Editorials
How ‘The Witch’ Illustrates Family and Community as Our Worst Enemies
Family can be a thing, right? We love them dearly, of course, but every once in a while, they make us question how deep that love reservoir really goes. Family members can annoy us, criticize us, and show us the worst parts of ourselves. They know us the best; therefore, they know exactly where to stick the knife and which direction to twist it.
Those are the moments that suck, and those are the moments The Witch turns into unfiltered dread. If we set aside the horror tropes, Robert Eggers‘ 2011 flick is all about the awful things we do to those we love and just how easy it is for a community to eat each other alive.
The family in The Witch are doomed the second the opening credits end. Banished from their own community for being too hardcore religious—which is saying something for Puritans—they set out to create their own settlement. Spoilers for those who haven’t seen the flick, but it doesn’t go well. Truthfully it was never going to go well.
Satan and a coven of witches didn’t hex the family to turn them into the worst versions of themselves. They simply brought to boil what was simmering the entire time. An overbearing patriarch, a jealousy-ridden matriarch, two terrible twins, an adolescent son, and Thomasin, a teenage girl who is bordering on womanhood and just wants a way out, aren’t mixing well. It’s all made worse by the fact they’re isolated in the middle of nothing.
When people who love each other are put in uniquely terrible situations, the human equation of “human being” emerges. And it’s not always pretty. Everything they do becomes a thing because we notice behavior we didn’t before. The way they chew their food, clear their throat, or even the sound of their voice can start to annoy. An unprecedented inciting incident, like getting your baby stolen or a pandemic, highlight the flaws of the people we love most. We’re already on edge, and all it takes is one little nudge to push us over the precipice.
The Witch builds on all those moments that show us who our loved ones really are. Thomasin’s dad, realizing that, ya know, food is essential, trades her mother’s prized silver for hunting supplies. The mother, already a wreck because of her missing baby, blames Thomasin. Rather than do what a dad would do, he does what a flawed human might do. He lets Thomasin take the fall long enough where the couple legitimately discusses giving their oldest daughter away to another family.
This isn’t to say moms and dads across the globe want to give their children away. However, it does reinforce the fact that self-preservation is our number one instinct. Humans are complicated and oh so flawed. So, when push comes to shove, we may press back and hurt those we care about in the process.
Those who know us the best not only get close enough to sell us out, they also know where every single pressure point is. What’s worse is those people know precisely how long to squeeze to inflict maximum pain. That saying about hurt people hurting people? Yeah, it’s basically that in a nutshell. Thomasin’s youngest sibs are monumental pains in the butt who pick on her fears and insecurities. The twins are a mess, even if no one else in the family can see it. Seriously, why wouldn’t they be? Besides all the obvious reasons the movie presents, they’re also pretty much ignored. Like most children who feel neglected, they act out for attention.
Not saying it’s cool to accuse your big sister of witchcraft and pretend to be comatose, but the motivation is easily understandable. When a family suffers one trauma after another, it’s usually the kids who bear the brunt. Whether it’s Satan and his witches or COVID-19, that’s a pretty big brunt to carry for narrow shoulders. Setting aside their motivation, how the twins treat Thomasin is another example of her family turning against her when she needs them the most.
Our transgressions towards our family and our community are like Jenga blocks. We may get away with pulling a few out of place, but eventually, the whole thing comes tumbling down. For Thomasin, that devastation hits its peak when her father not only accuses her of being a witch but blames her for everything gone wrong. Whether it’s the barren land, the dead children, or just the toxic relationship he has with his wife, it’s all on Thomasin. Ultimately, she’s the reason God is no longer taking their calls. When nothing is going right, family is often in the crosshairs.
For men like Thomasin’s dad, ones filled with pride and hubris, a scapegoat is always necessary. People throughout history often looked to someone else to hiss and boo at for the ills of society, an easy answer to complex problems. Humans were never genuinely great at the whole “love thy neighbor” thing, even if we tell ourselves the opposite. The Witch puts all of that history in the harshness of daylight and forces us to reckon with an uncomfortable truth: maybe we are only as good as the world allows us to be.
It’s easy to be good when everything is excellent, but that learning curve gets sharper when the brown stuff hits the fan. Treating our inner circle right is far from a given; it’s a choice we make every day. Thomasin’s family made the wrong choices at every single fork in the road, causing her to make the only decision she could. Religious doctrine—and the Paranormal Activity franchise—says evil preys on the ripest fruit. Those already open to suggestions due to more than a couple of hardships are easy pickings for the wicked.
But The Witch goes one step further and says bad situations just make bad people worse. And unless people address the root of the issues within their families or their communities, it’s not a question of if something awful will pop off but when.
For Thomasin, and for many people in the real world, family truly is an F-word.
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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