What the HELL happened to HELLRAISER IV BLOODLINE!!!

Hellraiser Bloodline

Alan Smithee. This is the name of the day, and the film.

Alan Smithee. It’s a very important name in filmmaking, and it is famously attached to this beautiful film. Alan Smithee put his name to Hellraiser Bloodline, he put it there among other famous Hollywood films such as Death of a Gunfighter in the late 60’s. He even put it on the tv sequel to Hitchcock’s The Birds.

And now, he was lending it here. To Hellraiser Bloodline. Which means this film has a touch of true Hollywood history attached to it.

Just remember this name. I promise it is important to the films direction and overall success, as this film is very incredibly well known in Hollywood, especially in horror and is still to this day a study in filmmaking. But we will eventually get into that. I promise you that.

For now lets discuss the Hellraiser sequel made for my generation in the sense that, as I said. Hellraiser 3 was my first Hellraiser experience in a theater. Much in the same as Dream Warriors was my first Freddy film in theaters, and followed up with seeing its sequel in theaters. Making it my first official following for a franchise. Everyone of us has this with a franchise. It’s the moment we jumped in and  began following as a fan. Thanks to home video I got to be introduced to all those we’ve covered so far. I still very much remember when my family took me and my sister to see Twins, down the hallway beside our line waiting to get in, was the screen showing Hellbound Hellraiser 2 and I felt like throwing a fit, because I rented the first Hellraiser and I wanted to see the sequel! Granted there was no way in hell an 8 year old should see that movie, but was fine being left alone to watch the first one on video well. It was a different time. HAD I seen part 2 and my parents dragged me out after the first few minutes I could claim THAT as my first experience. But alas.  No, I got stuck with Hell on Earth. So seeing part 4 its direct follow up. Would be my next experience. I would be all of 16 seeing this one, and I was able to see it with one of my cousins, Mike. Who is now a born again Christian. I mention that only because he’s the other, other born again. The kind that if they say ‘damn’ will look up to the sky and say sorry, and gave me all their Metallica and Ozzy tapes and CD’s because it was no longer for them. Stryper was all they could rock if not CREED. So. Thanks for this ‘experience’ Mike.

This had my hopes up. Part 3 had cool moments I liked as a kid, and the experience had more to do with it than anything. But by this time, I was deep into horror. I was buying and reading Fangoria magazine and keeping up with horror news. I loved seeing Freddy and Jason on the cover, reading about and seeing photos from early scenes and behind the scenes. Hellraiser Bloodline was the same. I read every article they put out on it and ate up each photo released. When I saw the French aristocrat looking cenobites(or victims) I was losing it. It was the same experience I had when I rented Hellbound on VHS, when I saw the famous deleted scene still of Pinhead and the female cenobite dressed as doctors. I couldn’t wait to see this.

It’s also worth mentioning, because I love being reminded how fucking old I am. That this came out a little after America Online, Prodigy, and Compuserve were all competing for your money so you could surf the information super highway we know as the internet. I mention this because as I shared, this was a time where every known adult website posted the exact same set of photos across each site, and a single photo took 30 seconds to load. This was also the time video online was introduced and video on your PC. Like the really cool feature of having audio and video clips from the Encyclopedia Britannica CD-ROM. They released film clips and trailers online. Which you would watch on a 14 inch CRT monitor. With cheap Soundblaster speakers.

I watched the most heavily pixelated trailer for Hellraiser Bloodline, and was excited for it. It was a hard time growing up in the fucking 90’s and this was the top of the pyramid for all of us. Video games were growing to be impressive. So we took what we could get okay?

The film came out, my cousin took me to see it, and we both agreed and even said, Well…that was shit. Well my cousin did, I said “Well that was an experience” he went with shit and I agreed.

My 2nd Hellraiser film in theaters was a bomb, but more then that? It also would be the last Hellraiser film I would see in theaters. Because after this film ‘dominated’ the big screen? They never released another one in theaters, ever again.

The story.

The film takes place in the future. The future of space, 2127. On a space station there is a loan man. Dr. Paul Merchant. His space station is being stormed by space cops, as space cop runs around the station to locate him. He’s using an android to solve the Lament configuration through a VR headset. It was the 90’s we thought this was high tech future shit. He solves the box declaring himself safe as Babys-first-android opened the box, not him. This summons Pinhead and his new minions to the station. Somehow locking them in a sealed room. As pinhead threatens him and he in turn threatens Pinhead, he is soon discovered by space cop and knocked out. Black bagged and interrogated on his station.

Through the interrogation we learn that he is a rogue engineer who took over the station, which was a government military station, and was doing something. So the space cops were deployed to investigate. The interrogation isn’t going to go anywhere because the woman interrogating him lets him ramble. So he takes us back to 17796 France. Introducing us to the father of the Lament configuration. A struggling toy maker, Philip Lemarchand. Which is in the Hellraiser lore and book The Hellbound Heart. He was renowned for his inventive mechanical butterflies and the such. Well here he is commissioned to make the puzzle box by France’s premier magician and occult specialist. The magician intends to use this box to help create a doorway to another dimension, hell. The toy maker after delivering his box wished to see if the man was pleased with his creation. Which he was. As he witnesses the happy Frenchmen use the skin of a dead French whore to play host to a summoned demon, whom he dubs, Angelique.

Not the namesake of my cat, just a coincidence. Though she is a bit evil, it’s less a thing of hell. But I digress. Angelique must serve the magician, as tells the audience, he who summons the magic, controls the magic. In this case a demon princess. He also tells us an important rule, that he who summons the magic not only controls but commands the demon, and the only way it can harm you, is if you stand in hells way. Very important for later. Merchant is less than thrilled his box summoned a demon into the world, has a mid life crisis. Sure he was well paid but he comes from a time where your name carried honor and this was besmirching his honor. So he determines that, if he created a box that could summon demons, surely then he could create one that can destroy them. So he sets out designing just that. But must gather his original box and destroy it. Good plan, lets do it!

Angelique kills the toymaker and the man that summoned her, decided it better to serve and bang his assistant. So now we fastforward to the magical year of

Present day New York City, 1996.  For several hundred years Angelque and the magicians assistant live as immortals in France. Banging and murdering, until she realizes the toymaker had a wife and kid. So his bloodline continues on, and the threat remains that he could potentially destroy the gateway his box created. However there is also the possibility it could be used to create a larger, more permanent gateway. So she ask her immortal Loverboy to venture off to America and start killing people to track down the toy maker. He wants to stay in Paris and bone, having spent time there, I can agree it’s a good plan. Just not one you want to argue with a demon. Which I also can attest too. Well the man over the years through drinking and getting his dick wet, forgot his masters most important lesson. As he denies her a trip together, she ask permission to go on her own, he says no lets bang. So with that he is painfully reminded not to stand in hells way, and she tares out his heart. Setting out for America to kind Merchant and help with his work, or kill him. Who knows.

As she does, and discovers the man has a family. She decides out of boredom and the script to summon Pinhead. Who is also bored and wondering why she’d call him up in the middle of the night. If ain’t for booty, you just want someone to vent too and he’s not enjoying being the emotional tampon.

So merchant has designed buildings and contraptions and has begun working on his grand design. A light up building, with moving parts designed off his fathers box.

I’m not joking. The theatrical cut doesn’t say a fucking thing. Seeing this in theaters you are sitting there like, wow this guy has the high profile fat cats of new York with him what’s he unveiling….oh. Flashing lights and moving cogs. I guess, art?

So his art piece fails and he gets approached by Angelique. Who wants to seduce him into giving her his secrets. But he’s a family man that won’t give it up or his pants. This upsets Angelique and a bored Pinhead says enough of the cat and mouse shit. He kidnaps the mans son and wife using them as life bait. He lures Merchant to him and begs him to finish his artwork. So he promises to do so if they let his wife and kid live.

Pinhead says sure fuck it why not. Light this candle. And he does. The wall parts move, lights turn on, and Pinhead is reminded why no one likes or cares for Modern Art. If you think its bad today it was worse in the 90’s. Now people just aren’t fucking trying.

So as any critic would, Pinhead kills the artist. His wife now a widow solves the puzzlebox and sends Pinhead and angelique to hell.

The film finally brings us back to the future. The future of space. His tale told and how we get our finale. The space cops free the cenobites believing Merchant had locked children up in his ceno-trap room. Cenobites on Pinheads orders begin killing everyone as Merchant helps the lady space cop who interrogated him escape the station. Pinhead is understandable upset by this, and will be even more upset when he realizes what the station is, and didn’t ever really hide. Merchant initiated a final solution, after releasing his manifesto on the station for the cenobites to ponder, he pushes the big red button and the space station begins to transform into the largest imaginable puzzle box. Trapping Pinhead and his pals, blowing up and destroying them. The box, and the gateway. Forever sealing hell behind its old locked gate. Ending the franchise in the cold dark place horror franchises comically all end up at eventually. If they’re lucky.

You don’t need me or a magician summoning demons into dead whores to know, that this film was butchered before the cenobites ever got to it. It was. Horribly so.

This film is legendary in the halls of horror lore and history, for its production, what it went through, and the fact that the famous director Alan Smithee directed it.

Alan Smithee is the name, of a director. Who does not exist.

In Hollywood this was a name created long ago, when another director had to step in and finish a film for another director. He didn’t want credit for the film as he only did a few shots. So he asked his name be removed and used instead the fake name, Alan Smithee. It became a famous thing in Hollywood used on a very small handful of films. If you ever had a director kicked off of, walked off from, or died during production so you bring in another, and that director didn’t want his name attached. Alan Smithee was used. It has never been attached to a good film. This film was the second to last that got too use it before the name was officially retired in Hollywood as the public had learned of it and knew what that meant if the name was on the film.

That is just a sample of what awaits. But as always let us begin on the hopeful side of things. The story.

Now as setup in the previous film Hell on Earth, we had a future ahead of us where the box was used as a building design. Giving us questions, was it a cult like Scientology? Was it just a cool design or did someone let hell run loose and they got their own news network like Joey would’ve given had she sided with Pinhead.

Clive liked the idea of delving into the mystery of that building and answering those questions. Creating an interesting world. But it was hard to decide where to go with that, and the idea of explaining what that building was had become just a bit too big. So to the writing board they went, and oh dear god the ideas they spitballed.

Clive Barker, like we mentioned in Hell on Earth had debated bringing the franchise to Egypt, with the idea of using the Egyptians as the stage for the invention of the puzzle box. Using the pyramids and ancient ceremonies as a catalyst for the boxes creation, and even going so far as claiming the pyramids themselves were configurations built by hell. These pyramids were build to contain the demons, much like the space station ended up doing. This also was an idea he pitched during Part three where it was London itself that was a giant configuration achieving the same. So the idea was always there. He just couldn’t land on how to use it effectively. So the idea was scraped. His next idea, is one that again thanks to the toy line and his short stories he was able to materialize in the early 2000’s.

He wanted to do a Hellraiser in the wild west era. The film would follow an old timey circus trope, traveling the western frontier going town to town, uneil they would stumble upon the box, unleashing hells own circus on the world. Clive really loved the idea of combining cowboys and the occult. I don’t know what a wild west Pinhead and cenobites would look like. But if we got Pinhead in a cowboy hat, I’d pay to see it.

But period pieces are expensive, that would mean costumes, extras, and shooting out in the middle of nowhere or a ghost town. The studio was not willing to play ball on this. However Peter Atkins liked the idea of visiting a different time and place all together, I mean the film originated in London and came to America so why not? He pitched the idea to Clive about 18th century France in the film and again, this got put on the back burner with a sticky note.

So the next idea took them away from time travel much to the glee of the studios bank account. Instead. The idea was pitched

Let’s do The ROCK meets Hellraiser!

Yes. They came up with a story, and no it’s not a joke or manifestation from pure Columbian bam-bam.

The film would take place on Alcatraz island during the 90’s. A very active tourist site as it’s remained, and on one such trip for tourist, an occultist is among them. Carrying with them the puzzle box. They also pitched the idea the box was buried there by an inmate and a cult devoted to the box, much like was pitched with Julia before, learned its location and visit the island ala The Rock and uncover the box. Either way the story ends with the box being solved and the Cenobites coming to slaughter the tourist and guards. It was pitched as a tight spaced action adventure horror film with everyone stuck on an island surrounded by killer sharks and hells servants.

Atkins pitched the idea. He was into the lore of the prison and wanted to use its dark history as part of the story, adding in a dash of dark occultism, ghost of the damned who lived and died at the prison. He wanted to weave a ghost story where not only Cenobites but the ghost haunting the prison would rise as well. The idea set in with him that the cultist would unleash hell on the island because given its dark history the island could easily serve as a thin weak spot in the wall separating Hell and our world. So unleashing the configuration would ultimately unleash all of hell .

It was ambitious and, I mean it’s funny to think, honestly. After covering all of Nic Cages films in our old podcast, I would’ve loved seeing Cage in this. It’d still be horrifically bad but. I’d still enjoy it for that alone.

But the studio, even though it would take place in modern day and no period piece sets or costumes would be required. They felt it wasn’t grand. The idea of the old island prison as a setting for their franchise seemed lackluster and cheap. Their thinking was, when you bring hell to earth, you don’t take hell to Alcatraz after that. You go big or go home.

Much like the three bears, the first film was too costly, the second was too boring. So surely the next one would be just right.

Having worked together on these films. Atkins and Barker shared a lot of the same ideas and views. They were the only ones who cared to tell a narrative story that would please fans, build the lore, and respect the characters. The studios are the ones fucking them on these endeavors. The two put their minds together and decided on one goal. This film would be the end of the franchise. It had reached a 4th film. It didn’t need more. So that being the case, this would have to be the one to destroy the gate between realms and destroy the box. They would expand on the history of the box by visiting the past showing its creation. They would then introduce the idea of using the box to destroy the gateway and cenobites, and the final act would be the execution of the device and the end to Hellraiser.

They came to the one logical conclusion with the story and series. It would have to take place in the future. In Space.

Space was not just pitched out of comedy, it was believe it or not an actual trend that was selling and people loved the idea of. Jason X had fun in space and people though the film crashed and burned did enjoy the idea of Jason in space. Leprechaun went to space as well as to the hood, twice. So Pinhead in space was an idea the studio could get behind. It gave everyone what they wanted. Clive could visit the past finally, Atkins could explore darker contemporary themes in modern day, and the studio would bring hell to space.

Thus the story was formed and the script spawned.

Here’s where things get interesting. The script as it was, was told much in the same was as Coppola’s cut of The Godfather 2. It would be told in chronological order beginning in France, then current day New York, and end in Space on the station. There was no interrogation. A majority of the film would take place in France. Exploring the toy maker and how he was commissioned to build the box. Angelique and the magician would go on a murder spree through France cutting down the elites. They would have fancy masquerade ball’s and gamble for the box like a party favor. It would lead to multiple victims, the growing fear in France of something evil being afoot. The toy maker and his wife were more fleshed out and he eventually out of curiosity would stumble onto the massacres, Ending with his death and the reveal that his wife was pregnant and his lineage would continue on.

The modern day setting was much different as well. Merchant was commissioned to design an entirely Green energy building. It would rely on prismatic light to generate energy, a self sustaining building with fresh plants, vegetables air and the future of our new world. Angelique meanwhile would use the puzzlebox in an attempt to summon French demons. Specifically clowns that were introduced during the first half of the film. She would use these to kill people and torment the toy maker. Instead though, Pinhead comes through the box. Both represent different periods of hells hierarchy which Clive explored in his stories and the comics. Angelique represented hells more chaotic temptation and desire. Classic literature hell, where humans choose to ruin themselves through their own impulses and desires. Where as Pinhead represented the Bureaucracy of leviathans order and nihilism. Where humanity was more the cow waiting for the slaughter, put through the grinder of a well oiled highly efficient machine.

The two demons would struggle for power. Angelique wanting to tempt Merchant to betray his wife and family. To fall for her charms and give her the power of his grand design and destroy Pinhead. While on the opposite end Pinhead saw the mechanism Merchant had created, exactly as he worded it in the film, a holocaust waiting to happen. The door with which hell could cross over and reap the world of its flesh. The two would fight one another and use their different methods to lure and push Merchant to serve them. Ultimately the two drive Merchant to the breaking point. Pinhead discovers Angeliques plans to destroy him, and Merchant would activate the mechanism to kill them both. Ultimately dying as well in the process.

By the time we get to space. Merchant is an accomplished doctor in science, he has constructed the Elysium station for the government. He smuggles himself aboard the station, evacuating all aboard and plans his ultimate move, a self sacrifice to trap the cenobites and destroy the box, hells door, all of it. He also had help in this, he had the help of his partner, Corraine Cotton. Yes Kirsty had her own bloodline tied into this and she would ultimate have hers joined in time with Merchant to finish off hell for good and all.

Surprisingly. Some of this managed to survive. They already knew the studio would not let them have their fun in France. So they cut it down dramatically. However they still kept the grotesque masquerade of death. That’s where the pictures I saw in Fangoria came from.

The studio happy with themselves greenlighting the production did what they did famously before with Halloween. They began nodding their head, congratulating themselves before realizing what they just did, and the end result. Plays out entirely like the opening gag from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Believe me it fits this entirely and scarily well.

Once the studio greenlit the script, they had a moment of clarity realizing. Oh shit. We just greenlit a project that’s a period piece, a massive modern day building set, and a sci-fi film. We can’t afford ANY of this! So the panic began

The Art Department was set to task and began developing 18th century France. This including full Chateaus, A morgue, recreating French steets and a large scale ballroom, dining hall and gambling den. Then there was the skyscraper, shooting in the city, designing large sets for the cenobite showdown, the lemant green energy machine and the Merchant household. Lastly there was the design of both the space station, the Elysium station cube, the police shuttle craft, outfits, weapons , The android and new cenobites for each generation.

The entire Art department was sacked and replaced with low-cost replacements

The Camera Crew and Cinematography department was ready to begin making this last entry the grand film it deserved. The director wanted to honor Atkins and Barker’s vision of sending the franchise off in a grand cinematic look. He planned moody sets, atmospheric shadows and an emphasis on light vs darkness. The camera crew ate it up as did the Cinematography department. This is what ALL of them went to film school for . So expensive lighting would be brought in, elaborate setups would be constructed to add atmosphere and mood to the scenes.

The entire Camera Crew and Cinematography department have been sacked and replaced with low-cost crews instructed to use standard point and shoot setups and film as quickly as possible.

With his entire creative crew replaced by Llamas, and his camera crew as well. The director Kevin Yagher struggled incredibly to film this…thing. He attempted as much of his vision within the limited scope he was allowed. But he did it. Him and his stressed out editors put together a 110 minute cut of the film. They told the studio they still needed to finish a lot of effects for the films finale and other shots. But this was very nearly done.

The entire editing department was sacked and replaced with a low-cost group of editors given the simple task to dissect the film, remove sub plots and main plot elements to force a non-linear framing and get pinhead on screen the moment the film starts.

The director refused this. He did not want to re-edit and butcher his film. He flat out refused to bow down and destroy it. He had reached his breaking point. He told Bob Weinstein to give him the last of the budget to finish the effects and then he’ll be done with all of this.

Kevin Yagher was a very renowned physical effects director. The man could make these things look very real, and incredibly scary. He’s just the man special effects departments love to work for because he understood how they worked and how to film it. He’d designed and setup multiple creature effects using state of the art special effects and just needed the last of the budget to wrap up his film.

The studio withheld the funds, locking him out of the budget entirely as payback for not falling to their wishes to edit the film forcing him to walk out instead of firing him. He was replaced with another director.

The studio brought in their hired gun. Just like the other departments this was a director that could be labeled a company man. The man who took over the project was also one we’ve covered previously. Oh yes. They brought in the man who made Halloween The Curse of Michael Myers, Joe Chappelle.

He was given the same mandate as the other low-cost groups. “Fix the structure, put Pinhead in EVERYTHING, bring it down to a marketable slasher runtime” the guy was young and wanting to make a name for himself. So he said yes sir, okay sir, as you wish. He wasn’t going to finish the directors film. He was going to film according to studio notes. Which meant mass rewrites.

The Director was not the only one tired with things who walked away. The studio also managed to greatly upset and push out the door Peter Atkins, they lost their writer. So rewrites were, a bit challenging to say the least.

He took 12 weeks to reshoot and edit the film into exactly what the studio asked for.

Chappelle added the interrogation scenes on the space station. He added bloodier deaths instead of drawn out slow kills to help with pacing. He also moved the story narrative to a flashback format over the generations.

He did everything the studio asked of him and completed their vision, their version of the film.

But he never got credit for the film. All his work and he wouldn’t receive a single credit. Because the original director refused to take the studios flat out bullshit laying down. He legally fought Dimension films and went to the Directors Guild of America. The studio directly violated their laws by not only interfering with the film but outright sabotaging it with locking out the director and refusing to pay for his work. The sudden sackings, all of it. Yagher slapped down his final Uno card, as he was forced to remove himself and refused to put his name to the film, and the studio brought in another director, they slapped on the famous Hollywood director, Alan Smithee.

No one would get or want credit for this film.

And again, after all of this. The film was ready, for the MPAA.

Yeah. They still hadn’t gotten to that stage yet. Which again. They never learned their lesson. When you know the MPAA will cut out your gore, why. Why in the name of Leviathan would you say film MORE gore.

So yes, the MPAA took the film and slapped it with an NC-17. Which meant, all the gore was severely cut down. Angelique as we discussed in the story, was meant to portray a different era of hell. Seduction and temptation. The film had a lot of nudity in its French sequences, as well as sex dreams and the like. The usual fair from Hellraiser. All of it. Every scene of it was removed.

Entire kills were removed, and. Refilmed. Without the cast.

Yes. When they needed to do reshoots, only core. Must have cast. Merchant, Pinhead, Angelique and the like were called back and paid. Other actors? Their deaths and characters? Cut out entirely, or body doubles used. This is also why suddenly people would be dragged off into the ether by chains versus torn apart. It’s also why the birth of the twins and their own kill in the film were cgi heavy and blood light. People were not happy about being cut from the film or called back, to say the least. But the film. Got. Finished.

It made it through, it was a jumbled mess. But this wasn’t the end. Oh god no. The film was released

The film cost $4 million total.

It made $9.3 million.

As a reminder, Hellraiser Hell on Earth was msde for $5 million and made 12.5 million.

Audiences and critics hated it. Anyone, not just then but even today. Anyone who watches this movie can see it was a mangled mess. Scenes jump from one to the other. Characters are completely forgotten and nothing felt right. The critics tore it apart as the jumbled mess it was. The director made it known he was done wrong and it quickly failed in theaters. But again, it made JUST enough, to make back their cost.

But again. This wasn’t the end. The studio didn’t just destroy the production. They literally destroyed their franchise and began a new era that people thought died out years ago.

Firstly, the fallout of this film was so great, that the studio sacked everyone. Every executive, producer. Anyone who greenlit this film. Anyone they recalled saying Atkins multi-generational story was a good idea? They were sacked. It’s like what you would expect when a company is bought out by another and begins mass layoffs. Only this was a purge centered on Hellraiser.

Next the studio lost the man they paid to bring back. Clive Barker. Barker was livid. They pissed him off beyond measure, between what his friend Atkins went through, their original story and them firing the entire creative team, he couldn’t believe it. But them absolutely destroying his characters, his creation and work, putting his name on the film. He was done. From that moment on he never had anything to do with or wanted anything to do with Hellraiser.

This was the last Hellraiser to ever receive a theatrical release. The Weinsteins, not accepting any responsibility decided their was no market theatrically for this series, should it continue. If it would in fact continue, and it would as they did buy it to make a profit. It would continue in the lost era first made popular with the introduction of video stores. Hellraiser would be a strict straight-to-video franchise.

Hellraiser would release  6 more sequels direct to video.

What’s worse, is they can’t even be called sequels. They aren’t and they simply weren’t. Out of the six ‘sequels’ that Dimension released? I wish I were joking, but again. I’m not. Of the six direct to video sequels, only two of them. Two of them, were written as Hellraiser films.

Which is the next, and greatest sin committed not only against Hellraiser as a series, but to other writers and directors. And we will get into. Two films from concept to script were written Hellraiser films. The others? Were crime stories they already owned, were in the works, and they told them to write in Pinhead for a few minutes and release as a Hellraiser film.

I shit you not.

After just two films under Dimension films studio, they shuttered Hellraiser and held onto the rights by gluing the name on other films. Just to hold onto it incase they ever revisited it.

This is the reason fans stopped after Bloodline. Why sets include the first 4, and the rest of the films you have to purchase separately. You will never see a box set of all the Hellraiser films. No one would buy them. No one would ask for them. They successfully killed a franchise they bought and planned to make one of the flagships of their studio where horror thrives.

Over the years I would see a new Hellraiser title pop up, and I would subject myself to them. And every one of them carried with Dimensions last mandate since Hell on Earth. Put Pinhead front and center on every poster, every box art. As much as fans of Star Wars and Star Trek complain about their films, and failed shows. Going on about how badly they were butchered, and I can agree and do. Disney’s trilogy is an absolute dog shit death of a fandom. But as much as I and they can and do bitch about them. I will always get that look Rambo has when listening to people talk about the world and changing it. That thousand yard stare knowing these 6 next entries exist. That Hellraiser Judgment exist.

For this article, and this article alone. I am revisiting these films. I’m not being dramatic when I say I’ve never watched any of these movies a second time. I never did. Once was far more than they deserved.

And now, I will watch them all a second time, for this, and you. I’m going to need a drink for this next one. Ready yourselves to experience the cop drama era of hell.