Editorials
‘Killing Ground’: A Brutal New Year’s Survival Tale from Down Under [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.
The Land Down Under has a menacing reputation to outsiders, and Australian cinema does very little to change that opinion either. Damien Power’s Killing Ground follows suit as he endangers campers in the days after Christmas. Yet, the director’s debut is not the usual routine of yokels terrorizing urbanites. Through heinous acts and immeasurable amounts of both physical and emotional pain, this movie reveals the dark parts of humanity — and not just the obvious ones.
Australian filmmakers have a tendency to embellish the perils of living in their continent’s most outlying areas. Leaving the city for these rural parts has always been a bad idea in Ozploitation. As fantastic as the likes of Rogue and Wolf Creek are, though, any semblance of reality they possess quickly fades once creative license takes precedence. Meanwhile, the dire situation in Killing Ground is consistently plausible. Blunt storytelling and cinematography raise the believability factor as well, seeing as viewers are never pulled out of the movie due to an unmistakably cinematic effect or stylistic choice. Katie Flaxman’s editing is also crucial when balancing the fluctuations in time. On the whole, Killing Ground taps into the rawness and force of classic grindhouse cinema a deal better than many of its contemporaries.
The story of Killing Ground is simple enough: Sam and Ian (Harriet Dyer, Ian Meadows) head to a remote beach for New Year’s Eve. Although they see a campsite set up nearby, the occupants are nowhere to be found. Sam’s concern proves to be right when she and Ian find an unconscious toddler named Ollie (Liam Parkes, Riley Parkes) nearby. They hurry to reunite Ollie with his missing parents (Julian Garner, Maya Stange), but they never stop to consider maybe he has no family to go back to. The answer is eventually revealed as two strangers, Chook and German (Aaron Glenane, Aaron Pedersen), show up to “help” them.
As 16-year-old Emily (Tiarnie Coupland) intentionally burns a marshmallow over an open campfire, she tells her father she likes watching it melt. Her simple amusement fits in with the movie’s overall theme of finding pleasure through destruction. Emily’s form of entertainment of course hurts nothing apart from a confection, whereas Chook and German’s idea of delight is completely ruinous. The two antagonists are driven by their baser desires; the deadly duo descends upon the Baker-Voss family during their campout and commits unspeakable acts. Their crimes only grow in enormity until there is nothing left to destroy. Or so they think.
Chook and German do not come from a standard stock of backwoods villains. Yes, they are inherently coarse, immoral, and prone to violence. German seems to be the more level-headed of the two while Chook is surprisingly shrewd. When the latter is not threatening his victims with physical harm, he toys with their heads. In spite of their minute but distinct differences, Chook and German’s dynamic is better depicted than usual in these sorts of movies. Indeed they are reprehensible lowlifes who deserve what all is coming to them. However, Power allows them to be more than cutout evildoers; they are real people who so happen to do incredibly bad things.
Fans of movies like Killing Ground have a certain level of respect for the inevitable violence. That is not to say they condone the goings-on. On the contrary, they hope the brutality serves a higher purpose other than providing fodder. The victims’ ordeals ideally have to amount to something cathartic. All that wickedness has to be purged in one way or another. Power’s script admittedly staggers in this regard; there is never quite any discernible ambition about this wretched scenario. If that is the case, then the audience can only chalk this up to the sad but abiding fact that misfortune happens to everyone.
Sam and Ian’s relationship is put through the ringer. On top of fending off two murderers together, they witness how one another works through a crisis. This is where audiences are likely to feel disappointed. As Sam finds courage in the darkest of times, Ian hesitates and fumbles again and again. His choices do not reflect well on his overall personality, but in light of everything, can Ian be entirely blamed for how he reacted in the face of inordinate stress? Viewers naturally want their movie’s heroes to be heroic. In the moments they are not, the decision leads to upset and criticism. Even so, characters failing to do the right thing all the time can be more beneficial. Killing Ground favors a realistic approach, and how Power goes about writing Ian is not the narrative misstep it is so often made out to be.
In the same breath, Sam’s potential frustration toward her partner’s cowardliness and misjudgment would be understandable. This is after a sporadic marriage proposal where both halves were not yet aware of the other’s strengths and weaknesses if ever put in a life-or-death emergency. Sam acts bravely in the face of danger and proves she has the maternal instinct. On the other hand, this nightmare only exposed a side of Ian that Sam was totally unaware of. Ian is a far cry from misogynists and killers like Chook and German, but Sam expects better from the man she intends to marry and have children with. That concerned expression on Sam’s face at the end says it all as she visits Ian in the hospital. She now sees her fiancé in a new and unflattering light.
Killing Ground is a thoroughly uncomfortable watch. Whether the wanton cruelty offends or the characters’ questionable calls leave a bad taste, Power’s first feature is an absolute test of endurance. The director strives to make the most unforgiving survival tale possible and comes extraordinarily close to that objective.
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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