Editorials
The Best Episode of “Stranger Things” Season 2 Dared to Break the Mold
If you haven’t yet watched Season 2, turn away now.
The second season of “Stranger Things” boldly kicks off in the most unfamiliar of ways. Rather than placing us back inside Hawkins, Indiana, the show instead launches into Season 2 by showing us the beginnings of a side story set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In PA, we meet up with a group of robbers who are in the midst of a high-speed chase with the police. After they drive under a bridge, the female passenger in the front seat supernaturally makes that bridge collapse on the police cars that are hot on their tail. She wipes blood from her nose. On her wrist, we see the number “008.”
Who is this mysterious woman, who clearly has special powers and presumably has a similar origin story to Eleven? Well, it’s not until Episode 7 that we find out.
The most polarizing episode of “Stranger Things 2” is unquestionably that very episode, titled “The Lost Sister.” Breaking away from the central story of the kids fighting off (and befriending, in Dustin’s case) monsters in Hawkins for a full 45-minutes, “The Lost Sister” is almost entirely set on the mean streets of Chicago, where Eleven meets up with “Eight.”
The Rebecca Thomas-directed episode has a style all its own, in many ways paying tribute to a different kind of ’80s movie than the bulk of “Stranger Things.” Whereas the series often feels like a lost Amblin project from the ’80s, the neon-tinged, graffiti-covered and appropriately titled “The Lost Sister” feels like, well, a punk rock ’80s gang film akin to The Lost Boys.
Eleven, fueled by a message from the catatonic mother she only just met, catches up with Eight and her gang at a time in her life when she just doesn’t feel like she belongs in Hawkins. Hopper, playing the role of her surrogate father, has kept Eleven locked up in a cabin in the woods for a year, leading her to believe that she’ll simply never be able to live like a normal person. But she finds a glimmer of hope in Chicago, initially embracing Eight’s gang as the only real family she may ever be able to have.
Eight, who has the power to mess with minds and make people see things that aren’t real (that bridge never actually collapsed in Episode 1, in other words), quickly takes in Eleven as her “sister,” showing her a whole new world where her powers can be embraced and openly used to, in particular, seek vengeance on the people who have wronged her and her mother. This is alluring to Eleven, who feels like she has finally found a place she can truly call home. And she’s feeling pretty vengeful.
After getting a bitchin’ punk rock makeover and being taught how to properly use and control her powers, Eleven ultimately decides that Eight’s gang is very much not her family. Her family, she realizes, is in Hawkins. Her brief stay in Chicago reminds Eleven what’s really important to her and who she really is, leading to a cathartic revelation. She’s been torn between nature and nurture. In the end, she chooses nurture.
“There’s nothing for you back there. They cannot save you,” Eight tells Eleven, referring to Hawkins. “No,” Eleven responds, as heartwarming clips from Season 1 flash on the screen. “But I can save them.” Later, on the bus back to Hawkins, a kind older woman asks Eleven where she’s headed.
“I’m going to my friends. Going home.”
This standalone episode, which essentially plays out like the pilot of a “Stranger Things” spinoff that we very likely could get in the near future, is the only one in Season 2 that truly dares to expand beyond the familiar, opening up the show’s world for an entirely new look at what’s going on out there. For better or worse, “Stranger Things 2” mostly spends its nine episodes giving us more of the same (I’m not complaining, to be clear), at times to such a noticeable extent that it begins to feel like Season 2 is most nostalgic for, well, Season 1.
But amid *another* new girl joining the group of young friends, Jonathan and Nancy going on *another* adventure together and Joyce decorating her home with *another* unique means of communicating with her lost son, we’re served up “The Lost Girl.” A beautiful, self-contained episode that’s so different it admittedly sticks out from the pack.
Not like a sore thumb, mind you. But like a wonderful breath of fresh air.
“It’s important for Ross [Duffer] and I to try stuff and not feel like we’re doing the same thing over and over again,” co-creator Matt Duffer explained the episode to EW.
Not only does the episode further develop the most important character in the show, providing Eleven with a wonderful arc in just 45-minutes, but it also paves the way for what turns out to be two incredible final episodes of Season 2. It’s because of what happened in Chicago that Eleven returns to Hawkins, reuniting with Mike and once again, much like at the end of Season 1 (hey, I said it was all pretty familiar), saving the day. Only this time, she expertly uses her powers (thanks, Eight) to close the Upside Down for good, putting an end to the nightmare that began when she unwillingly helped open it up in the first place.
More than anything else going on, El’s redemption is the central story of Season 2. And it’s impossible to imagine that story without “The Lost Girl,” which really ties it all together.
It’s a brilliant episode that almost single-handedly elevates Season 2 to greatness.
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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