Editorials
A Bloody Disgusting Tour of the ‘Scream 4’ Art Exhibit!
Last Saturday night at Hyaena Gallery – a Burbank, CA boutique that caters in “odd things for eclectic tastes” – owner Bill Shaffer hosted the opening of a special Scream exhibit featuring several works of art used in the upcoming fourth installment, as well as an assortment of props courtesy of Skip Crank, who served as one of the prop masters on Screams 1-4. B-D’s Chris Eggertsen attended the special event and caught up with Nicolas Caesar – owner of the “Scary-Art Collective“, whose members were commissioned to create the original artworks specifically for the film – in addition to taking some photos of the pieces on display. See inside for the full report!
The Hyaena Gallery in Burbank, CA was humming on Saturday night with the opening of “The Art of Stab“, an exhibit featuring Scream-inspired artwork and a whole host of items – courtesy of prop master extraordinaire Skip Crank – that have been featured in all four films of the franchise. The artworks were commissioned by the Scream 4 production for use in a scene where some “cultish things” occur (this according to artist Nicolas Caesar, who founded the artist’s collective that was asked to create the pieces) in a barn filled with Stab fan art (Stab being the “franchise-within-a-franchise” that has been featured in all of the Scream sequels).
“It’s basically a section of the film where there’s a big cult, and it’s all about fan art“, said the enthusiastic Caesar when I caught up with him at the exhibit. The opportunity for he and his group, known as the “Scary-Art Collective“, to contribute to the film came as a result of his working relationship with Crank on the long-dormant adaptation (“It’s never gonna be made“) of the Clock Tower series of video games released for the Playstation in the latter half of the `90s and early `00s.
“That’s how I got the job initially working with Skip“, he continued. “So when this came up the idea was, `We should do fan art, we should have art in the film. I know this guy, he can make quality work, he knows a lot of artists.’ So Bill Shaffer at Hyaena Gallery and I sorta teamed up. And we just went down our database and we invited everybody. And we were just like, `Alright, here’s the deal. You have a week to do this. It has to be the [Ghostface] character, but you can’t use the word `Scream’, you have to use `Stab’…and you can basically do what you want, one piece, and Hyaena has a stake.’”
Especially given the fact that the artists only had a week to come up with the pieces, the majority of them were extraordinary – some wonderfully bizarre and imaginative, others more straightforward but nevertheless made with supreme craftsmanship, they were, using Caesar’s own words, “museum-quality“.
“How often do you get a masterpiece in a few days?” he asked rhetorically. “One of the great things about it was people were just getting obsessive and maniacal about it, which totally came out in the art. Looking at all the art and the displays, that emotion, that stress, and that whole thing of like `you have to make this deadline for it to be in the film’ I think created some really fucked-up and really awesome pieces.”
Indeed, Craven himself was so impressed with the artwork (which he’d originally planned to use less prominently) that he not only asked for it to be hung in his office prior to the start of shooting but, at the suggestion of the production design team, decided to give the works a much grander showcase in the barn scene. Of course, the inevitable questions of, `what’s gonna happen with all this artwork once we’re done with the movie?’ began popping up, leading Caesar to go into protective mode on behalf of the other artists.
“A lot of people who worked on the film were like, `Oh, this is neat! I wanna take this home!’” Caesar recollected. “And we were like, `No, these are artists! They live off this [stuff]!’”
Of course, Craven couldn’t help but put down dibs on some of his favorite pieces from the collection (which I’m assuming he paid for), even going so far as to ask for his office to be decorated with the ones he chose.
“Wes was like, `I want you to do my office. I want you to dress it like you did“, said Caesar. “So basically Skip had all this stuff with him on hold for Wes Craven. It was like, `I have all this stuff and Bill [Shaffer] had a cancellation in November, let’s just put together a `Scream’ show! Let’s open [it] up to the public.’ Because it’s really rare that you actually get to see props and art from a film that’s not some shitty `Tango & Cash’ piece in Planet Hollywood or Hard Rock Café or whatever, where it’s actually a film that you give a shit about.”
Perhaps the most exciting development to arise from Caesar and his collective’s involvement in the highly-anticipated sequel is that it’s resulted in many more offers for them to create original artwork for films. And while some of those are coming from outside the horror genre, at the end of the day it’s the sick and twisted stuff that inspired them to become artists in the first place.
“All of us who grew up on slasher films and everything, it’s a part of our culture“, said Caesar passionately. “Some kids went to church, we went to creature features.”
And now, on to the gallery!
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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