Editorials
Language Is No Barrier: The Spanish Version of ‘Dracula’ Remains a Lesser-Known Universal Monsters Classic
“Listen to them. The Children of the night. What music they make.”
It’s a line embedded into pop culture and horror history. In no small part due to the lasting overall impact of Tod Browning and Bela Lugosi’s iconic adaptation of Dracula, which recently celebrated its 90th anniversary. While most of us know this particular version like the back of our hand, did you know there’s another version that also celebrates its 90th birthday this month?
By the 1920s, American film studios began to see the profitability of selling their films to international markets. While silent films could be translated to foreign markets with relative ease, the rise of the sound film era by the late 1920s proved to be far more difficult. This was long before the days of overdubbing and major audio modifications that we have in filmmaking today. As a solution, studios came up with what at the time seemed like an ingenious solution: to film an entirely separate version specifically made to be sold to international markets. The most famous of these films you ask? Dracula, directed by George Melford for Spanish-speaking markets.
Universal, in a cost saving initiative, used the same sets that Browning used on his own film. Tod Browning would direct his scenes in the daytime and in the evening Melford and company would show up and shoot their version. Essentially Universal was making the exact same movie twice for multiple markets, which in retrospect seems like a nightmare. But without the common availability and invention of dubbing, there was no other way around it.
For Melford’s Dracula, the role of the infamous vampire was given to Carlos Villarias. A native actor from Spain, Villarias brings a different energy to the role. Whereas Lugosi’s portrayal brings a sense of nuance to the blood-drinking villain, Villarias’ Count is at times a bit more unhinged. A choice that works in its own right for this unexpected adaptation. The role of Mina was reworked into Eva for the Spanish version and portrayed by the wonderful Lupita Tovar, who is Mexican Cinema royalty. Not only was she in this version of Dracula, but she was also in the film Santa, which was the first fully sound Mexican film production.
Melford was allowed dallies to the Browning production and during the day spent time studying them. Keen on making his film stand out, the Spanish-language version contains more elaborate cinematography and effects. There are less tracking shots, but overall the film is framed like a stage play (ironic, since its source material is the 1924 Broadway play rather than the novel). It’s almost like witnessing the film for the first time if you’re a fan of the more popular and accessible Browning adaptation.
Dracula premiered on March 11, 1931 in Havana, Cuba followed by a premiere in New York City on April 24 later that year. Reception at the time was insubstantial and the film was quickly forgotten to time. Or so we thought. Like the infamous Count himself, the Spanish-language version of Dracula resurfaced in 1977 where it was partially screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This inspired Universal to eventually release the completed film to home media in the early 90s where it found a new appreciation for its differences to its English counterpart. Since then it has been included as a special feature to Lugosi’s film and is widely accessible today.
Time for me to get a little personal for a moment. In the late 90s the Spanish-language version of Dracula was a way for me to bond with my late grandfather. A native from Mexico, his first language was Spanish and he struggled to understand and follow English-speaking media in his older age. Not being a fluent Spanish speaker myself, I would try to seek out subtitled movies for us to watch. One of these being Dracula. We would watch it together and he would love it; the experience was instrumental in my blossoming love for the horror genre as a whole as a kid. He’s gone now, but Dracula will always remind me of the time and experience I got to spend with him, loving horror movies together.
Though the Spanish-language version of Dracula hasn’t reached the pop culture heights of the Browning/Lugosi adaptation, it stands in its own right as a unique adaptation of the same source material. It also represents a paradigm shift that Hollywood and filmmaking as a whole were facing at the time. It exists in this strange place where we were moving from the past and into what the future of the format would be. With this version being widely accessible as a special feature of the English version, now is a good time as any to celebrate this lesser known Universal Monsters classic from the golden age of monster films.
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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