Editorials
‘Deep Blue Sea’ is Still as Entertaining Today as It Ever Was [Retrospective]
An apex predator of the sea, Hollywood and audiences have had an enduring love affair with sharks. It was Steven Spielberg’s seminal Jaws that simultaneously birthed the summer blockbuster in 1975 and made people afraid to go into the water. Save for a few sequels and low budget copycats, though, the limited sub-genre of shark horror was a vast wasteland for decades. Until director Renny Harlin unleashed big budget action horror spectacle Deep Blue Sea in the summer of 1999, that is. A special effects extravaganza that delivers nonstop action sequences and unexpected, gnarly deaths, Deep Blue Sea holds a special place in the canon of shark horror.
Written by Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers, Deep Blue Sea shares more in common with Alien than it does Jaws. Of course, this shark film pays its respects to its godfather; Thomas Jane’s action hero Carter Blake pries a license plate from the mouth of a tiger shark in an early scene, a direct nod to the license plate found in the belly of a dead tiger shark in Jaws. But the entire setup of the film bears a stronger resemblance to Ridley Scott’s classic 1979 space horror. The lines between sea and space are blurred, with the skeleton crew of the underwater research facility Aquatica trapped inside as they’re hunted by intelligent monsters. Instead of a Xenomorph, though, it’s a trio of scientifically enhanced Mako sharks.
Samuel L. Jackson plays Russell Franklin, the equivalent to Nostromo captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt). Franklin is the level-headed straight man, a corporate exec sent to investigate the facility after a shark escapes and attacks a party boat. Franklin has endured harrowing, extreme situations in his past, and has the chops to rally this motley crew of blue-collar workers and scientists together to survive. Except, he’s taken out early and in a shocking way. Smack in the middle of a rousing battle cry. Harlin effectively keeps his audience on their toes, each death unexpected and in defiance of archetypal expectations. Not all of them go by shark, either. Shark wrangler Blake steps up to the plate as capable hero, Deep Blue Sea’s version of Ellen Ripley, but that wasn’t exactly the original intent.
Of all the deaths in the film (Stellan Skarsgard’s Jim Whitlock suffers a horrifically prolonged one), the only death that feels out of place is that of Susan (Saffron Burrows). She fights for her research and her life the entire film, only to give up and allow herself to become shark food in the finale. It turns out that wasn’t the original ending for Susan; she was supposed to be the Ellen Ripley of the story. In the original ending, Susan was the one to harpoon and kill the final shark. A test screening one month prior to the film’s release changed that. The test audience hated Susan. She was the one who violated ethics and masterminded the sharks’ creation, after all. Susan was seen as the film’s villain, not the hero. Last minute reshoots meant Susan died and Aquatica cook Preacher (LL Cool J) got to play hero with Carter. It was ultimately the right call. Though Susan’s experiments came from a place of good, she wasn’t given much of a redemption arc to earn her heroine title. Not even Carter forgives her until the moment she concedes they should kill the final shark, and by then it’s too late. Considering Carter displayed common sense from the outset, he filled the hero role better anyhow.
If there’s one thing Renny Harlin does well, it’s craft thrilling action with big budget flair. As such, Deep Blue Sea isn’t exactly high-brow, but boy does it entertain. There’s a gleeful sense of fun, as Harlin speeds from exhilarating action sequence to exhilarating action sequence. It’s a reminder that movies don’t always have to have profound depth or a statement to make to solidify their ranks as worthwhile cinema; just pure summer fun will sometimes do.
Deep Blue Sea was the first film Stephen King saw in theaters after nearly dying from a vehicular accident and he enjoyed every second of it. So did critic Roger Ebert. The point being is that there’s a reason Deep Blue Sea was profitable during its theatrical run, and why it still has a solid fanbase today. Harlin dared to bring the horror genre back to the high-budget ranks of films like Jaws, a rarity when horror has increasingly become relegated to low budget profit machines. Jaws may be the granddaddy of all shark horror films, but Deep Blue Sea proved action-horror, great special effects, and a strong grasp of suspense can be just as memorable.
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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