Editorials
‘Neon Maniacs’: An Underrated Gem That Deserved So Many Sequels
If a horror movie came out in the 1980s, there’s a good chance it got a sequel or two. I’m not just talking about your Friday the 13ths or your Nightmares on Elm Street; those are obviously staples of the genre for the decade. I’m talking about House getting a Second Story. I’m talking about the Ghoulies going to college. I’m talking about Bud the C.H.U.D.
Sometimes, though, a horror movie that seemed like an obvious choice for a franchise wound up a one-and-done. One such movie is 1986’s Neon Maniacs. Despite a hook that could easily have extended through a series of sequels – mutant monsters, each with a different and specific design gimmick, appear from within the Golden Gate Bridge each night to prey on unsuspecting victims – the future of a Neon Maniacs franchise died after just a single entry. Made for a reported $1.5 million in 1984, the movie sat shelved for two years before playing in a handful of theaters; it appeared on video in 1987, where it found the majority of its audience… but even still today tends to fly under the radar.
I’m not making the case that Neon Maniacs should have had sequels because it’s a great horror movie. Frankly, it isn’t. There’s a ton of stuff to like about it, from the cool-sounding (if utterly meaningless) title to the brutal slaughter of a bunch of teenagers that basically opens the movie to a battle of the bands sequence that goes on for sooooo long to Paula, the young female sidekick who is another in a long tradition of ‘80s horror movie characters obsessed with monsters and horror movies. Neon Maniacs is the kind of horror movie that rarely makes any goddamn sense, but there’s enough cool stuff in the moment to make it stand out from the other movies of the period.
But if Neon Maniacs is such a nonsensical mess so much of the time (seriously, why would these mutants, who it turns out can only be killed by water, choose to live right on the San Francisco Bay?), why would I be surprised that it never got a sequel? The clearest answer is that lesser movies have gotten more, but that’s reductive. The next most obvious reason is that the film ends on a clear setup for a sequel. The monsters aren’t vanquished; in fact, we hardly know what happens to most of them. But the film’s final moments show a cop stumbling upon one of the surviving mutants and getting pulled into the back of an ambulance as he screams. The nightmare isn’t over. This is exactly the kind of cliffhanger that acted as the finale of a whole lot of ‘80s horror movies, many of which went on to spawn half a dozen installments.
But, of course, a cliffhanger ending does not guarantee a franchise, so it’s really the monsters themselves that ought to have created a demand for more Neon Maniacs movies. They’re part Cenobite, part Nightbreed, part Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, each mutant monster with its own gimmick: there’s the samurai Neon Maniac and the surgeon Neon Maniac (played by Wishmaster’s Andrew Divoff!) and maybe a cop Neon Maniac? There’s one who looks like a Native American… I think? Then there are a couple I can’t possibly identify, like one that’s just a guy covered in blonde body hair and another one that’s like a miniature Cyclops Godzilla. The execution isn’t always perfect and some of the makeups haven’t aged that well, but the idea of all these mutant monsters is really cool and such an easy way to brand a franchise. With another two or three installments, we could all be talking about our favorite Neon Maniac in 2018. Hell, the movie even opens with a guy finding a bunch of what appear to be trading cards of each of the monsters. How they have trading cards of themselves I cannot possibly speculate – maybe one of the mutants has a marketing degree and another owns a printing press – but it speaks directly to the missed opportunity of bringing these characters back in future movies. They are so easily distinguished that at least a few of them could have become iconic with the right exposure.
Point being, this is a universe that could have been played in a lot more. There is backstory to be explored and there are questions to be answered. New characters could have encountered the Neon Maniacs. New monsters could have been introduced. I wouldn’t necessarily need for any of the human characters to return, but bringing back Paula (played by Donna Locke in her sole screen credit) could have been really cool, especially if she used all of her knowledge to graduate from Monster Kid to full-on Neon Maniac Hunter. If nothing else, a couple of sequels might have given another director the chance to take the stuff that’s good in the first film and build on it by improving on all the things that don’t work.
The original was only the second (and final) movie ever directed by Joe Mangine, whose first effort, the marijuana-and-sex romp Smoke and Flesh, was made twenty years prior. Mangine worked primarily as a cinematographer, responsible for lensing classics like Alligator, Alone in the Dark and The Sword and the Sorcerer; not surprisingly, he brings a strong visual sense to Neon Maniacs, but does little for things like story consistency or logic. Why did another director never get a crack at a follow-up?
All of the groundwork was laid for another movie or two, but it just wasn’t in the cards; Neon Maniacs is always going to be the Franchise That Could Have Been. That’s probably not something that keeps many horror fans up at night, and to be honest my own reaction is more one of surprise than disappointment. More of these movies just seems like a no-brainer, even if I don’t really need them in my life. But in a world where there are NINE Children of the Corn movies, it’s hard to believe there’s only one Neon Maniacs.
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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