Editorials
[Editorial] Why You Should Watch ‘Todd and the Book of Pure Evil’!
Whether or not you’re a fan of big programs like The Walking Dead or American Horror Story, you’ve got to admit that we’re living in a golden age of horror on television. From Ash vs The Evil Dead to Channel Zero, shows are getting away with a lot more gore and disturbing themes these days, even rivaling many studio films. However, with all these small screen juggernauts, it’s easy to miss out on some independent hidden gems.
That’s precisely why I’d like to take a moment to appreciate the simple, perverted genius of a certain short-lived Canadian horror show. This under-appreciated series can be best described as the unholy love child of American Pie and The Evil Dead (with a generous dose of Buffy the Vampire Slayer added in for good measure), though it ultimately gets even weirder.
Todd and the Book of Pure Evil was created by Craig David Wallace, Charles Picco, and Anthony Leo, based on a homonymous low-budget short film. Premiering in 2010 on the Space Channel, the series was successful enough to warrant a second (and final) season, having amassed a handful of Canadian television awards and a respectable cult following. This resulted in a total of 26 episodes of unexpectedly enjoyable supernatural depravity, heavy metal and High School drama.
The show focuses on Alex House as the titular Todd Smith, a head-banging stoner who’s confronted with a satanic tome known only as the Book of Pure Evil, capable of granting desperate teenage wishes, but always at a gruesome cost. With the help of his one-armed best friend Curtis (played by Bill Turnbull), his feisty crush Jenny (Maggie Castle), and the nerdy Hannah (Melanie Leishman), Todd attempts to banish the book from Crowley High and unravel the prophecy of the Pure Evil One. Of course, insanely entertaining supernatural shenanigans ensue.
Beyond the otherworldly terrors unleashed by the book, the gang is also forced to deal with Atticus Murphy Jr (played by the excellent Chris Leavins), their school guidance counselor and a closeted Satanist hell-bent on capturing the book for himself. The show also features Jason Mewes as Jimmy, the school janitor and Todd’s lovable mentor, always spouting hilarious nuggets of pothead wisdom.
There’s usually a little bit more blood and guts involved.
During these two short seasons, Todd and the Book of Pure Evil somehow managed to present us with lovable characters, satanic intrigue and several homages to classic horror flicks, all miraculously balanced in the span of easily digested 22-minute-long episodes. Having binged the entirety of the series, plus last year’s animated film that serves as a long-awaited conclusion to the second season’s cliffhanger ending, I’m truly baffled as to why this doesn’t have a bigger fan base.
The show’s signature blend of demonic creatures, stoner humor, and teenage angst obviously isn’t for everyone, but I feel like there’s a significant portion of horror fans who are more than willing to put with a dick joke or two in their televised gore (myself included). After all, it seems like the series’ strength lies precisely in its ability to balance rampant gross-outs and questionable humor with genuinely clever writing and relatable characters.
Of course, the show doesn’t always succeed in its attempts at comedy, and much of the main plot feels derivative, but even the clichés are presented from a fresh perspective, with the writing always feeling just self-aware enough to overcome most of these flaws. And, while the series thrives on parodies of everything from Phantom of the Opera to traditional After School Specials, there’s always a clever (albeit usually horrific) twist that make these episodes stand out.
Hell, the musical episodes were some of my favorites, as the creative direction and writing shined despite a limited budget and obvious time constraints. I also particularly loved how the characters eventually reference the fact that the show’s Illuminati-like Satanists aren’t doing a very good job of representing real-world Satanism, which is decidedly less nefarious.
Maybe it’s an inherent urge to always root for the underdog, but I find it inspiring to see a low-budget production surpass its financial limitations through sheer tenacity and wit. Admittedly, the show’s effects and set design aren’t amazing, but everything is presented so earnestly that it ends up helping the series feel more like the B-movies it’s trying to emulate, instead of detracting from the experience.
All of this translates nicely into Todd and the Book of Pure Evil: The End of the End, an animated film that serves as a kind of pseudo-third-season to the show. The movie combines what could have been four stand-alone episodes into a feature-length conclusion to the story, with the animation allowing writers to focus on some of the more outlandish elements of the plot without worrying about the effects budget. It serves as a satisfying series finale, with hysterical musical numbers and the humorous culmination of several character arcs, but the awkward structure makes it slightly less enjoyable as a standalone film.
It’s still one hell of a good time!
Overall, Todd and the Book of Pure Evil is consistently entertaining, even when it stumbles with some occasional awkward writing and limited production value. While the series cleverly deconstructed genre tropes in what could have been a fairly standard high school horror story, the likable characters and memorable banter amongst the gang are easily the most compelling reasons to revisit this criminally underrated show.
Had it gone on for a few more seasons, Todd could have become a worthy successor to Buffy, having the main cast grow up as they fought evil, perhaps even beyond high school. Nevertheless, the few episodes that we got have a certain raunchy charm that’s present in very few horror shows these days. It may not have been the best of its kind, and the humor can be downright stupid at times, but clever storytelling and a compelling cast make this a short-but-sweet horror comedy that doesn’t overstay its welcome. So, why not give the show, and its animated conclusion, a chance at fighting evil (with mixed results)?
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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