Movies
[BD Review] ‘Zombie Lake’ has a Slow Pace and Dull Story
Reviewed by Patrick Cooper
French filmmaker Jean Rollin left behind a legacy of fantastique films with his signature poetic flourishes, such as The Rape of the Vampire. His 1981 film Zombie Lake, however, is devoid of any creativity or poetic trimmings. It is simply a cheap zombie movie with lots of t&a peppered throughout. Kino/Redemption released Zombie Lake the same day as Jess Franco’s Oasis of the Zombies. That’s certainly no coincidence since they’re pretty much the same movie in different makeup. Both feature Nazi zombies, a bastard child, and World War II. Both movies are crappy and terribly slow, but I did enjoy Zombie Lake a bit more thanks to its frequent zombie attacks and colorful small-town characters.
The story goes back to Nazi-occupied France. The German forces are stomping their ugly boots through a small village when one of the soldiers saves a local woman from a mortar attack. Because love knows no allegiance, the French woman and the Nazi solider make love in the hay. When he returns with his troop nine months later, he discovers that the French woman he banged has suffered complications during childbirth. On her deathbed, she gives the soldier a terribly cheap looking necklace as a token of her appreciation. “You Nazis rolled through my village and killed a bunch of people. Then we banged and now I’m dying from giving birth to your bastard. Here, take this necklace.” Before the Nazis can leave the village, a force of French resistance fighters slaughtered them all and rolled their corpses in the lake.
The village’s mayor tells this convoluted yet tender tale to a journalist interested in writing a story about the “damned lake.” Ever since the incident the lake has been supposedly cursed. We already know it is because the film opens with a Nazi zombies emerging from the lake and killing a naked woman. They seem to have a taste for females who are either naked or in their bikinis. It’s their comfort food. So they bumble around town eating women in various stages of undress and that’s basically the movie.
There’s a tortuously corny subplot involving the soldier from the flashback who’s now a zombie. He finds his illegitimate daughter who recognizes the cheap necklace he’s wearing from a picture of her mother. They hold hands and look fondly at each other. He probably smells awful but that doesn’t seem to bother her. Seeing his daughter brings back the humanity in him and he helps the townsfolk defeat the undead horde. But, let’s be honest, it’s really about naked girls getting eaten.
Rollin’s zombies are some of the most hilarious I’ve ever seen. They’re all painted turtle green but they all have the same heads of hair they dead when they died. The contrast looks absolutely ridiculous. The paint isn’t waterproof either, so when they slog themselves outta the lake it’s all runny and patchy. Because of the heavy makeup around their eye sockets, their eyes look enormous like they’re surprised all the time.
What the movie does have going for it is that it doesn’t feel remotely like a standard zombie movie that’s simply biting Romero. This distinctive vibe could’ve originated from Rollin’s own style, but it feels more like he just had no clue how to make a zombie movie. It was a departure for him that didn’t pay off. I also like the villagers, who have a surly authenticity about them. The pace and dull story absolutely kill the film for me though. Zombie completists will definitely want to check out, but for those hoping for a scare, look away.
A/V
Kino/Redemption Films presents Zombie Lake in a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. Like with their Oasis of the Zombies release, there is no digital correction – the minimal amount of dirt, specks, and scratches were left in tact. The colors look great and all of the imperfections serve to enhance the film’s sliminess. The 2.0 audio is free of any noteworthy disturbances and sounds fine.
Special Features
ENGLISH VERSION OF THE FRENCH TITLE SEQUENCE for some reason.
ALTERNATE SCENES: two scenes that were edited for television in which bikinis were added to the females who are nude in the uncut version.
TRAILERS for Zombie Lake, Oasis of the Zombies, Rape of the Vampire, and Demoniacs.
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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