Editorials
00’s Retrospect: Ryan Daley Reflects Back on the Year 2000
Y2K, 9/11, war and a a horrid recession, a major escape we had this decade was in the form of film, notorious for thriving during National crisis. Leading up to New Year’s Eve where we’ll ring in 2010, Bloody Disgusting will be looking back at the entire decade year by year through the eyes of various staff writers. Check back each day for a profound reflection from Ryan Daley, David Harley, Tex, BC and yours truly. Inside you’ll find Ryan Daley’s look back at the year 2000. Please share your memories for each year below, there are so many stories to be told!
’00 | ’01 | ’02 | ’03 | ’04 | ’05 | ’06 | ’07 | ’08 | ’09
More Retrospects:
-Top 20 Films of the Decade: 21-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1
-Dead on Arrival: Ten Horror Duds of the Last Decade
2000
Which makes it even harder to explain the gran guignol excesses of Final Destination, what I consider to be one of the more influential horror movies of the past 10 years. I was simultaneously shocked and amused by the vast amount of carnage, much of it mean-spirited and primarily directed at innocent characters. Although horror movies that glorify the villain aren’t uncommon, Final Destination pared that concept down to its very core. In FD there was no villain, no hooded man with a scythe, no crazy ex-wrestler out to waste some teens. There is only death. Sudden, gruesome, unavoidable death. With its brutally elaborate kill scenes and gleeful sense of exploitation, Final Destination represented the first stirrings of the grue wave movement that would spawn later movies like Saw and Hostel. American horror cinema hasn’t looked back since.
Back in 2000 I was living in a dinky studio apartment near the university, taking film classes at night. One lonely Friday evening, I called a weed dealer for a house call, only to have him camp at my apartment for two hours because I happened to be watching Pitch Black right when he showed up. He walked in as the space transport Hunter-Gratzner, carrying murderous convict Richard B. Riddick (Vin Diesel), was burning through the atmosphere of an unidentified desert planet. And the weed guy couldn’t tear himself away. His phone rang every 5 minutes for about an hour, but after I cracked open a package of Chewy Chips Ahoy, he finally just switched it off. It pains me to imagine how many people had to go without doobage that night, all due to the captivating, mind-numbing power of Pitch Black.
In the case of Takashi Miike’s Audition, it was the burlap sack that got me. I think that 30-second hallway scene sums up everything that is awesome about horror. I rented a copy soon after its DVD release, and I watched it alone. Considering its infamous reputation, I was completely surprised to find myself watching a relationship drama, at least for the 45 minutes. Middle-aged widower meets cute model-type at fake audition, love ensues. But soon after the halfway mark, Miike’s movie blew my mind as it suddenly transformed into a gut-wrenching, eye-stabbing torture flick. The previously mentioned “burlap sack” scene merely serves as the tipping point to a grisly finale that haunted me for months.
When I read Bret Easton Ellis` novel American Psycho, it was like a kick in the nuts. It took my breath away. It made me want to barf on the sidewalk. Some chapters left me with brief bouts of diarrhea. To this day American Psycho remains the most offensive book I’ve ever read. Everybody has their line, and I suppose mine was crossed when a starving rat was jammed into a helpless vagina. Cruelly sadistic to the point of unforgivable, unforgettable perversion, Ellis’ exercise in calculated deviance follows self-absorbed yuppie Patrick Bateman through his daily routine of facial moisturizers and bloody murder. The final third of Ellis’ sick novel invites the reader to share Bateman’s lust for pain through several abhorrently-detailed torture scenes that stretch on for page after page after page. I sensed there was a satire buried somewhere under all the ugliness, but frankly, I just didn’t get it.
I watched Mary Harron`s film adaptation very reluctantly, but thankfully, she turned me around. With the help of a sardonic script and a charismatic central performance by Christian Bale, I was finally able to get a sense of what Ellis was going for in his novel. As a yuppie businessman living in the 1980s, Patrick Bateman knows his status will be determined by how well he blends in with his peers and co-workers. But by constantly focusing on being the same as everyone else, he denies a deep inner self that can only be expressed through ravenous acts of violence. Or maybe it’s all in his head. Either way, the movie was about a billion times better than the book would ever hope to be.
Back in the late 90s, I thought Robert Zemeckis was a hell of a director. But that was before he sold his soul to cartoons. As a rock-hard fan of Contact and Forrest Gump, I was curious about the what he would bring to the table as the man behind What Lies Beneath, an old-fashioned Hollywood horror flick. In terms of tone and structure, I thought that Zemeckis’ film bore a striking similarity to 1988’s Lady in White, another rare success in the world of PG-13 horror. With its increasingly tense set-pieces, What Lies Beneath served as a textbook example of how to successfully sustain suspense through an entire feature-length film. With every passing scene, it became more and more obvious that Zemeckis knew exactly what he was doing. I’ll probably catch hell for saying this, but I’ve always wanted to see what he would do with the Suspiria remake.
And who can forget the one-two punch of Winona Ryder and Kim Basinger attempting to choke out their respective careers with Lost Souls and Bless the Child? Both films were studio releases with respectable budgets, and both films currently rank on Rotten Tomatoes’ Worst of the Worst List. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that these movies are greenlit by people who are sober.
Also Worth Remembering: Ginger Snaps, Anatomy, The Cell, The Gift, Versus
The problem with filming sequels back-to-back is that, unless you can afford expensive reshoots, there’s no easy way to adjust course in between movies if fans react badly to where the story is headed. That’s why it’s important to have a complete narrative thought out well in advance lest you accidentally kill a budding franchise.
However, this isn’t always the case. Every once in a while, it seems like the cinema gods smile upon certain chaotic productions and gift moviegoers with complete franchises that feel like more than the sum of their hastily produced parts. Ted Nicolaou’s Bloodlust: Subspecies III is precisely one of these miraculous pictures, with the raw talents of the artists involved (as well as the continued support from Romania) turning the feature into an effective conclusion for a series that kind of made things up as the filmmakers went along.
That’s why I’d like to invite my fellow readers to join me on this third part of our journey through the Subspecies franchise as we look into Bloodlust and talk about how it remains a surprisingly satisfying finale to the original trilogy.
A Trilogy Planned on the Fly
Released only a year after Bloodstone found plenty of success in rental stores and mail-in VHS catalogues worldwide, 1994’s Bloodlust was produced at the same time as its predecessor in (mostly) the same locations and with the same team. This means that the movie benefited from all the same upgrades as Bloodstone, with the crew now being more experienced with the ins and outs of surviving a low-budget Romanian production and the cast really settling into their characters.
At this point, everything from location scouting to the makeup process had been streamlined, with Wayne Toth and Norman Cabrera, the main duo behind special effects, even switching out time-consuming prosthetics for latex gloves in order to speed up Anders Hove’s monstrous transformation. The titular “subspecies” demons were also once again relegated to a mere cameo appearance due to the laborious puppetry required to bring them to life.
The only real hiccup came from the fact that actress Denice Duff had replaced the first film’s Michelle (Laura Mae Tate) and was immediately expected to portray the character as both an innocent victim in part II and as a secondary villain in part III. According to behind-the-scenes interviews, the hectic production schedule that blended two different movies meant that Duff would often find herself having to alternate between two incredibly different versions of Michelle during the same shooting day – though it’s obvious that she’s having more fun with Bloodlust’s more traditionally vampiric version of her character.
In the finished film, we pick things up immediately where the previous entry left off as Rebecca (Melanie Shatner) is forced to leave her vampire sister Michelle (Duff) behind in the dungeons of Castle Vladislav due to the rising sun. This allows Mummy (Pamela Gordon) to use Michelle’s blood to revive the vicious Radu (Hove) so that he may continue his quest for the coveted Bloodstone – a magical artifact that perpetually drips the Blood of Saints.
Meanwhile, the dreamy US embassy agent Mel (Kevin Blair) agrees to help Rebecca plan a rescue mission, though they’re unaware that Radu has become infatuated with Michelle during his attempts to guide her growing bloodlust. This all culminates in a climactic confrontation meant to tie up all of the series’ loose ends in one of Full Moon Pictures’ most ambitious productions.
The Evolution of Radu
Like its predecessor, Bloodlust: Subspecies III was also warmly received by fans who argued that the series was an even bigger success than Full Moon’s other major horror franchise, Puppet Master. This praise wasn’t unanimous, however, as 1994 had seen the rise of a more modern breed of sexy vampire popularized by Anne Rice, with old-school Nosferatu like Radu being viewed as obsolete when compared to the likes of Lestat and Gary Oldman’s take on Dracula.
In a way, one might argue that Nicolaou’s film is something of a swan song for the classic vampire story, as Bloodlust combines all of the traditional elements we tend to associate with these tales into a single tragic yarn that ties a neat little bow on Radu’s story as well as the old-fashioned monster movies that he represents. The finale remains shocking despite the fact that this is the third time we see Radu get brutally killed onscreen, with the brief tease that he may one day return feeling more like a nod towards the nature of evil rather than sequel bait.
The film dabbles a bit in gothic romance and even explores the inherent power fantasy behind transforming into an immortal creature of the night, but the filmmakers never lose sight of Radu as a demonic force even when he’s willing to betray his beloved Mummy for Michelle’s sake. In fact, his twisted “love” for his fledgling makes him even creepier as we get the feeling that his passion comes from a dark and disturbing place.
Anders Hove is at his absolute best in this film, with the effects department boosting his moments of what the younger generation would call “aura farming” whenever Radu emerges from shadows like a 90s version of Count Orlok. There are even a couple of surprisingly effective jump-scares here, which is why I’d argue that Bloodlust cements Radu as one of the most memorable cinematic vampires of all time despite his humble origins.
Subspecies Saves Its Best For Last
Nicolaou and Vlad Panescu also saved the best for “last” (more on that in a bit) regarding the film’s visuals, with the cinematography and overall atmosphere of Bloodlust absolutely surpassing what we saw in the previous films. Everything feels appropriately climactic this time around (including the wonderful soundtrack that was co-composed alongside an authentic Romanian orchestra), and I appreciate how this is the fastest-paced entry in the trilogy since the film doesn’t need to waste time setting anything up.
Bloodlust still suffers from some of the same low-budget blemishes as its predecessors, but there’s so much creative passion here that no amount of wonky effects work or stilted dialogue can get in the way of appreciating the flick’s gothic grandeur. That’s why it’s not surprising that the movie’s definitive(-ish) ending would later be retconned as fans begged for more Radu.
Of course, the next entry in this series would be a different kind of vampiric endeavor altogether, with the filmmakers attempting to engage with the same trends that ultimately killed Radu and his antiquated kin. That, however, is a story for another time. For now, I’ll merely insist that Bloodlust: Subspecies III remains a highlight of Full Moon’s expansive catalogue and is definitely worth seeking out today.
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