Movies
Backwoods (V)
“You can sit in front of a copy machine and get whaled in the head by sheet after sheet of seemingly the same shit, over and over, or you can plop yourself in front of a television screen and watch Backwoods to the same effect.”
Backwoods is a story about a group of video game co-workers that embark on a business trip designed to sharpen their executive skills. Its introduced to the office as “Executive Tactics!” – a paintball retreat to the mountains of North Carolina – where teamwork, problem solving, and perseverance will earn the winning team an extra paycheck and a little more brown for their professional noses. They are headed into trouble, as foreshadowed by the film’s first chapter, where a couple is wiped off the face of the Earth by a team of local hunters that live in the woods. The young man is knifed on a hilltop and the young woman is dragged off, forced to mate with their chosen one, whereafter the baby is stolen, and the girl forced into submission to live among the tribe.
Enter now the office, split into two teams, Alpha and Beta, which includes Disney’s Haylie Duff (yes, Hillary Duff’s sister) and Ryan Merriman – an ensemble of victims that nestle their way into the woods the old fashioned way – they pack up vans, sit through a road trip of witty banter, unpack, hee-haw it up to some slide guitar at the local creek, then bitch and annoy and joke until the campfire smolders and someone is trying to get laid in a tent. All along, an attempt is made to bond us to the characters at stake, while the locals stalk them from afar, assessing the situation – watching and waiting for the eventual murderous dismantlement.
A healthy template of potential victims is created – an annoying pain in the ass male hardon, a couple of hotties (one of which doesn’t want to sleep her way to the top), a boss looking out for the crew, the sensitive geek who can sense what’s going on and tries to tell the others, the Asian comedy relief schlep, and the quick-tongued brother, amongst others. But by now, Backwoods has already blown its load – a dinky premature ejaculation that does nobody any good. You’d swear director Marty Weiss was at the helm of a PG-13, 7th Heaven episode gone wrong – because any time the kill presents itself (which is where the knockout blows of a horror film should lie) – we are given a gruesome implication of what happens. Nothing for our eyes to cling to.
The murders implied are violent. Being stabbed to death by a 10 inch hunting knife. Having your head caved in with several blows from a mallet. A spinal cord splitting arrow to the carotid artery. Impalement by Rambo tree traps. There are even rapes implied, and two girls are brutally taken by a towering Mickey Rourkian woodsman. This beast even smashes someone’s head into pumpkin pie with a big rock. But this is where the letdown will occur for a lot of viewers. Nothing is really shown. Remember that old trick, where someone strikes at the camera lens, and then the color of blood is painted across the entire screen? That’s what you’re going to get. That and bloody rubber sticks glued to uniforms that jiggle around when the actor moves. There’s even a point where someone gets stabbed to death with a big knife, and you can actually hear the scrunching of the prop-knife springs squeaking away, as the fake die-cast blade embeds itself repeatedly into the hilt.
If you’re wondering about Haylie Duff, she does a nice little swim scene and shows off her tight little body for those who are interested, but there’s no T&A – no gratuitous sex – nothing that’s going to excite anyone over the age of 16, in that department. And is it me, or does she yelp like a wounded hyena?
Final analysis: You can sit in front of a copy machine and get whaled in the head by sheet after sheet of seemingly the same shit, over and over, or you can plop yourself in front of a television screen and watch Backwoods to the same effect. Maybe its me, but I think we’ve seen this plot before? Or maybe drink a few bottles of non-alcohol beer in search of a buzz. Similar redundancy here. It’s a cross between The Hills Have Eyes, Hostel, Deliverance, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, decaffeinated for teens, wherein victims are hunted by back woods goons and forced to mate with Mickey Rourke (well, maybe not literally, but damn – it looks a lot like him). It has the structure of a decent slasher film, but fails to make any type of mark in the tension/terror department. (And to RipVanRyan – who recently lamented over seeing so many horror films that 90% of them fail to invoke any type of gut response now-a-days – this is not going to change things one bit.) “Backwoods” is NOT the international Gary Oldman film that came out a year or two ago – so be careful if you actually hit Amazon to make a purchase on this overpriced weakness. 2
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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