Hellraiser: Bloodline 1996

The story unfolds aboard Space Station Minos in 2127, where Paul Merchant, the station’s creator, employs a robot to unravel the Lament Configuration—only for the machine to meet its end shortly after. Captured by a group of guards led by Rimmer, Paul warns them of an impending great evil that must be unleashed to be vanquished forever. He delves into the ominous tale of his bloodline.

Four centuries prior, a French toymaker named Philip Lemarchand fashioned the Lament Configuration for the aristocrat Duc de L’Isle, who held an insatiable fascination with dark sorcery. Alongside his apprentice, Jacques, they commit a heinous act by murdering a peasant woman who was never baptized to skin her. Using the dark forces tapped by the Lament Configuration, L’Isle successfully summons Angelique, a demon princess who takes residence in the woman’s skin. Bound to them under the condition of avoiding Hell’s wrath, Angelique and Jacques betray and slay L’Isle. In a frantic attempt to reclaim the box, Lemarchand, who is then cursed for eternity by Jacques, finds himself doomed. However, Lemarchand’s wife survives with their unborn child, ensuring the persistence of his lineage.

Fast forward to 1996, when Lemarchand’s descendant, John Merchant, triumphantly unveils a New York City building reminiscent of the last scenes from Hellraiser III. The venue’s lobby is adorned with artwork inspired by the Lament Configuration, but John’s mind is tormented by visions of Angelique. When she discovers an article extolling John’s achievements in Paris, Angelique takes vengeance on Jacques for “standing in Hell’s way,” brutally killing him, and makes her way to New York to lure John into her web. During a celebratory banquet, she finds the Lament Configuration embedded within a cement pillar in the basement and tricks an unsuspecting man into solving it under the pretense of seduction. This act opens a gateway in a half-finished wall, allowing Pinhead to emerge once again, accompanied by the grotesque Chatter Beast.

Pinhead aims to manipulate John into utilizing the Elysium Configuration to keep the portal to Hell ajar, ensuring his own freedom to roam. After turning two security guards into a horrific two-headed Cenobite, he persuades Angelique that John’s child, Jack, is the key to bending John’s will. When the Elysium Configuration ultimately fails, Pinhead kills John, yet John’s wife, Bobbi, courageously seizes the opportunity to regain control and banishes Pinhead, Angelique, and the Chatter Beast back to the depths of Hell.

Returning to the present in 2127, Rimmer keeps Paul imprisoned, unaware that Paul has already summoned a host of demons: Pinhead, Angelique (now a Cenobite), the Twin Cenobite, and the Chatter Beast. The guards are successively hunted down by the Cenobites—Parker by Pinhead, Carducci by Angelique, Chamberlain by Chatter Beast, and Edwards by the Twin Cenobite. Paul is eventually freed by Rimmer, who learns that the station was meticulously designed by Paul as a trap for the Cenobites.

As Rimmer makes a frantic escape in a space shuttle, he destroys the Chatter Beast by increasing the pressure in a hallway. Meanwhile, Paul distracts Pinhead with a hologram, enabling him to board the shuttle with Rimmer and initiate the Elysium Configuration. This triggers a breathtaking sequence of powerful lasers and mirrors that conjure a field of everlasting light, transforming the station into a colossal design resembling the Lament Configuration. The light is captured within the box which self-destructs, obliterating the Cenobites and ultimately severing the connection between Hell and Earth for all eternity.