Editorials
In Memoriam: Remembering ‘Silent Hill’
Today’s the day. I didn’t want it to be, and I’m sure you didn’t either, but none of that matters anymore. This is the day when you and I were suddenly, cruelly and unceremoniously separated from tomorrow’s generation of gamers.
Last month, Konami effectively shuttered Metal Gear developer Kojima Productions and announced they’d soon be parting ways with one of its top designers, Hideo Kojima. The house that Metal Gear built may be no more, but the man who helped mold its legacy will be sticking with its killer long enough to wrap up development of The Phantom Pain.
After leaving us to simmer in our own frothy mixture of frustration and anxiety regarding the fate of Silent Hills, Konami finally got around to letting us know they’ve officially pulled the plug on a dream project that would’ve brought together Hideo Kojima — one of this industry’s greatest and strangest minds — and director Guillermo Del Toro.
Guillermo is an undeniably brilliant director and storyteller who also happens to be uniquely skilled at breaking my heart. Between InSane and Silent Hills — not to mention the numerous canned film projects he’s been involved in — this wonderful man is racking up quite the body count of slain dreams and unfulfilled promises. I still love him, but goddamn if this relationship doesn’t feel one-sided sometimes.
Before we get too deep, I’d like to warn you of what’s to come.
Our music editor, Jon, recently dedicated a piece to explaining how nonsensical it was to cancel Silent Hills. It’s a good read that you may want to keep in mind, if only so you’ll have something to use as a chaser for what I’m about to add to the conversation.
This will almost certainly be a bummer of an article. I’m upset, and since I’m not that interested in counting my blessings or observing silver linings — I’ve already tried being optimistic — the next best thing I could think of was a tribute. This may even qualify as group therapy.
I was away this weekend, sweetly unaware of the fact that Konami had made the bizarre decision to kill a series that’s had a monumental impact on this industry, the horror genre, and me. Especially me. There’s a solid chance I wouldn’t be writing this story now if it weren’t for how deeply Silent Hill 2 resonated with me so many years ago. It might not seem like much, video games get cancelled all the time, but few have this much potential, and fewer still are burdened by the future of a storied franchise like Silent Hill.
As disappointing as this news was to many of us, the worst part of all of it lies with what it means for Silent Hill. It’s disappointing that I won’t be able to play this game, but that’s not the reason why this is upsetting. We gamers have a tendency to feel more entitled than we actually are. Konami was fully within their right to do what they did, and we too have the right to say their decision sucks.
This series deserved this rare chance to be relevant again. It deserved to have two of the most creative minds in entertainment working to make it glorious again. It deserved so much, and while there may very well be a future after this, it won’t be able to regain that momentum. The P.T. demo wasn’t just clever, it was also ridiculously effective, but even it will soon be scrubbed away by the empty husk that now calls itself Konami.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen to them. It’s no longer listed on the New York stock exchange, but many of the claims that the publisher is doomed tend not to take into account their many projects that aren’t related to console gaming. So while I don’t think that Konami, as a company, is dead, I do think that Konami, as a presence in this industry, is just about there.
Let’s say Konami decides to pursue another Silent Hill game. After all this, it’d be an understatement to say that my confidence in the company has diminished significantly. That leaves us with one option I can think of. Konami doesn’t owe us a thing, but if they’re at all interested in making a good decision amid all these horrible ones, they should sell the IP to a more capable publisher.
This leads me to my big question: Which publisher do you trust with the future of Silent Hill?
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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