Hellraiser: Bloodline went through a tortured production and the director eventually quit the sequel, but here's why a restored cut isn't possible.
While devotees of the series would love to see one, a director's cut of Hellraiser: Bloodline isn't possible. Clive Barker's Hellraiser was a low-budget adaptation of his novella The Hellbound Heart and was once pegged as a straight to video release. However, the movie's sheer uniqueness saw it become a surprise success, and it made an unexpected horror icon out of Pinhead. By the time Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth came around, there was even an effort to make the verbose demon a Freddy Krueger-style boogeyman.
Barker himself had little to do with Hellraiser III, but when approached about a fourth chapter, he and screenwriter Peter Atkins came up with a very ambitious concept. With the first three Hellraiser movies forming a complete narrative arc, they decided Hellraiser IV should also feature three stories - but all told in one movie. Thus, Hellraiser: Bloodline is a prequel/sequel that focuses on the creation of the Lament Configuration puzzle box - which is used to summon the Cenobites - with two more segments set in present-day and the future detailing the struggles of his descendants with of the box's creator. Hellraiser: Bloodline is often dismissed as "Pinhead in Space!" for its futuristic setting, but the sequel started out intending to close the series in style.
Related: The Halloween/Hellraiser Crossover Would Have Made Michael Myers A Cenobite
Hellraiser: Bloodline's original script has since been praised and was even dubbed by Barker himself as the best screenplay the franchise had seen. Sadly, production company Dimension and producer Bob Weinstein took a heavy-handed approach to director Kevin Yagher's film. The budget was slashed, necessitating key sequences be trimmed or cut entirely, while crew members were fired or quit during Hellraiser: Bloodline - which famously killed Pinhead. Yagher later turned in his first cut for Dimension, who hated it and demanded sweeping changes. Yagher decided to quit the sequel and had his name replaced with the infamous pseudonym Alan Smithee. While he may have shot the majority of Hellraiser: Bloodline, a restored director's cut can't happen for several reasons.
Firstly, the screenplay Yagher signed on for isn't quite the one he shot, due to the aforementioned budget issues. Scenes he wanted to shoot were removed, and he turned in his cut intending to go back and film more. This includes a creepy sequence where a character encounters and meets a gruesome end at the hands of Hellraiser cenobite clowns which was scripted but left unfilmed. However, Weinstein ordered major structural changes to Hellraiser: Bloodline, including adding a framing device that introduced the future segment and Pinhead much earlier, and the opening Paris segment was heavily trimmed.
These changes fundamentally altered Yagher's plans for Hellraiser: Bloodline, which is why he ultimately disowned the sequel. While the filmmaker has been open about his struggles making Bloodline and the reality is a true director's cut doesn't exist. A new edit could restore some of his deleted scenes or bring it more in line with his intentions, but he never got to film the movie he wanted to. Screenwriter Peter Atkins (who also created the Wishmaster movie series) backed up this viewpoint in a 2021 chat with Bloody Disgusting, stating
"And, you know, there are work assemblies going around, people dreaming of a director’s cut surfacing, but it simply will not because the best it could be would be an assembly of the footage that Kevin shot. Which is 90% of the finished movie, but it’s nowhere near 90% of the script, and what would be missing would be all the s*** we love. You know, all the fun effects stuff, several major horror sequences. None of that stuff was shot."
Despite Hellraiser: Bloodline's various flaws, there are still some who have a fondness for the misshapen sequel. If nothing else, the film took a bold approach with its concept and tried to make something fresh within the series. However, those hoping for a Hellraiser: Bloodline director's cut someday will, sadly, be left disappointed that it just doesn't exist.
Next: Hellraiser: How Cenobites Are Created
It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site. A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU - where Hawkeye is clearly the best character - to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle. He's super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.