Editorials
This Week’s ‘The Queen’ Just Elevated “Castle Rock” to Unforgettable Television
In the world of Stephen King, Sissy Spacek is of course known as Carrie White. But with “Castle Rock,“ Spacek has ensured King fans will never forget the name Ruth Deaver.
There’s a whole lot happening on “Castle Rock,” now seven episodes deep, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about there being *too many* ideas at play. The show feels a bit disjointed and in danger of coming off the rails completely at any moment, with disparate storylines involving a mysterious young man and “the voice of God” out in the woods that have become increasingly hard to follow. But this week’s ‘The Queen’ brought a temporary silence to much of that noise, primarily focused on one character and her deeply heartbreaking story.
It was the best episode to date, and one of the finest hours of horror TV in years.
From the beginning, the heart of “Castle Rock” has been the relationship between former sheriff Alan Pangborn (a well-known King character) and Ruth Deaver, a decades-spanning love story that began when the two were young and continued when Pangborn returned to town as an older man. Prior to this week, Spacek wasn’t given all that much to do as Ruth, mostly presented as a detached character in the fog of crippling Alzheimer’s. ‘The Queen,’ however, presented many of the season’s moments from her own point of view, completely immersing us in Ruth’s fractured head-space for a psychological journey into the devastating inner workings of the disease. With the chess pieces Alan gifted to her as her only means of returning back to reality, the episode took us on a trip into Ruth’s mind, plagued by memories (both good and bad) that rip her away from the present and temporarily lock her quite literally in the past.
Countless movies and television shows have featured characters dealing with Alzheimer’s, but we almost always experience their mental anguish through the eyes of another character. Boldly, ‘The Queen’ does something I’ve never seen any piece of entertainment do before, visually conveying Ruth’s daily experiences in the way that she herself is experiencing them; the episode essentially presents those experiences in the way that horror movies do nightmare sequences, bringing a sense of understanding to the horrors of a real-life disease that plagues so many. As Ruth jumps between space and time and reckons with past and present, we go through all of it with her, the episode brilliantly depicting Alzheimer’s on both mental and visual levels.
‘The Queen’ would hardly work if not for its incredible performance from Sissy Spacek, who of course played a prom queen in the aforementioned Carrie (the episode’s title an intended wink and nod to King fans, co-creator Sam Shaw admits to EW). The episode is essentially a one-woman-showcase of Spacek’s talents, and it’s because she’s so good at conveying deep, complex emotions without saying a single word that Ruth’s confusion, fear and heartbreak is so gut-wrenching to watch. If any episode of television this year instantly made one of its actors into a shoe-in for an Emmy, ‘The Queen’ is that episode. Spacek that actor. Over 40 years ago, Spacek landed an Oscar nomination for playing Carrie White in Brian De Palma’s film, and if there’s any justice, she’ll be an awards contender for her return to King’s world. It just seems right, doesn’t it?
Of course, the major talking point of the episode is its final moments, wherein Ruth accidentally shoots Alan multiple times, killing him almost instantly. Long story short, Ruth gets it in her head that she has to kill “The Kid” in order to be free from the time loop she’s been in, and she mistakes Alan for “The Kid” and guns him down instead. The moment of Alan’s death is played beautifully by both Spacek and Scott Glenn, with the character gracefully accepting his fate in his final moments. Even in that moment, lying in a pool of his own blood and with the love of his life holding the gun, Glenn makes it clear that Alan is at peace. He still loves Ruth, and nothing in the world could ever change that. As ever, his bleeding heart feels nothing but pure love.
The true heartbreak comes in the follow-up scene, when Ruth’s mind takes her back into the memory of Alan arriving on her doorstep, years after her emotionally abusive husband had died. The two embrace, and Alan promises Ruth that he’ll never leave her. In the final shot, we see two of Ruth’s chess pieces on a dresser. The King has fallen. Only the Queen is standing. But Ruth doesn’t reach for them. Instead, she remains in the warm embrace of her happy past. Perhaps she’s choosing to stay in that moment forever. A silver lining to the disease that’s ruined her life.
How does “The Kid” play into all this? Was he really channeling Ruth’s late husband during the events of ‘The Queen,’ or was all of that happening inside of Ruth’s not-quite-reliable mind? Honestly, I have no idea. The character’s inclusion in the episode’s storyline was a bit off-putting for me, again a side effect of the season’s issue with having a bit too much going on at any given time. Here’s hoping we eventually get all the answers we’re craving. In the meantime, ‘The Queen’ was the first truly unforgettable hour of “Castle Rock” so far.
If it wasn’t already, the Hulu series is now must-watch television.
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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