Editorials
Have You Heard of… the Gory and Savage Beat ‘Em Up ‘Moonstone: A Hard Day’s Knight’?
Sometime before Johnny Cage knuckle-dusted his first ball sack, or Scorpion immolated his first foe into a pile of bony twigs, there was another brawler for Amiga and PC systems that was riding the ultraviolence train prior to the debut of Mortal Kombat in 1992. Its name was Moonstone: A Hard Day’s Knight, and the level of violence that it depicted was far and away beyond anything Midway would cook up for its digitized, arcade fighter many months later.
Before we get properly down to all the squishy stuff, however, some background is certainly needed. More than just a bunch of armor-plated knight dudes twatting each other until parts of their anatomy fall off like some sort of Monty Python sketch, Moonstone is actually a little bit more complex than its outwardly savage premise infers.
Much closer to an action RPG rather than a straight-up fighter, Moonstone’s premise pits four different color knights against each other with the goal being to return the titular Moonstone to Stonehenge, and thus, win the game. Where things get spicy however, is in the manner in which the combat and the exploration side of things play out.
Allowing players to control each of the four knights, with the remainder being placed under AI control, Moonstone kicks things off looking at a world map, allowing each of the knights to move across it in turn-based fashion. Ultimately, the objective during this phase of the game is to gather four keys from lairs dotted around the map, or from other players. Once obtained, these keys can then be used to reach the Valley of the Gods, where the player must defeat a super-tough elemental guardian and then finally obtain the titular MacGuffin and whisk it off to Stonehenge for the win.
Dotted around Moonstone’s patchwork map of the world are a number of Neolithic tombs which are guarded by all manner of deeply unpleasant creatures, and it’s here that the other side of the Moonstone coin, the real-time battles, kick in. Viewed from a side-on perspective, and allowing players and enemies to walk in and out of the background and foreground, the idea in these sections of the game is quite simply to messily murder your foes as quickly as possible. Think Golden Axe if it was made by Clive Barker, and you’re basically there.
Should you achieve this and not die horribly, you will be rewarded with some better gear and one experience point to put into either the strength, stamina or constitution skill categories for your knight – which in turn provides the neat incentive of character progression, too. Speaking of dying horribly, Moonstone is absolutely, positively swimming in blood, gore and all things generally horrific.
For a start, everything wants to murder you in Moonstone and do it with a grotesque flourish. Giant ratmen will use their tails to attempt to lynch you from the nearest tree, wolves will rip your throat out, hobgoblins will try to impale you with their spears and massive ogres can land a single hit on you that literally crushes you into a metallic red paste.
Oh, and all of that is before you even start fighting your fellow knight, because all manner of grotesque death can be inflicted on your friends too. Whether you’re gutting them with a well-aimed stab at the belly, cleaving them clean in two with an overhead strike, or, merely *just* chopping their head off, complete with an over-enthusiastic spurt of claret, there is no shortage of the red stuff on display.
Moonstone is a brutal, savage game with a penchant for violence that many games of that era simply could not match. Peer behind its grim, nihilistic facade however, and a deeper, more sinister game soon reveals its deceptive depths. Because of the winner-gets-all mechanic that is deeply embedded into Moonstone, the game can become quite the fiercely competitive offering, as players routinely screw each other over in order to nab equipment, money, keys and even the Moonstone itself.
Equally, there are other little neat design mechanics put into play which make things more interesting too. Not every move that you make on the world map has to result in you walking somewhere and killing something (or getting ruined yourself), as instead you can elect to pop into your hometown to regain lives lost, or wager money to obtain better gear at the local tavern.
Then there are the different phases of the moon that you must contend with. Face the ratmen on a half-moon phase and you might discover that they are weaker than at other times of the day, meanwhile, the wolves on the other hand, when encountered during a full-moon phase, become one of the deadliest foes in the entire game. So yeah, watching the moon is pretty much crucial to keeping you attached to your mortal coil.
Oh, and did I mention the dragon which is the size of a house? Ah yes, you see, when you travel across the world map you’ll spy a massive crimson dragon soar across certain portions of its patchwork layout. Should you find yourself unfortunate enough to be in its shadow, the thing will fly down to you and an almighty scrap/beating will kick off in earnest.
Easily the strongest adversary Moonstone has to offer, if you encounter the dragon early on, you’re basically either toast, or, the beast will simply just chew you up like discount Jolly Rancher candy and that’ll be that. If you prove victorious though (and that’s the biggest ‘if’ that ever was), the rewards for defeating the dragon are dramatic, and can completely tip the balance of the game in the favor of a singleplayer.
Moonstone then might make the original Mortal Kombat look like The Little Mermaid in the splatter stakes, but that would be selling it short, as this is one brawler that is as smart as it is brutal. They just don’t quite make them like this anymore.
Editorials
‘Bloodstone: Subspecies II’ Revisited: A Bigger, Bolder Follow-Up to Full Moon’s Vampire Cult Classic
Horror sequels are a peculiar thing. In most cases, follow-ups to scary movies tend to retread the same formula with different victims and more over-the-top scares. This is because audiences tend to be more interested in the antagonists of these pictures than anything else, with even main characters becoming disposable when the time comes to produce a sequel.
That’s why some of the most memorable horror sequels are the ones that actually manage to hold onto interesting survivors from previous films while also pushing the story forward instead of having the same thing happen again to a different group of people. From Scream 2 to Dream Warriors (and arguably even The Exorcist III: Legion), there are quite a few of these innovative sequels to go around.
However, if there’s one franchise that deserves more attention when discussing bigger and better continuations that make the most of episodic filmmaking, it has to be Ted Nicolaou’s Subspecies.
The Full Moon classic spawned an indie horror icon, but bizarre sequel Bloodstone: Subspecies II is even more beloved than its predecessor.
Building a Bigger Vampire Saga
While the film itself takes place almost immediately after the events of the first movie, Bloodstone only entered production a couple of years after the release of the original as both Charles Band and Nicolaou weighed the pros and cons of returning to Romania to continue the series. In an effort to maximize efficiency, the team decided to invest in a trilogy where parts II and III, now fully written by Nicolaou, would be filmed simultaneously over the course of a single grueling shoot.
Much like the first Subspecies, Bloodstone’s low budget meant that the filmmakers once again had to cut corners and re-use as many of their resources as possible. Thankfully, the process was much easier this time around as Nicolaou, with the help of Romanian cinematographer Vlad Paunescu and his wife Oana, became more acquainted with local customs and made new friends. Shooting abroad still came with its own unique set of challenges due to a lack of translators and the occasional safety concerns, but the crew managed to make things work by filming things guerrilla-style and setting up shop in abandoned caves and real medieval ruins.
The director’s newfound contacts, coupled with the relative success of the first movie, meant that he was basically given free rein over an assortment of shooting locations usually considered off-limits for indie horror. That’s why Bloodstone features insanely ambitious lighting and effects work even during scenes shot in the middle of a bustling Bucharest. The filmmakers went so far as to project Radu’s Nosferatu-like shadows over local monuments as if he were a Romanian boogeyman, an idea that was actually encouraged by local cinephiles.
In fact, many of the more elaborate scenes here had originally been planned for the first movie before being discarded due to the lack of available resources. It was only with the support of Romanian fans and filmmakers that Bloodstone was able to give Radu a chance to be even more menacing the second time around.
Michelle’s Transformation Takes Center Stage
However, when it came to the American part of the crew, not everyone was able or willing to return for another round of Romanian adventuring. That’s why Radu’s human-loving half-brother Stefan (Michael Watson) is unceremoniously killed off at the beginning of the film while the role of Michelle had to be recast. Denice Duff took over for Laura Mae Tate, with the character now being joined by her sister, Rebecca, played by Melanie Shatner (yes, that Shatner).
In the finished film, we follow Michelle as she awakens to her new life as a vampire and discovers that Radu has murdered her lover. Struggling with grief and her newfound bloodlust, Michelle contacts her sister overseas, with Rebecca soon travelling to Romania on an ill-advised rescue mission. Meanwhile, Radu (Anders Hove) reaches out to his undead Mummy (Pamela Gordon, underneath heavy layers of impressive makeup effects) and promises to deliver her the coveted Bloodstone artifact while also making Michelle his eternal consort.
Revisiting the movie, I was impressed with how introspective this story is when compared to the original. The sequel assumes that you’re already familiar with the previously established characters, so the story wastes no time in exploring the immediate aftermath of the previous film’s events. From Michelle’s reluctant transformation into a creature of the night to Radu’s obvious mommy issues, Nicolaou is way more interested in pushing these characters into new and uncharted territory rather than recycling existing plot points.
Practical Effects and Gothic Atmosphere Still Impress
Yet, much like the first film, it’s Romania itself that makes the movie worth watching. The ruins of Castle Vladislav are even more majestic now, and visiting the moody streets of Bucharest with its surprisingly punk-rock nightlife made for a nice change of pace when compared to the original film’s quiet village setting. Once again, the abundance of interesting locations makes the movie feel much more expensive than it really is, with the filmmakers surrounding our characters with a living, breathing environment that would be impossible to recreate in a studio.
The increased freedom also allowed Nicolaou to flex his filmmaking muscles and tackle more ambitious blocking/composition in the sequel. The low budget and tropey script mean that the visuals don’t always work, but it’s consistently clear that this neo-expressionist style could only come from a passionate team attempting to pay homage to the shadowy horror classics of yesteryear. If the retro atmosphere isn’t enough for you, there’s enough practical gore here to satisfy even the most demanding of horror hounds!
Radu himself is also far more interesting now that Hove is more comfortable working alongside an international crew, with the actor having gone on record explaining that, while he spent more time drinking vodka than working while shooting the first movie, the sequel was a much more creatively satisfying experience for everyone involved. The character’s relationship with his abusive Mummy is also a highlight of the expanded mythology, especially since the practical effects that bring her to life are just as freaky now as they were back in ’93.
My only real gripe with the horror elements of the picture comes from the glaring absence of the diminutive stop-motion minions from the first film, though I guess the surprisingly entertaining addition of Professor Popescu (Michael Denish) and his archeological antics mostly make up for that.
Bloodstone: Subspecies II is obviously the middle chapter of a trilogy, with the ending feeling a lot less definitive than its predecessor as several plot threads are left to dangle in the wind, but I appreciate how the flick explores new ground while remaining faithful to nearly all the ideas that made the original such a good time. While I don’t think it’s as big of an improvement over the first movie as some fans make it out to be, Bloodstone is definitely worth revisiting if you’re a fan of old-fashioned vampire yarns.
Tune in next time for the thrilling conclusion to this initial trilogy, Bloodlust: Subspecies III!
You must be logged in to post a comment.