Editorials
[It Came From the ‘80s] ‘The Brain’ That Wouldn’t Stop Eating People
With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
Opening scenes are a big deal in horror. They set the tone, but they also serve to hook the viewer with a memorable kill before diving into the story and character introductions. In the “anything goes” era of ‘80s horror, that meant a number of completely off the rails opening scenes. The Brain offers a great example. Downstairs a mom is watching a self-help show on TV, the house decked out in Christmas decorations, while her teen daughter looks down from the upstairs landing with disapproval. There are clear personal, negative feelings toward the show’s host, Dr. Anthony Blakely (Re-Animator’s David Gale). The teen retreats to her room, and her teddy bear starts bleeding from its eyes, moving on its own. Monstrous arms burst through her walls and grab her. So do weird tentacles, or are they tongues? Her mom answers her screams and she, too, is grabbed by the tentacles. The teen stabs them with scissors to free her mother, and oops, she’d killed her mother instead- there’s no sign of monster or struggle anywhere. Was it all in her head?
Cut to the film’s true protagonists, teen prankster Jim (Tom Bresnahan) and his girlfriend Janet (Cynthia Preston). Jim’s pranks have pushed the school admin’s buttons once too many, and they demand his parents send him to Dr. Blakely’s care. What no one knows is that Dr. Blakely is in cahoots with an alien brain with a penchant for brainwashing and mind control. Luckily, Jim is a male adolescent with a healthy libido, which somehow thwarts the brain’s attempts at complete mind control. On the one hand, The Brain subverts the ‘80s trope that sex equals death in horror, but on the other, this is just one of many nonsensical plot points. That’s not always a bad thing, though.
The Brain is the brainchild of director Ed Hunt and screenwriter Barry Pearson, who’d previously teamed up to deliver creepy kid slasher film Bloody Birthday (currently streaming on Shudder). They take aim at the self-help/self-esteem craze of the period, by way of low-budget sci-fi horror that feels apropos of the atomic ‘50s. The characters and plot tend to make no sense, the dialogue can be atrocious, and the effects are often cheesy where the Brain is concerned, and yet it’s entertaining anyway.
The Brain itself looks like an oversized Madball with a large rat-tail (it’s actually a spinal column). It grows larger and larger as it chows down on humans, and the effect is essentially a puppet plopping down on the human victim and engulfing it. The creature and special makeup effects were handled by Mark Williams (Aliens, Blue Monkey). While the main body of the creature is a rubber-suited monster puppet, Williams got to play with monstrous tongue tentacles, limbs, and green goo for blood- there’s a more to the effects than the goofiness of the creature, though that’s part of the charm. Plus, lots and lots of slime. The highlight of the movie, in terms of special effects, involved a gnarly reveal behind David Gale’s character, proving Dr. Blakely has a lot in common with Dr. Carl Hill from Re-Animator.
If there’s been one continuous, brutal enemy of horror throughout the years, it’s cancer. It’s claimed many of our beloved horror heroes, and special effects artist Mark Williams is among them, having passed away at the too young age of 38 from respiratory failure. It happened a month after receiving a cancer diagnosis in 1998. Williams had just been announced as the head of special effects for Full Moon Pictures, worked as effects design coordinator for rockers like Alice Cooper and Poison, did makeup effects on notable films like The Fly and The Abyss, and even had small roles in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and A Return to Salem’s Lot. He was entrenched in genre work, but his is a name that doesn’t come up often because he was taken far too soon.
The Brain isn’t groundbreaking at all, as far as storytelling and special effects go, but it does perfectly capture the wacky practical effect driven fun of the decade. It helps that there’s a huge level of unpredictability, both in Jim and his girlfriend’s behavior and the alien Brain’s ultimate goals. Plus, more David Gale in horror is always a good thing. This movie has just the right amount of cheese to amuse any drive-in mutant.
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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