Fourth in the series of Hellraiser films and last to be released in the theatres to my knowledge. After this, the series would be reduced to a direct to video crapfest. Arriving on the heels of the lackluster Part III (watched earlier in October on this very blog) this was a surprisingly original and worthy entry. Granted it cannot even sniff the quality of the first two films, but we could have been given something a LOT worse than this. The film is bookended by a story set on a space station in the far future - Yes, Pinhead in space! - where the descendant of Philip L'Merchant (the original French toymaker who constructed the first lament configuration) has trapped Pinhead for a final showdown. The film spans three time periods...old France, modern day, and finally back to space where the final battle takes place. Connecting the three is a new female cenobite princess - Angelique - she is spawned in the old France time period and searches across the decades to find L'Merchant's ancestor in order to unleash the forces of hell upon the earth forever. Poor Pinhead - he's served hell loyally over the years and he still gets second fiddle to a woman in leather. HA! We get some new cenobites - a Twin creation and a Hell Dog that accompanies Pinhead through the labyrinth. Doug Bradley is great in this, and his character is much more reserved here than in Part III where the dialogue was a bit over the top.
Believe it or not, Merchant's ancestor succeeds in trapping Pinhead in his futuristic space station and sets the trap - effectively killing the Prince of Pain once and for all. Its a bit contrived but a nice ending to the story of the Toymaker and the evil that followed him. Minor quib here, to be as eternal and forever as Pinhead boasts thoughout the series and this film in particular, he sure is dumb to get caught in a pretty simple trap and killed after a millennium of experience. But I guess that is kind of the point..even Pinhead can get too big for his britches in the end. Ha!
Ohh, evil red eyes!
1 comment:
So, that isnt the end of the series is it???
Miami got pissed and looked like that cat sometimes.
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