Editorials
Trick or Treating in the ’80s: The Nostalgic Halloween Spirit of ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’
Amblin’s Gremlins has carved out permanent space in requisite holiday viewing, but there’s a glaring omission when it comes to Halloween fare. Granted, Steven Spielberg’s E.T. is saccharine family sci-fi not horror, but it does follow that same “boy and his dog” formula that makes Gremlins so utterly charming. And like Gremlins, E.T. perfectly captures its holiday spirit. A holiday that so happens to be the best one of them all: Halloween. Spielberg’s classic is a fantastic hidden Halloween gem to initiate budding genre fans.
Released in 1982, E.T. tells of a peaceful alien botanist accidentally left behind when gathering specimens in a California forest. He finds shelter in the shed of a nearby suburban home, which happens to belong to divorced single mom Mary (Dee Wallace). Mary is struggling to raise her three young kids, who curse at the dinner table and pretend to be sick in order to skip school. She’s so stressed she doesn’t notice the alien living in her backyard. But her 10-year-old son Elliot does (Henry Thomas).
Elliot lures the alien, who he and his siblings dub E.T., out of hiding using Reese’s Pieces candy. Or rather, a trail of Reese’s Pieces candy. Elliot and E.T. form a deep bond, including a telepathic connection, and Elliot wrangles his siblings together to help keep his alien secret. Poor E.T. wasn’t meant for Earthbound living, though, and falls ill. Leaving Elliot and his brother Michael to sneak E.T. out of the house under the guise of Halloween trick or treating to help E.T. phone home.
It’s this joyous segment of the film that best captures the Halloween spirit. From getting dressed up and ready for trick or treating, and finding a suitable costume for E.T., to Mary’s ecstatic reaction to seeing her kids all decked out for an evening of Halloween fun. Even Mary is in on the Halloween fun, dressed up as a cat and her home prepared for an onslaught of trick or treaters.
Spielberg relays that sense of awe and wonderment of what it was like to be let free on Halloween and roam the neighborhood in search of candy by framing it through E.T.’s eyes. Through the little eyeholes of his ghostly sheet, we feel and see E.T’s curiosity. We feel his trying to make sense of the costumes, whether the more ghoulish costumes have “ouchies” or whether a young Yoda is a friend like him. It’s through Halloween that Spielberg nails that childhood magic and nostalgia. What would it feel like to be a kid again on Halloween? This scene sums it up.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was the highest grossing movie of the ‘80s. In a decade where much of the top 10 highest grossers were sci-fi, no less. It was a more personal tale for Spielberg too, who had coped with his parents’ divorce as a child by developing an imaginary alien friend. It’s those themes of divorce, friendship, and government paranoia that makes E.T. withstand the test of time. That makes it a poignant family film. But it’s one that merits more discussion during the Halloween season; it’s October and the Halloween setting isn’t just a backdrop. It’s interwoven throughout. When family-friendly channels dedicate their Halloween programming to seasonal frights and feels, E.T. should make the cut. Trick or treating, epic candy choices, and friendship.
Tis the season!
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!
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