Editorials
In Defense of ‘Virus’: Reflecting Back 20 Years Later
A big budget action horror film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland sounds like a safe bet for the box office. So much so that a line of action figures was developed, and the original comic the movie was based on received an updated release with the movie’s artwork in promotion. But then the movie’s release date was bumped, from a cushy summer Blockbuster slot in 1998 to the following January, a month often considered a dumping ground for releases. Dropping into theaters on January 15, 1999, Virus was panned by critics and a commercial failure. To rub salt in the wound, it’s a movie that Jamie Lee Curtis has consistently rebuked in interviews, often referring to Virus as an “all time piece of shit.” While it’s far from perfect, it’s also undeserving of all the vehement hate.
Released almost exactly one year after Deep Rising, Virus continued the trend of following a ragtag team at sea whose boat is destroyed shortly after discovering a much larger sea vessel. One that’s seemingly deserted. In the case of Virus, it’s a salvage crew captained by Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland). When his crew loses their cargo in the middle of a hurricane and the tugboat starts taking on water, they hop on the nearest ship – a Russian research vessel, Volkov. Unbeknownst to them, the Volkov was struck by an alien energy source emanating from the Mir space station just 7 days prior, and the Volkov’s crew since disappeared. Uncovering what happened to them leads to a fight for survival, and all of humanity is at stake.
The biggest flaw in Virus, the reason it’s been so maligned, is that the character and dialogue work can be downright cringe-worthy. William Baldwin plays engineer turned hero Steve Baker, and he doesn’t really have the range to transcend bad dialogue. He’s established right away as the moral superior to Everton’s manic leader corrupted by greed. But with lines like, “You figure it out,” after threatening Everton to see what happens if he ever pulls a gun on him again, well, it doesn’t make him look like the tough guy he’s supposed to be. Luckily, Virus has two additional heroines alongside Baker. There’s Joanna Pacula’s Nadia, the sole survivor of Volkov’s inciting event, who plays double duty as exposition deliverer and secondary heroine with fighting spirit. Then there’s ex-Navy officer Kelly “Kit” Foster, Curtis’ character. Even when starring in a film she hates, she still gives it her all.
The characters spend a lot of time bickering amongst each other, and doesn’t even attempt to subvert the order in which they’ll die. But it doesn’t matter much when the alien lifeform begins to make its appearance. It’s an electrical presence that inhabits tech and crafts robots out of found objects. What it desires most is to wipe out humanity, deemed a virus, and use their flesh for spare parts. It leads to a lot of gooey, gory bits that painfully blends man with machine.
Directed by prolific visual effects artist John Bruno (Poltergeist, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Batman Returns), with effects handled by award-winning visual effects artist Phil Tippett’s studio, Virus is one of the rare ‘90s spectacles that holds up pretty well. Example: I love Deep Rising, but the climactic CG reveal of the sea creature is very, very dated at this point. But Virus is heavily practical, and the CG work blends in. The manborg-like creatures are gory and grim, making for a few fun jumpscares and a lot of bloody sequences.
Like many action horror films that have come before and after it, Virus borrows from notable films like Aliens, The Thing, Hardware, and Event Horizon. It makes some really wacky choices with its character work and does take a while to really kick into gear. But it’s difficult to be bored when Sutherland is playing Captain Everton with this odd blend of suicidal, greedy, and gleefully sadistic. Or when other characters make equally puzzling decisions amidst a human flesh assimilating robot race. And anytime the robot monsters terrorize victims on screen is a highlight. From a perspective of fun popcorn entertainment that showcases special effects, there’s a lot to like about Virus.
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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