Editorials
[Special Feature] ‘Dream House’ Presents Five Of The Scariest Movie Houses Of All Time!
It’s often wildly underestimated how your living environment impacts the way you feel. Even after doing away with fancy stuff like interior decorators, Feng Shui and “Better Homes And Gardens” it often just comes down to the basics of the space. Some places make you feel at home, other places can make you feel “off”… and other places can drive you a little nuts. And if you don’t believe in any of that stuff, well, there’s still plenty of houses occupied by serial killers, cannibal families and maybe… just maybe … a few ghosts.
Universal Pictures’ suspense thriller Dream House (official website) hits theaters on September 30th. Directed by Jim Sheridan, the film stars Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz, Marton Csokas, Elias Koteas and Jane Alexander.
In the film, “Successful publisher Will Atenton (Craig) quit a high power job in Manhattan to relocate his wife, Libby (Weisz), and two girls to a quaint New England town. But as they settle into their new life, they discover their perfect home was the murder scene of a mother and her children. And the entire city believes it was at the hands of the husband who survived.
When Will investigates, he’s not sure if he’s starting to see ghosts or if the tragic story is just hitting too close to home. His only clues come from Ann Paterson (Watts), a mysterious neighbor who knew those who were shot. And as Will and Ann piece together the haunting puzzle, they must find out who murdered the family in Will’s dream house before he returns to kill again.”
Hit the jump for our Dream House sponsored look at five of the scariest movie houses of all time!
*Note – This list does NOT include hotels. Just a heads up before you wonder why The Overlook doesn’t make an appearance.
PSYCHO (1960)
This one almost has as much to do with the walkway leading up to the house as it does the events that transpire inside it or down below in the Bates Motel. No, Norman Bates is not incredibly well adjusted. Yes, there’s an awful lot of inappropriate taxidermy happening up there. But the architecture itself just screams, “stay the f*ck away”! It’s not an inviting place, and those stairs almost swagger with menace… just daring you to take that mini-hike to come up and meet “Mother”.
THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979)
When your real estate agent gives full disclosure, please listen. Even if I’d found the house of my dreams, I’d think twice about moving in there if someone had so much as hung themselves from the rafters. So if I’m George Lutz and I’m looking for a place to raise a family, the only thing I would raise in a house where some other dude massacred his whole family would be an eyebrow. Also not cool, houses with windows that could pass for the eyes of a Jack-O-Lantern.
POLTERGEIST (1982)
Indian burial grounds are never a good place to build a home. Especially when all the developers did was move the headstones but leave the bodies underneath. This is something the Freeling family learns the hard way when their daughter Carol Anne disappears into the ether, their son Robbie is attacked by a tree and a clown. To top it off, Mrs. Freeling is forced to take a mud bath with the remains of more than a few people who aren’t pleased to see suburbia itself constructed over their eternal resting place.
THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (1991)
This house. Oh man. The worst thing about it is how hard it is to get out of, something Fool and Leroy learn the hard way the night they break in. There are some seriously screwed up family dynamics/breeding issues going on here, as Alice and Roach (who have never seen the outside world) can tell you. Actually, Roach can’t tell you anything but he can nod along. It’s not the children living under the stairs you should be afraid of, it’s their `parents’. Just ask the multitude of “burglars [who] died. Or salesmen, workmen, other people who saw too much.”
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
Here, it’s not so much the house as it is the basement. The house is pretty bad with all the moths and terrible music and all. But the basement. With the well. Empty wells in basements should be illegal, I really can’t see how they could be used for anything but evil. You see that pic above? Imagine if that was the best view your new (very temporary) living arrangement afforded you. Otherwise it’s just the occasional glance at the bloody fingernails of those who were there before you and tried to escape. Then there’s all this stuff with lotion, baskets and annoying dogs. As well as the fact that you’re just waiting to become part of Buffalo Bill’s drag outfit. You are going to be cut and sewn and worn by that dude while he tucks his bits between his legs. No. Not a good house.
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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