Editorials
This Generation’s 10 Greatest Horror Expansions!
I’m crazy excited for the arrival of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but I’m also understandably a little frustrated I won’t be able to grab either console as soon as I would like. My therapist told me I shouldn’t bottle up these emotions, otherwise I’ll return to my dark place and black out, only to wake up three days later covered in pig’s blood (at least I think it’s pig’s blood) with odd, almost alien markings covering my entire body. Since I’d rather that didn’t happen to me again, I’m going to express my emotions the only way I know how, by writing to you.
All this week I’ve been celebrating the end of a wonderful console cycle with features covering the best horror games of this generation — from AAA blockbusters to smaller indie efforts — as well as a recent look back at some of the most disappointing games.
Since I’d rather not end this on a such a sour note, I’ve decided to extend this celebration with a look at some of this generation’s best horror-themed DLC and expansions — see my picks after the jump!
Resident Evil 5 was a pretty big deal for me. I had high hopes for it since it was following up Resident Evil 4, and in the months leading up to the game’s release I had written a bunch of features for the site I was writing for at the time writing about Resident Evil 5 as if it was the biggest thing to ever happen to video games. This glowing coverage led to my becoming friends with Capcom’s PR team, which invited me to their midnight launch party in San Francisco. The event was open to everyone, but I was allowed to interview some of the voice cast, including Roger Smith (Chris) and Karen Dyer (Sheva), as well as the game’s producer, Jun Takeuchi. That was a moderately big deal for someone who had only begun his “games journalist career” three months earlier.
Now, I enjoyed Resident Evil 5 a lot. I know some of you didn’t, but that wasn’t the case for me as I spent well over a hundred hours with a friend enjoying its hugely addictive co-op. That’s not to say I wasn’t disappointed by a few things, like the incredibly short campaign that can be completed in about three hours and the overall lack of scares, but that didn’t ruin it for me. Far from it. Capcom eventually threw their horror fans a bone with Lost in Nightmares, which followed Chris and Jill as they B&E’d their way into Spencer’s other mansion, a big house that happened to look eerily similar to the one where the original Resident Evil was set.
Lost in Nightmares is creepy, builds up the tension in that classic survival horror style, is brimming with fun nods to the original game and has some genuine scares, especially if you play it on the hardest difficulty where the radar is deactivated. If you feel burned by the series’ more action oriented direction, this is worth checking out.
I immediately fell in love with Undead Nightmare, even though I’m not the biggest fan of Red Dead Redemption. It’s a great game, it just isn’t for me. Red Dead Redemption felt too empty. Every time I tried to play it I was overcome by an overwhelming feeling of isolation, which eventually turned into boredom. Thankfully, this standalone horror-themed expansion is anything but that.
It’s humorous, in a self-aware sort of way, lengthy and manages to be different. Sure, it has zombies and yes, zombies are overdone, even in late 2010, but Undead Nightmare transformed a bright, spaghetti western into a scary post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested western that’s worth playing because it’s fantastic in every way. It also has a Unicorn.
I didn’t think it was possible, but when Infinity Ward turned all of Duty into the biggest gaming franchise of this console generation with Modern Warfare, Treyarch was the underdog. Every other year they’d give us a game that was solid, even though it never quite reached the level of quality of Infinity Ward’s next game released the following year. Since then, the tables have turned, with Treyarch giving us the superior Call of Duty experience as Infinity Ward rests on their laurels, churning out the same game every year.
Part of the reason for this switch is Treyarch isn’t afraid to be silly. They embrace silly. They’re willing to think outside the box, to get creative and take risks. The zombie mode introduced in World at War was brilliant and it immediately took off because it was unexpected. With each new entry they’ve expanded on it, making it bigger and better with each new Call of Duty. Black Ops II’s zombie mode is basically its own game at this point.
For me, the greatest thing they ever did came in the Escalation pack, which added a new map titled Call of the Dead. In it, you took on the role of one of four survivors — Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead) and Danny Trejo (Machete, Predators) — as they battle a horde of the undead led by George A. Romero. It really can’t get any better than that.
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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