Movies
The Story Behind the Missing Scenes in the ‘Black Christmas’ Remake
Ten years ago, Black Christmas spread holiday fear at the box office.
It may not pop up on many “Best Remakes” lists, but Glen Morgan’s 2006 re-imagining of Bob Clark’s Black Christmas is a film I personally have a whole lot of love for – so too does Jess Hicks, who wrote a piece in defense of the remake back in 2014. Granted, the film was undoubtedly a bastardization of the original – Billy is freakin’ yellow?! – but as its own movie, it’s a damn fun flick that totally nails the Christmas theme. While the original is a scary and suspenseful masterpiece, the remake is a gory slasher that feels ripped out of the ’80s, and I love it for that.
After revisiting Black Christmas 2006 (Black X-Mas, if you prefer) this past weekend I found myself digging for info and fun facts about the movie – among other things, I learned that it was marketed as a Final Destination sequel over in Japan! – and I was reminded that the original theatrical trailer was home to some pretty memorable moments that never actually ended up appearing in the film itself. They weren’t in the theatrical cut, they’re not in the unrated cut, and you won’t even find them in the DVD’s deleted scenes section. What gives?!
First off, let’s revisit that original trailer.
What’s that? You don’t remember a scene on a frozen lake wherein a woman reaches her hand through the ice? And that spinning Christmas light killing machine isn’t ringing any sleigh bells either? There’s a good reason for that. Because neither scene is anywhere to be found in any cut of the movie. And it wasn’t that those scenes were cut from the film after the trailer was put together, as is often the case with scenes that appear in trailers but not in the actual movies. Rather, those scenes were shot specifically for the trailer, after filming had wrapped.
Weirder still, they were shot behind Glen Morgan’s back. And he wasn’t happy about it.
Speaking with Chris Vander Kaay and Kathleen Fernandez-Vander Kaay for the recently released book Anatomy of Fear, Morgan detailed the whole story.
The guy who played Agnes was a focus puller named Dean Friss. After the movie was finished, we got a call from Weinstein’s marketing guys about going to pick up some shots for TV spots, ornaments and stuff. So I said, “Okay, go ahead,” being a good sport. I get a call from [Friss] about being in LA shooting some stuff for the TV spots. He was telling me something about carrying a gun. So I looked into it and they shot footage of Michelle Trachtenberg running around with a shotgun, and there’s a weird lawnmower electric light thing on the roof. So if the audience sees that and likes it, they go to the movie and don’t see it. And if they don’t like it, they don’t go to the movie. I’m sure it was against guild rules, and I didn’t understand.
Most of the scenes shot for the trailer feature young actress Jillian Murray (Cabin Fever 3: Patient Zero), who didn’t actually appear in Black Christmas at all; that’s her falling off the roof, tangled in Christmas lights, and that’s also her in the aforementioned frozen lake scene. As for the scene of Michelle Trachtenberg wielding a shotgun that Morgan references in the book, that was only used for a TV spot that I wasn’t able to track down – in the spot, she aims the shotgun at someone ringing the sorority house’s doorbell and says, “Merry Christmas, motherfucker!”
Morgan talks openly about his troubles with Black Christmas in Anatomy of Fear, revealing that it didn’t really even end up being his movie. The Weinstein brothers, he says, had their hands all over the film, insisting that he increase the violence, the silliness, and even change the original ending. The two killers (Billy and Agnes)? That was also their idea, rather than Morgan’s:
I felt that a ten million dollar movie of Black Christmas didn’t need anyone’s help, and they should have left us alone. But they had to have the two killers, and then they were after kids from “The O.C.” We compromised a lot.
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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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