Tomorrow brings the premiere of David Bruckner’s Hellraiser reboot on Hulu, and the latest installment in the never-ending horror franchise is already riding a wave of buzz and momentum, having secured the saga’s best-ever score on Rotten Tomatoes.
As tends to be the case with any spooky series that trundles along for decades, the law of diminishing returns set in on the original Hellraiser canon a long time ago. Given that the cult classic 1987 original was followed by a further nine installments prior to its latest fresh coat of paint, it’s no surprise that many of them were panned into the ground by critics.
However, one entry in particular has been stirring up a brand new wave of debate, and based on how it was received at the time, you wouldn’t have thought Hellrasier: Bloodline to be worth it. After all, the 1996 effort earned less than $10 million at the box office and currently holds respective RT scores of 24 and 36 percent from critics and crowds respectively, but there’s a large number of defenders out there who remain adamant that the negative response was out of the creative team’s control.
Bloodline‘s existence was so tortured that Pinhead legend Doug Bradley called it “the shoot from hell”, which is ironic when production partially took place in the purportedly haunted I. Magnin Building in Los Angeles. On top of that, entire departments were replaced or given their marching orders, and that’s before Miramax chopped 25 minutes from the 110 that comprised the first cut of the film.
Director Kevin Yagher refused to return for reshoots and ultimately had his name replaced in favor of infamous pseudonym Alan Smithee, washing his hands of it completely. There’s definitely ambition there, but based on the tales of behind the scenes woe, we’d be inclined to believe that a much better version of Bloodline would have emerged had the studio not gotten involved.
Published: Oct 6, 2022 03:06 am