Editorials
Let’s Have a “Stranger Things” Easter Egg Hunt!
That Netflix’s Stranger Things” is inspired by 80’s horror is well documented and there have been many words spilled on these pages. Daniel Kurland wrote a great piece about this while John Squires warned those responsible for the upcoming IT remake that they’ve got some big shoes to fill. But what we haven’t done yet is have a good old fashioned Easter egg hunt to decipher the most obvious, and perhaps the not so obvious, horror references The Duffer Brothers laced through the series.
There’s no way I can itemize everything, so I’m relying on commentators to fill in the gaps.
That Title Treatment
While the show’s title treatment hints at the font favored by John Carpenter, I think it’s safe to say it’s referencing the one that graced pretty much every 80’s era Stephen King novel. Many people were immediately reminded of King’s “Needful Things,” even though that novel was published in the 90’s.
That Score
Composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein’s synth heavy score channels everything from John Carpenter’s Halloween to Risky Business. But while it is evocative of the era it also feels modern a testament to their talents.
Jonathan Barkan did the lord’s work by tracking down S U R V I V E, the band that features show composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein.
Poltergeist
In episode one of the series, Winona Ryder’s Joyce surprises her son Will with tickets to Tobe Hooper’s paranormal classic. Not long after she’ll find herself communicating through walls just like in the 1982 film.
Jaws
Spielberg looms large over Stranger Things, but we’ll start with Jaws. The famous shark thriller is both overtly (there’s a poster) and inadvertently referenced in the film, but most interesting is how the show’s monster is described as a shark in how it is drawn to the smell of blood.
The Thing
A poster for John Carpenter’s seminal arctic horror film hangs on the wall of the basement where the kids spend a lot of their time. The film also appears on the television in a quick scene.
The Evil Dead
Another poster we see hanging in Will’s older brother, Jonathan Byer’s, room is for Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead. At one point, in a heated fight, his estranged father points to the poster and tells him to take it down as it’s “inappropriate”. You have to wonder how many kids were told the same thing in the early 80’s.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Every time the outline of a ghostly figure stretches out of a wall I immediately think of that scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street when Freddy emerges from the ceiling. Of course, the effect has been used many times since, most notably in Peter Jackson’s underrated horror comedy The Frighteners.
Firestarter
From “Carrie” to “Firestarter”, Stephen King loves Telepathy. But the added flavour of secret experiments and a team of scientists chasing down an escaped subject make Eleven’s story feel very Firestarter– y to me.
The Gate
When Nancy Wheeler (played by Natalia Dyer) discovers a gateway to the Upside Down at the base of a tree it’s hard not to think about the 1987 film The Gate. In that film, a group of suburban kids discover a gateway to another world when a tree is removed from their backyard. When monsters begin to emerge it is up to them to save the day.
Under the Skin
The design of Eleven’s world when she goes into the sensory deprivation tank is so similar to Under the Skin that I can’t imagine this was not intentional. Even down to the rippling of a watery floor when she walks through the black world, Johnathan Glazer’s film is evoked.
Alien
Besides a few visual nods like the one pictured above that is reminiscent of the crew of the Nostromo exploring the derelict ship on LV426, there are smaller Easter eggs in the series. The name of the officer that discovers Will’s body for example is O’Bannon, no doubt named after Dan O’Bannon, the writer of the original Alien.
Stand By Me
Late in the series, our group of young heroes journey along a stretch of track to find the source of what’s interfering with their compass. I don’t know about you, but ever since Stand By Me, tracks and kids signify that film and I have no doubt that was the intention here.
Altered States
Ken Russell’s weirdo 1980 horror, Altered States, features sensory deprivation and William Hurt’s Eddie Jessup under the influence of psychotropic drugs. If you haven’t seen it, it’s one trippy horror outing.
Cujo
There’s a quick moment when s state trooper can be seen reading a copy of a Stephen King book. What makes it an obvious Cujo reference is when Chief Hopper says, “I love that book, it’s a nasty mutt.” Clearly a reference to the titular dog.
Witchboard
Okay, admittedly this last one’s a stretch. Ouija boards are a staple of horror cinema in general, but Witchboard was a particularly popular series in the 80’s. When Winona Ryder communicates with the spirit of her missing son by scrawling what is essentially a giant ouija board on the wall, I think it’s safe to say this popular horror trope is being evoked.
What did I miss?!
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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