Editorials
Maas Murder: ‘Sint’ Raises Hell During the Dutch Holiday of Saint Nicholas Day [Horrors Elsewhere]
Horrors Elsewhere is a recurring column that spotlights a variety of movies from all around the globe, particularly those not from the United States. Fears may not be universal, but one thing is for sure — a scream is understood, always and everywhere.
Every early December, children throughout parts of Northern Europe are seen leaving their shoes out overnight along with carrots and hay. This can only mean one thing — Sint is coming to town. Other normal customs to mark the anticipated event include writing poems and exchanging chocolate letters, but nothing about Dick Maas’ Sinterklaas-themed movie Sint (Saint) can be considered normal. The radical filmmaker instead commemorates the occasion with spilled blood as well as contests the saintliness of this holiday’s namesake.
For those new to Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicholas Day, the cherished festivity is held annually in the Netherlands. Other Europeans also observe but not quite on the same level as the Dutch. According to lore, a bearded old man in red, referred to as Sinterklaas, Sint-Nicolaas or simply Sint, voyages from Spain to give children presents on the eve of December 5th (Sinterklaasavond). He is joined by the Zwarte Pieten — Sint’s controversial helpers also known as the Black Petes — and a white steed. Kids leave out their shoes so they can receive gifts, and the carrots and hay are for the horse. By now, the neophytes might be thinking Sinterklaas’ frontman and Santa Claus are one and the same. The more secular Santa is in fact derived from Sint, who is then based on a historical figure, Saint Nicholas of Myra.
Sint is typically depicted as a benevolent character. Yet as the villain in a Maas dark comedy, the patron saint of children is treated to an extreme makeover. The fabricated truth comes out whenever the holiday coincides with a full moon. The tutelary figure, really a cruel and renegade bishop named Niklas (Huub Stapel), makes a rare appearance in Amsterdam and causes mayhem right under everyone’s noses. Everyone except Frank (Egbert Jan Weeber), a luckless high schooler caught in the crossfire, and the troubled detective (Bert Luppes) who narrowly escaped the killer ‘klaas as a child.
Anyone acquainted with the Maas-ter of Nether-Horror is aware of the thin plots in his oddball oeuvre. Sint is no different as it comes and goes with only a passable patchwork of familiar ideas to keep things moving. From a babysitter getting ambushed in her home to an army of the dead rolling in with the fog, there is at least some vintage John Carpentry going on here. However, switching a lethal Santa out with a demoniac rebranding of a beloved European entity like Sint adds uniqueness. A holiday figure going on a murder spree is nothing new in the horror genre, but a homicidal Sint hellbent on revealing his own wickedness to the public and shattering long-held beliefs is more novel than not.
Back in the ‘80s, Christmas horror pioneer Silent Night, Deadly Night achieved cinematic infamy after its release was vocally protested. Sint experienced a similar situation when Maas was sued over the film’s posters; concerned parents thought children would be scared of the sinister Sint. The court ultimately ruled in Maas’ favor. Although the hoopla over Charles Edward Sellier Jr’s movie only stoked others’ interest, parents’ anxiety toward Sint feels understandable now knowing the titular character descends upon thirty-five hospitalized kids at one point in the movie. Their imminent deaths take place off screen while the adults endure more graphic and unambiguous demises. Gore fiends should be sated by plentiful impalements and beheadings. Maas piques the audience’s morbid curiosity and cuts away before the kiddos come to nothing. The imagination fills in the blanks. Regardless, this decision seems out of character, but even an auteur who challenges decorum and esteems dark humor has his limits (imposed or otherwise).
As to be expected in a Maas’ production, the visuals do the heavy lifting in Sint. The director waives Christmas iconography to keep the movie strictly about Sinterklaas. A clean but drab aesthetic ushers in doom and gloom. The festive décor so common in American Christmas movies is absent as Sint shows a more modest-looking December in Amsterdam. The snowy city makes for both a great backdrop and a vital battleground. Niklas targeting victims on nearly empty streets seems bizarre in a city normally so bustling, yet it also captures that lonelier side of the holidays.
When asked if Sint satirizes traditions and religion, Maas said Catholicism needed “a big spanking” and the Pope is “one of the greatest villains” today. It comes as no surprise that his opinions are not too popular with conservatives, even though his singular brand of weirdness has wide appeal. What should be an irreverent horror-comedy is indeed a swipe at those in power everywhere. The government in Sint does what so many others like it have always done; it hides the truth. The people in charge wrap a bow around something unpleasant until the time comes to do it again. Their dishonesty is less about protecting the public and more to do with avoiding accountability. A deeper read of the cover-up — in particular a bishop doing harm to thirty-five kids — reveals Maas’ feelings about specific scandals within the Catholic Church.
Critics have knocked Sint for not living up to its fullest potential. There is some truth to that sentiment, seeing as the movie loses its footing near the end. Knowing that, this is one of Maas’ more ambitious movies. And that is saying a lot considering how much he generally refuses to color within the lines or play nice. This fearless Dutchman always has a lot to say, but his thoughts about Sinterklaas especially have more weight than usual.
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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