Bloodstone: Subspecies II

This is a straight-to-video vampire movie. Were some of you expecting a masterpiece? I wonder why people take such a perverse joy out of bombing a film like this! It really is much better than its low rating would suggest.

Moody directing, lush Romanian locations, and deliciously over-the-top villains like Radu and Mummy add up to a gruesomely wonderful viewing experience. Denise Duff gives a sympathetic performance, and it sure doesn't hurt that she's a "10" on the Brian scale. The folk music score is another highlight.

I've shown this movie to a number of people - gals and guys of different professions, with varying levels of sanity - and all of them have liked it. If you want to rent a horror movie that's violent but not repulsive, and clever enough to hold your attention when there aren't killings on screen, then "Subspecies II" is the flick for you (sorry about the bad poetry there!).

From puppetmaster to Castle freak Fullmoon pictures collection of lowbudget horror films have graced or in some cases disgraced the screen for sometime. Yet even in Fullmoon's lamest efforts we see the attempt to achieve a certain level of low end quality. Sadly, they tend to fall short. But occationally they hit the bullseye. Such is the case with the solid series of vampire films, Subspecies.

As with most modern vampire flicks, Subspecies serves up the standard amounts of gore and undead erotica. What sets them apart from other lowbudget horror films is good acting, moody atmosphere and well defined charactors.

In the subspecies series we are treated to an interesting game of cat and mouse waged between two erstwhile vampires. Radu Vladislas, a cadaverous master bloodsucker and the object of his desire, the fetching fledgling Michelle Morgan.

After a pedestrian first outing subspecies 2 elevates the series with the addition of talented Denice Duff in the role of Michelle. She and well regarded Dutch actor Anders Hove who plays Radu share an excellent on screen chemistry.

Picking up where the original film left off we find Michelle fleeing castle Vladislas for the imagined saftey of Bucharest. Radu, with the aid of some slick, shadowy special effects, pursues. In Bucharest the two vie for possession of the bloodstone, a mystical artifact known to 'drip with the blood of saints'.

As events unfold, both Radu and Michelle acquire allies to aid them in their respective causes. It is through these secondary charactors interesting insight into Radu and Michelle is given.

In conversations with his 'mummy' we discover Radu to be nothing like the vile nightcreature we have come to know. He is more like a frightened child. Shunned by his family. Unable to mingle with normal humans due to his ghoulish appearance, Radu is lonely. He is terrified by the prospect of being alone throughout enternity. He needs Michelle as much for company as any sexual desires he may harbor.

In Michelle we find not the cringing co-ed from the first film. Miss Duff's interperetation reveals a fiercely determined young woman valiantly struggling against the bloodlust of Vampirism. Her mortality lost she opts for the next best thing. She plans to use the bloodstone for sustenance rather than attacking human beings. In this way she hopes to retain a semblence of her humanity.

Rarely has such depth been given to charactors in a film of this level.

The movie itself moves along at a steady pace ending in a satisfying cliffhanger climax. By the far the best of the subspecies series.

Terrible? No this is not terrible. Actually Subspecies 2 is the best of the 4, soon to be 5 films. This time Michelle the survivor of the weaker part 1 seeks the help of her sister to escape her stalker, vampire Radu. Good story, acting, and effects. ***1/2 out of *****.

This film picks up right where the first film left off. Brand new vampire Michelle must flee Castle Vladislas after the eternally slobbering Radu kills her lover, the Good Vampire Stefan (no great loss, really). Michelle has not gone away empty handed however; the life-giving Bloodstone is now in her possession, and Radu wants it back. Finding Michelle is no problem, but killing her (as he had originally intended) proves much more difficult as the hideous Radu decides he wants both the Bloodstone and Michelle for his own.

Denice Duff is quite good as the new Michelle here, stalking victims in humid European nightclubs with a seductive coldness, while at the same time desperately trying to deny the murderous impulses which disgust her. She is heartbroken without being whiny, tragic and lost but refusing to be anything other than what she has become. Her scene in the hotel is one of the best in the film, as she cries herself to sleep and then wakes up screaming as the full light of morning comes burning through her window, forcing her into the cold refuge of the shower stall where she is later discovered, presumed dead and carried off in a body bag, only to awaken at dusk in full panic once more.

New characters include Michelle's sister from America, responding to Michelle's desolate and panicked phone call. Joining her later are a young police detective and a Van Helsing-ish man who leads them to Castle Vladislas. Radu's "Mummy" is here as well, a cackling lawn gnome of a woman who is in desperate need of some Oil Of Olay. But Michelle and Radu always remain central, Radu disgusting in his cruelty and yet almost pathetic in his newfound love for the pretty Michelle; Michelle horrified and yet drawn to the ancient vampire who was responsible for making her what she is. Their relationship is most unique, a true Beauty and the Beast pair.

While not as Gothically creepy as the first Subspecies, Bloodstone is still a strong entry in the series, visually compelling and with a good, strong storyline to boot. All the actors are earnest and believable simply because (with the exception of the Immortal Michelle and her icy-white radiance) they are approachable looking, attractive without being blindingly so. And then there's Radu...

Radu is the main reason I am as big a fan of these films as I am. He is gross, manicure-impaired, ugly as all hell (literally!), and yet he's also aristocratic and cunning with a wicked sense of humor and an intelligence that has escaped most new vampires. He's not ashamed of who or what he is. He enjoys his cruelty, and his bloodlust and his eagerness to show Michelle the ropes is like the worlds most perverted Hallmark card. It's great! I said it before and I will say it again: Radu is what a vampire should be, and his presence makes these films totally enjoyable. 8 stars out of 10 for this one.

Having sensibly disposed of Stefan and focused on the far more interesting Radu, the Full Moon crew really gets this series rolling with its second film. Michelle (Denise Duff, replacing the first film's Laura Tate) escapes Castle Vlad and flees to Bucharest, taking with her the precious Bloodstone. Desperately battling her own developing vampirism, she begs her sister Rebecca to take her back to America, but when Rebecca arrives, Michelle - ashamed of her condition - finds it near-impossible to face her. This sets up the film's central game of cat-and-bat-and-mouse, as the worried Rebecca and the resurrected Radu hunt Michelle through Bucharest's night time streets and Rebecca assembles a motley gang of Fearless Vampire Hunters [TM] to pursue her sister's tormentor. A terrific mixture of macabre and down-to-earth characters, with Duff standing out as the terrified but strong-willed Michelle, Melanie Shatner fine as brave and concerned Rebecca, Michael Denish enjoying the Van Helsing-esque role of Prof. Popescu and Ion Haiduc especially good as the pragmatic Romanian cop Lt. Marin.

The movie, however, *belongs* to Anders Hove as Radu. Hove brings a completely unexpected level of sympathy and emotion to the character. He gets under the skin of the monster makeup to wonderfully suggest the childlike nature, terrible loneliness, and unfed craving for love that offset Radu's displays of cruelty and sudden violence. The scenes with his horrific mother are genuinely affecting, as he tries desperately for even a moment of her approval. Hove's performance is certainly the core of this film and bids to become the main reason for further Subspecies films.