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55%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #5,890
...out of 20,690 movies
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The evil vampire villain Radu returns to his hometown Prejnar, after spending years in exile. He steals the precious blood stone which is said to be bleeding from all saints, from his father and kills him. Meanwhile two American schoolgirls team up with a local girl for work on Romanian culture. Radu becomes attracted to them but runs into trouble when his brother Stephan helps the girls.
--IMDb
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Now, that is a film I had forgotten about for years and years. I was digging through one of my many boxes of VHS tapes and stumbled across both "Subspecies" and the sequel. Released in 1991, this is one of the most inventive and enjoyable vampire films from the 1980's-early 1990's. It was a film that was rather popular on VHS when it was released, but did not do extraordinarily well in theatres. The sequels, other than the first, were not stellar, but the original remains very enjoyable and very visually pleasing.
As low budget as they came back in 1991, "Subspecies" centers around the vampire Radu (Anders Hove), who kills his father, steals the previous Blood Stone and then returns to his home after spending years away. He becomes attracted to two American girls (Lauren Tate, Michelle McBride) and a local girl (Irina Movila) who are working on a school project about Romanian culture. Radu has some pretty sinister plans for the girls, that is until his brother Stefan (Michael Watson) steps in and helps the girls. Angus Scrimm has a memorable cameo in the film as King Vadislav.
What really separates this film from most other vampire films is the make-up. Radu's make-up is some of the best I have seen in any horror film, and it's obvious the money went to all the right places with this picture. Director Ted Nicolaou focuses the attention of character development and the story instead of elaborate action sequences. This is a film with an actual tone and feel to it -- a film that has a believable and entertaining storyline...and still manages to have bad ass sequences of vampires tearing up innocent victims. That's what it's all about.
It is very difficult to find this film these days, but I recommend you try your best to re-discover this classic. I would love to see a decent director tackle a remake of "Subspecies". It was so low budget and had so much to offer in way of intriguing storyline, a 2007 Hollywood remake might be just what it needs to find its audience again. "Subspecies" is one of the best vampire films ever made, and it definitely takes a different spin on the whole genre that we haven't seen since. They took something expected and turned it into the unexpected. 8/10.
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#1:
Ginose
- added May 9, 2007 at 7:05pm
Easily one of my favorite "vampire" films of all
time. A b-movie king, so to speak. Radu stands as
one of my all-time favorite horror villans.
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#2:
Zombieboy
- added December 30, 2008 at 10:33pm
The face he makes when they first see him...we
watch that over and over for laughs. Anyone ever
see a prop replica of thee Bloodstone? ME WANT!
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