Editorials
The Legacy of George A. Romero’s ‘Day of the Dead’
Day of the Dead was the third, considered by many to be the lesser, of George A. Romero’s Dead Trilogy. I’m sure most of us know the story all too well by now, but the Day we got wasn’t necessarily the Day Romero wanted to make. The original concept has been described by Romero as the “Gone with the Wind of zombie films” due to its scope and “like Raiders of the Lost Ark…but with zombies” by effects master, Tom Savini. The plot was still centered around the military but leaned heavily on their attempts to weaponize zombie hordes in order to take down…other zombie hordes.
It would have been a massive production, and producers were skittish of the cost. They offered $7 million to Romero as long as he agreed to deliver the final piece with an R rating. Romero refused to neuter the gore. After all, this was long before the days of unrated home video releases. An edited film at that time would likely be the only version available until the era of DVD came along (assuming excised footage was preserved). Romero’s inability to compromise on the rating led to the budget getting cut in half, down to $3.5 million. Numerous rewrites were drafted in an attempt to sync Romero’s vision with that of the producers’ pockets. After an initial draft that ran an epic 200 pages, Romero switched up the story to an underground bunker and turned in a version pared down to a lean 88 pages.
Release Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead was released in a small selection of theaters on July 3rd, 1985 before rolling out to a slightly wider release on the 19th. While the two previous Dead films were critically and commercially successful, Day landed with a bit of a thud back in the day. The three-quel’s domestic gross was a paltry $5.8 million. Luckily, worldwide it pulled in close to $30 million. Since recently diving into the critical reception for The Thing on its anniversary (Spoiler! It wasn’t pretty), I decided to see what I could dig up as far as critical opinion on Day. The answer: they thought it was just a’ight.
The short Variety review simply claimed within its headline, “Day of the Dead is an unsatisfying part three in George A. Romero’s zombie saga.” While BBC’s critic wrote, “It’s just a shame that it’s hard to care for the unsympathetic main characters battling for survival, unlike the far more interesting protagonists of Dawn of the Dead. That film had a healthy streak of fun and escapism, which this overly grim sequel lacks.” Roger Ebert ended his review with a plea to Romero, a plea many fans seem to agree with (not I, personally):
“…the humans are mostly unpleasant, violent, insane or so noble that we can predict with utter certainty that they will survive. According to the mad scientist in Day of the Dead, the zombies keep moving because of primitive impulses buried deep within their spinal columns – impulses that create the appearance of life long after consciousness and intelligence have departed. I hope the same fate doesn’t befall Romero’s zombie movies. He should quit while he’s ahead.“
In fact, of all the original reviews I was able to find, none of the critics seemed to outright hate the film. They just felt Day struggled under the weight of excellence that was Dawn of the Dead. Another note of commonality, every review remarked on how “grim” and “dour” they found the story. While this is striking in comparison to the roller coaster ride of the previous entry, to me, focusing solely on the darker nature of the movie is to miss its message of hope. Of course, the world has gone to shit in the ensuing apocalypse amidst an undead pandemic. These characters struggle to keep up some since of normality (John’s faux backyard), but in the end, there is still a silver lining for our survivors. The poor reputation looming over Day for many years has faded away over the past few decades. The court of public opinion has certainly started singing a different tune.
Tribute Day of the Dead
All three of Romero’s Dead films have received remakes. Night has been pressed through the redux juicer about a zillion times. There is one legit remake, animated versions, unofficial sequels, and meta deconstructions all thanks to its public domain status. That fruit has shriveled up. Only Day has received two OFFICIAL remakes (the Steve Miner directed 2008 version and upcoming take from Hèctor Hernández Vicens). There was also a followup from the exact same company who made a decidedly godawful sequel to another Romero franchise, Creepshow 3. The film, Day of the Dead 2: Contagium thankfully fell on deaf ears. For those of you who’ve managed to wipe it from your memory, here’s the trailer as a little reminder:
(Those of you who might want to inflict pain upon me by having me sit through this film and report back with a follow-up article, let me know in the comments…you evil bastards.)
Granted, a bunch of greedy producers trying to cash in on a well-regarded property isn’t necessarily the mark of an everlasting legacy. Thankfully, there are far more ripples in pop culture that can lead back to Day of the Dead. Greg Nicotero, who assisted Savini with the effects on Day, is now an integral cog in the mechanics of The Walking Dead. Frequently, Nicotero will pepper an episode with a “Walker Tribute” and in Season 4, Episode 15 there was a strikingly familiar looking undead chap with a military past. In the premier of Season 7B, we also got a “jaw-dropping” walker that resembled one Dr. Tongue. Don’t judge me and my puns.
Beyond the obvious links to zombie-centric media, you can even find ties to Romero’s film from various musicians. Bands like Ministry and The Misfits have crafted their own odes to the movie. More surprisingly, the band Gorillaz sampled the film’s iconic score in their song, “M1 A1”. The beginning of the track heavily features Miguel’s cries into a megaphone on an abandoned city street, “Hello! Is anyone there?” The song “Hip Albatross”, also from Gorillaz, opens with a classic line from Night and ends with John’s pleading for a peaceful getaway from Day:
“Yeah, yeah, I got an alternative. Let’s get in that old whirlybird there, find us an island someplace, and spend what time we got left soakin’ up some sunshine. How’s that?”
Birthday of the Dead
Now, 32 years later, George Romero is gearing up to go into production on a brand new Dead film as producer. From the sound of it, you guys don’t seem too impressed by what we know of it so far. I get it. I think fan goodwill was dwindling with the release of Diary of the Dead (which I love) and was gone after Survival of the Dead (which I did not love…or like…or want to sit through ever again). All I know is the man is a true Master of Horror who’s had a tremendous career.
Even lesser Romero such as Dark Half and Monkey Shines are head and shoulders above many other genre works. One true stinker should not tarnish that fact. No matter what sub-genre Romero dabbles in, his films are always distinctly “his”. Each carries the Romero brand of subversive social commentary, whether it be on the nose or under the surface.
As stated before, Day of the Dead has managed to rise above the initial lukewarm reception to garner quite the cult status. As a kid, I wasn’t even that crazy about it. I think I was expecting something epic that would pick up from where we left off in Dawn. It’s now my personal favorite zombie film of all time. I’ll never forget the moment it really “clicked” for me, though. My friends and I were marathoning the original trilogy in anticipation of the first screening of Land of the Dead at our local multiplex. Sitting there as the sun was coming up and hearing Rhodes scream, “Choke on em’,” bubbling with more excitement than I could possibly contain, I fell in love with Day. Romero has even claimed this to be his favorite of the Dead films as well.
From the pulsing score, Tom Savini’s Saturn award-winning effects work, the birth of Bub and Romero’s intense staging of the climactic zombie incursion – the importance of Day of the Dead is of a piece with the rest of the original trilogy. It’s practically become the template for most modern zombie media from The Walking Dead, Resident Evil, to 28 Days Later. If you haven’t revisited the film in a long time, today is the perfect day to pull it out for a re-watch! We salute you too, Bub.
Alright, catch you later, fiends. I have to go shoot a remake of Night of the Living Dead on my iPhone.
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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