Editorials
Time to Revisit… ‘Gremlins 2: The New Batch’
In this edition of “Time to Revisit…” I take a look back at Joe Dante’s underrated 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch, which came about four years too late on the heels of its hit predecessor but nevertheless managed to live up to (or arguably top) the first film in almost every way imaginable.
Agreeing to direct only after Warner Bros. wooed him back with the promise of full creative control over the finished product, Dante infused the film with a go-for-broke sense of wit and an anarchic spirit, transforming what could’ve been a rote Hollywood sequel into a genuinely subversive piece of popular entertainment.
While at the time this off-the-wall sensibility resulted in general indifference from moviegoers and the film’s ultimate failure at the box-office, it is nevertheless a genuinely inspired work that more than deserves a reconsideration by modern critics and audiences.
Beloved Favorite: Gremlins (1984)
Number of votes on IMDB: 48,577
The Plot: After his unusual new pet – a furry “mogwai” named Gizmo – is exposed to water, suburban teenager Billy Peltzer inadvertently unleashes a mob of deviant pint-sized monsters.
Why it’s so celebrated: Gremlins was one of the top-grossing films of the 1980s and a critical success, initially making nearly $150 million domestic on a modest $11 million budget. Executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, the film catapulted director Joe Dante into the Hollywood stratosphere and launched the career of writer (and future A-list director) Chris Columbus. Following in its wake came a host of copycat “small monster” movies (though it has been claimed that both Ghoulies and Critters were conceived prior to Gremlins‘ production period) as well as a belated 1990 sequel. In the present day the film is warmly remembered as a must-see classic of popular cinema and an essential entry in the ’80s-era Amblin canon.
Why it’s time to backburner it for awhile: There’s no doubt that Gremlins is a fun and surprisingly dark ’80s genre film (that Phoebe Cates Santa monologue never gets old), but it’s been widely celebrated ever since its release and Christ, we all know it’s good. By contrast, its less commercially-successful sequel gets largely overlooked despite the fact that it’s the equal of, and arguably better than, its predecessor. Which of course brings me to…
Beloved Favorite: Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Number of votes on IMDB: 25,512
The Plot: Billy Peltzer must deal with another round of gremlin mayhem after a new horde of the nasty creatures are unleashed in a high-tech New York skyscraper.
Why it’s not so celebrated: First off, I should take a moment to mention that there is a cult of ardent Gremlins 2 fans out there, and moreover I’m certainly not the first online journalist to champion the film. But when looked at overall, it still remains a woefully underrated effort. One obvious reason for its box-office failure (it ended up making slightly over $40 million on a $50 million budget) was the fact it took six years for the film to come out, an eternity in Hollywood sequel-dom. On a creative level, the movie proved far too “out-there” for the majority of moviegoers, with an audaciously satirical and self-referential tone that perhaps proved too smart for its own good.
Why it deserves a revisiting: Gremlins 2 is quite literally one of the purest distillations of a popular director’s style ever released by a major studio. Granted full creative license by Warner Bros. in exchange for agreeing to direct the film, Dante made the most of his near-unprecedented artistic freedom by making the film a highly-subversive meta-commentary on modern life, and even went so far as to poke fun at the original for its plot holes (“What if they’re eating on an airplane and cross into a different time zone?”). His insertion of a seemingly endless bounty of gleefully unexpected gags, including one famous scene in which the gremlins “sabotage the film reel” (changed to a less-effective bit in the VHS version but later reinstated on DVD), brings the enterprise to a level of inspired absurdity that never feels labored .
And yet for all of its artistic bravado, Gremlins 2 still works as popular entertainment. Loaded with clever slapstick moments, striking set design, mostly-excellent effects and sequences of exuberantly over-the-top action, the entire film plays like candy for the eyes. Regardless of how it was received at the time, Dante proved with the film that he was capable of melding his cerebral sensibilities – apparent from the very beginning of his career with intelligent genre efforts like Piranha and The Howling – to an aesthetically stimulating, popcorn-friendly visual palette. His delight in being given the opportunity to make exactly the movie he wanted is apparent in every frame, each one alive with a striking depth of visual detail.
It’s a shame, then, that unlike the first movie, a Gremlins 2 Blu-ray has yet to see the light of day. While it may be that Warner Bros. is simply waiting for the film’s 25th anniversary to come up like they did with the original, I’d guess the real reason is that they just don’t see the value in it. And why should they? It’s a creation representative of nearly every studio executive’s worst nightmare – a bigger-budget sequel that refuses to play by the rules.
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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