Editorials
Swimming With Sharks: Revisiting ‘Bait 3D’ 13 Years Later
Just when 2012’s Bait (a.k.a. Bait 3D) was swimming the way of other killer shark movies made in Jaws’ wake, its story eventually changed direction. Director Kimble Rendall didn’t follow that set pattern of bringing humans to the water. Quite the opposite; Bait brought the water, along with man-eating great whites, to them. And the end result is one example of “sharksploitation” that’s only become more unique as time goes by.
If not for Teen Wolf, Bait would have been helmed by another Aussie who knew his way around deadly creatures. Scheduling issues, however, led to Russell Mulcahy handing the project over to Kimble Rendall. Even so, Mulcahy’s idea remained intact, albeit now revised by a whole team of writers. Whatever was changed in the process of switching out directors, though, didn’t include altering the movie’s setting of a supermarket. The thrill of Bait hinges on that unconventional backdrop, and getting the sharks to go there required writing in another terrifying part of nature.
Before reaching the “sharks in a submerged grocery store” part of the story, Bait leads off with its own tailored spin on buddy cop movies. Instead of a traumatized policeman, however, a former lifeguard named Josh (Xavier Samuel, The Loved Ones) is shown coping with the loss of his friend and co-worker (Richard Brancatisano), who’s also the brother of his ex-fiancée. Fittingly, as well as forebodingly, a great white was responsible for that work-related tragedy. And what a death it was — Brancatisano’s character is launched into the air by his sudden attacker, ravaged beneath the crimson waves, then finally dragged down to the watery depths.
Image: Xavier Samuel, Julian McMahon and Sharni Vinson in Bait.
Keep in mind, this isn’t a Jaws situation where the shark is concealed for most of the movie, in an effort to maintain suspense, but rather Bait’s center attraction is revealed both early and in its full glory. And like most viewers, Rendall would have preferred this had been done sans CGI, yet the opening and a few other shark-heavy sequences could only be pulled off with the help of digital wizardry. Making up for the few blatant instances of artificial sharkness, though, are convincing animatronics that are put to good use throughout — and not just when the waters are calm.
As impatient as it might come across, Bait still doesn’t unleash a tsunami on its characters without first setting up some narrative cardcastles. For starters, it’s been a year since Josh lost both his friend and ended things with his fiancée Tina (Sharni Vinson, You’re Next). And now Josh has barely clocked in for his shift at that doomed supermarket when he runs into his ex, who’s come here, of all places, to shop with her rebound (Qi Yuwu). This fateful reunion proceeds as anticipated and with virtually no resistance from either the new boyfriend or just the story itself.
Additional subplots ahead of the inciting disaster include a teen klepto (Phoebe Tonkin, The Vampire Diaries) at odds with her cop for a dad (Martin Sacks), a young couple (Lincoln Lewis and Cariba Heine) trapped in the parking garage with a recently sacked grocer (Alex Russell, Chronicle), and the two store robbers (Nip/Tuck’s Julian McMahon and Daniel Wyllie) who end up joining the other tsunami survivors. Needless to say, there are plenty of smaller crises to keep one’s interest whenever the sharks are busy sizing up their prey, and to ensure there’s always something happening on screen. This isn’t a movie with a lot of substantial cooling-off periods.
The tsunami has devastated this entire coastal area, but Bait concentrates on the aftermath inside the supermarket and its connected parking garage. There is enough potential for drama and horror there without needing to go out and find more. So Bait turns out to be a one-location movie that, thanks to some creativity and restless storytelling, offers movement and limits tedium. And instead of the one thread to center on, the movie has two, with neither one any less important than the other. The major difference between these plots is the tone; it’s dire and tense inside the store, whereas the garage characters provide levity. This mood juggling helps keep things relatively light, despite all the carnage and dreariness that come with emulating natural disasters.
Image: Lincoln Lewis and Cariba Heine in Bait.
The beauty of a movie like Bait is its commitment to the bit. Intentional joking aside, the whole story is wildly silly, yet it’s told with a very straight face. Although, to go and outright label this a horror-comedy feels flawed, given how aspects of the movie are genuinely grim. Even so, there is harmless fun to be had here, including the electrifying conclusion. Intentional or not, that cathartic final battle between the TASER-wielding, suspended Xavier Samuel and the last shark reeks of the showdown in Jaws 2. Nevertheless, the set piece is delivered without any winking at the audience, which makes it more amusing.
It’s not unheard of for Australian movies to fare better internationally than at home, and Bait was no exception. This fin flick was a flop at the domestic box office. Its massive success in China, however, led to a sequel-turned-standalone production called Deep Water until the real-life disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 caused it to be shelved. Nearly a decade later and the project, under new producers, has now been resuscitated with Renny Harlin (Deep Blue Sea) as the director. So even though that first version of Deep Water, which was a Chinese co-production, didn’t happen as intended, a deluge of Chinese, CGI-laden creature-features has since filled the void. One movie in particular, 2021’s Escape of Shark, even shares parallels with Bait.
Knowing Bait originated with Russell Mulcahy at the helm, the brain can’t help but wonder how the director of Razorback might have handled this movie. Yet Kimble Rendall, who passed away this year, turned in a solid, cross-genre actioner that works even when it probably shouldn’t. Paper-thin characters, dodgy visual effects, and iffy performances would be detrimental elsewhere. Bait, on the other hand, survives these shortcomings. It also essentially being an overpriced “B” movie, not to mention a who’s who of familiar Aussie actors, adds to its almost-peculiar sense of likability. No doubt Rendall’s history with humor in horror helped manage the gravity of the story, and his years of experience as a second-unit director made the in-camera moments more effective.
Admittedly, Bait doesn’t even begin to cross the threshold of madness that other subsequent sharksploitation movies have eagerly leapt over, but what it does do, it does well.
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.
Image: Xavier Samuel in Bait.
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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