich man named Duc de L'Isle.  L'Isle practices dark magic, and with his assistant named Jacques they use the box to summon a Cenobite named Angelique.  I would say next to Pinhead, her visage is one the creepiest of all the other Cenobites, to date.  Jacques and Angelique soon turn on L'Isle and he is killed.   Lemarchand having witnessed this dark magic, decides he wants to steal his box back to stop the demon, but he is caught, and before Angelique kills him, Jacques informs him that his bloodline is cursed forever for making the box.  It was a nice little historical look at this piece of the Hellraiser mythology.

Now we move forward to the 1990's.  We see the building from the end of Hellraiser 3, with the puzzle box designs decorating the architecture.  The man who designed the building is named John Merchant (Ramsay), a descendant of Lemarchand.  Angelique comes to the building and gets the puzzle box out of the pillar that it was previously buried in, and Pinhead is summoned.  Pinhead wants John to help them "leave open" the gateway into the hell dimension by threatening his child.  The plan does not work to open the schism to hell, and John is killed, but his wife uses the puzzle box and is able to send the Cenobites back to hell.

Move forward (or back) to the space station.  The now freed Cenobites are killing their way through the security guards with ease, making their way towards Paul.  This turns out to be trap, and we see Paul activate the station which seems to fold itself into a giant cube filled with light - then it explodes, while Paul escapes.  I believe we are meant to think that the original puzzle box and the Cenobites are now destroyed.  

My Take: The idea of the back-story of the puzzle box was certainly entertaining, in fact the whole sequence in the 18th century was probably the best part of the movie.  Angelique was a great addition, visually, to the Hellraiser universe.  It's too bad that more of the movie could not have been spent building up this story a little more.
The 1990's storyline was nothing special.  It was nice to see Kim Myers of Nightmare on Elm St. 2 make her way into another movie.  As far as a compliment, I will say that the creation of the "Twins" Cenobite was also an intense scene.  However, my single biggest problem at this point in the film was that Pinhead was still acting like the 'evil incarnate character' from number 3.  This is not what his character is about, so that took some of my appreciation away from this installment.
The remaining part of the film aboard the space station was forgettable, including the the supposed end of the puzzle box and the Cenobites.  It was cookie cutter horror movie action, although it still pre-dated Jason X as far as the sequel in space idea.
When Bloodline was over, my thought was: not great enough to praise, but still better than the prior installment.  I think the original director had much grander ideas, however he quit part way through production over creative issues.  The movie does have a hodge podge feel to it, like something great was started but then died.  Too bad.