User Reviews

Didn't Radu die in the first Subspecies?

Well, yeah. But now his minions have simply reattached his head and taken the stake from out of his heart, allowing him to Hicks and Newt the hero of the first film, Stefan, killing him within moments of the film's opening, sending heroine Michele to Bucharest with the titular Bloodstone in the hopes of getting help from her sister Becky.

Meanwhile, Radu's mother - yes, known as Mummy - comes on the scene and tries to help him turn Michele to the side of the vampires, which leads directly into Bloodlust: Subspecies 3, which was shot at the same time as this film.

A rare sequel that is even better than the original, this starts strong and gets even better, with actually scary moments and a multi-layered antagonist. I don't own the box set and action figure of Radu for nothing.

The evil Radu returns with a vengeance after his subspecies minions help put him back together. After taking care of his brother, the dastardly One finds that Michelle, his brother's love interest/newly turned vampire (also newly Denice Duff, replacing Laura Tate who lijkely balked at doing the nudity) has run off with the precious Bloodstone.

This one being filmed back-to-back with part 3 should clue you in that you shouldn't expect any real semblance of an ending to part 2. So if you're not fully prepared to set aside around 3 hours to watch both together, you'll likely be disappointed by a fairly large cliff-hanger.

That gripe aside, I enjoyed Subspecies 2 as much, if not more, than the first. It has more action and meat to the story.

Eye Candy: Denice Duff provides a full-frontal

Having seen and enjoyed the original, I saw this on late night TV and was excited because I didn't realise there was a sequel to Subspecies. (I have now seen them all)

Although I enjoyed this movie (and Anders Hove was great as Radu as usual), I have two major gripes with it that bother me too much to see it as an equal to the original.

1) Stefan. Now I'm not debating that Radu was definitely the better character of the two (more conflicted, better actor etc) but I liked Stefan, the noble do gooder Vamp. And I liked the whole idea of the warring Vampire Brothers fighting over their birth right! And if I thought killing him off was a huge mistake, it wasn't nearly as bad as how they did it. It just seemed so.....bleh! Thats about all I can say really, just a total Anti-climax to the originals ending and a complete cop out (I know they could not get Michael Watson back for the sequel, but they could have recast him and let him day a little while into the movie, or even come up with ANYTHING but the death scene they eventually came up with. Bad bad writing.

2) Michelle's Sister. She just bothered me throughout, I found myself wanting her to get killed by the end, just to get her off my screen, didn't like the actress or the character.

In all though, the plot was pretty decent and even though the actress who played Michelle was changed (and grew her hair in record time) the film still maintained a level of enjoyability that kept me watching till the end. Like before the sets and locations were beautiful and the musical score was good. Anders Hove is a great actor in this role, it seems tailor made for him.

A good film, let down by one bad plot line and one bad actress.

5/10

Subspecies 2 picks up right where the first one ended, with Michelle(portrayed by the far more appealing Denice Duff) fleeing from a resurrected Radu. In Denice's possession is the Bloodstone, an ancient relic that contains the blood of saints, that Radu is determined to retrieve.

This doesn't suffer from the typical sequel downfalls, as director Ted Nicolaou keeps the set creepy and paces the film marvelously. Anders Hove, as cinema's most accurate vampire, albeit Max Schreck, is the only returning cast member from the original. Laura Tate does not reprise her role as Michelle, leaving the character to a far more capable and attractive Denice Duff.

As Denice struggles with her new found lifestyle, she calls her sister, portrayed by William Shatner's daughter Melanie, to help her. Obviously not thinking about her sister's safety, Denice delivers her to near certain death. Helping Melanie are US embassy stud Kevin Blair and oddball professor Michael Denish. Kevin portrays the skeptic, but is enamored with Melanie, so tags along.

I have seen all of the Subspecies films and this one is my second favorite, right behind the original.

VIOLENCE: $$$ (Denice struggles with feeding on a grungy rockstar wannabe while Radu indulges. There is moderate vampire mayhem here but the gore in the original was superior).

NUDITY: $$ (Denice takes the patented horror film shower scene which Ted plays more for characterization than for skin. He shows the tortured woman weeping under the showerhead and doesn't use the gratuitous angle).

STORY: $$$$ (The screenplay is rather solid despite Denice's characters lack of regard for her sister's safety. The story emphasis is on Denice, as we must watch and see if she can resist Radu and if Radu can control his "fledgling").

ACTING: $$$$$ (Exceptional acting, supplied chiefly by Denice Duff. Ms. Duff has the unrivaled ability to capture every emotion in the human emotional handbag. Her work far exceeds Laura Tate's boring portrayal of Michelle in the original. Denice Duff should offer acting lessons to all those A-List sorry excuses for actresses that the tabloids love so much! Anders Hove was better in the original; much more fiendish than he is here).

"Bloodstone: Subspecies II" *does* assume you've seen the first in this Full Moon vampire series. It begins as evil blood sucker Radu (Anders Hove) is resurrected. Michelle (Denise Duff), our lead from the first movie, has been "vampirized" and is struggling with her drastically altered existence. Radu is now quite taken with her, but she's managed to steal the precious "Bloodstone", the ancient artifact that drips the blood of the saints. Radu becomes determined to get this object back and to win Michelles' favour. Meanwhile, Michelles' distraught sister Rebecca (Melanie Shatner) takes a flight to Romania to lend whatever help she can. Rebecca is soon joined by a kindly old professor, Popescu (Michael Denish), and Mel (Kevin Spirtas), a hunky young man from the American embassy.

"Bloodstone" bucks the odds and succeeds at being even better than "Subspecies" # 1. It's got absolutely beautiful atmosphere, having actually been filmed on location in Romania like several other Full Moon productions. The Old World flavour really helps a lot. The music and cinematography further assist in this regard. The makeup effects by Michael Deak and Wayne Toth are superb, but not that plentiful. The opening resurrection is particularly neat. The David Allen created title creatures appear only fleetingly. Although the material (director Ted Nicolaou also wrote the script) is treated with a great deal of seriousness, it leaves room open for some comedy relief, courtesy of a well meaning Romanian detective played appealingly by Ion Haiduc.

The actors are all terrific. Both Duff and Shatner make their characters sympathetic, and Denish is a delight as the helpful old man who becomes quite eager to play vampire slayer. Pamela Gordon is vivid as Radus' extremely decrepit old "mummy", and their scenes together are effectively creepy. But the real star, once again, is Hove, who's as solid an antagonist as one could hope to see in a horror film.

Overall, this is good entertainment, competently made and decently paced. It wraps up with a cliffhanger ending, setting up the next sequel, "Bloodlust: Subspecies III".

Seven out of 10.

Bloodstone: Subspecies II starts immediately after the events of the original Subspecies (1991) as the evil Vampire Radu's (Anders Hove) little monsters help reattach his head. Enraged by what has happened & that his brother Stefan & Michele (Denice Duff) have stolen the Bloodstone he seeks revenge, Radu kills his brother but impending sunlight saves Michelle. Waking up Michele realises that she is now a Vampire herself, distraught she run & travels to the city of Bucharest where she checks into Athene Palace hotel & calls her sister Rebecaa (Melanie Shatner) for help. Rebecca flies to Romania from the US but is told by the local police that Michele was involved in some strange accident, as Rebecca searches for her sister she discovers that Vampires are real & tries to help Michele as Radu wants both her & the Bloodstone...

Written & directed by Ted Nicolaou who ended up directing all the Subspecies films to date so far I actually thought Bloodstone: Subspecies II was an improvement on the original, it wasn't a ground breaking leap forward but I did think it was a slightly better film on all counts. The plot this time definitely has a lot more to it & more going on, the fact that Michele has become a Vampire, her sisters search for her, the police investigation, Radu's search for the Bloodstone & his deal with Mummy add up to a film with more depth, not a lot more depth but more depth all the same. The gore levels have improved considerably which helps & that awkward broken English dialogue isn't here. The pace is good, at only just over 80 odd minutes it's short enough not to outstay it's welcome & overall it's a better film than I was expecting. On the negative side Radu's little monsters only make a brief cameo at the start, in the original Subspecies Vampires didn't mind the sunlight but here they do, there's nothing that original or gripping here & it is kind of forgettable. It's OK to watch while it's on but you really won't have taken much from it when it's finished, or at least I didn't anyway.

Bloodstone: Subspecies II was mad around the time when Charles Band's Full Moon Entertainment had a deal with Paramount for theatrical distribution but that fell through & this went straight-to-video which is a shame because it's a fairly handsome film & certainly could have played cinemas. There's strong use of light & shadow, the period Romanian locations add considerable atmosphere to the film & there's some nice imagery here to like Radu's living shadow or the fact that Michele sleeps in an elegant glass top coffin during the day. There's more gore here, the graphic reattaching of Radu's head at the start is a neat effect, a Vampire is staked & decomposes, there's a fair amount of blood splatter & neck biting & there's this woman zombie thing as well who Radu calls Mummy for some reason.

Shot back to back with the next Subspecies film Bloodlust: Subspecies III (1994) on location in Romania, this is quite a nice looking film with good production values & was probably one of Full Moon's higher budgeted films. The acting is alright, Anders Hove returns as the evil Radu (how does he do anything with those long fingernails?), playing Michele this time around Denice Duff replaced Laura Mae Tate while Rebecca was played by Melanie Shatner who just happens to be the daughter of Captain Kirk himself William Shatner.

Bloodstone: Subspecies II is a decent enough horror film, it has a bit of atmosphere, a bit of gore, a bit of style & an OK plot but it's nothing amazing & it won't really last long in the memory. Followed by Bloodlust: Subspecies III & Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm while Vampire Journals (1997) was a spin-off film.

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Full Moon certainly has a well-deserved reputation for cheesey (and sometimes truly CRAPPY) movies, but I'm happy to say this isn't one of them! This vampire movie was filmed on location in Romania (seems it started a Full Moon trend as a few other Full Moon pics such as Lurking Fear, Dark Angel: The Ascent and Bloodlust: Subspecies 3 were also filmed there) and has a truly unique atmosphere that I've seen nowhere else. The lead character is Michelle, played by the lovely Denice Duff (who totally rules!), who has been made into a vampire by Stefan, a good vamp who mingled his blood with Michelle's to save her life (this takes place toward the end of Subspecies 1). Unfortunately, Radu (magnificently portrayed by Anders Hove, who is well known for his work on General Hospital), Stefan's evil brother who supposedly was decapitated at the end of Subspecies 1, has been reassembled by his Subspecies, apparently little creatures that form out of his blood and are seldom seen in the Subspecies series. Radu kills his brother and sets out to kill Michelle when he is stopped by the sunrise. When the sun sets Radu sets out to find the Bloodstone - a supposed holy relic that fills up with "the blood of the saints" - this is apparently very potent blood which can drive weaker vampires insane with it's power - but it also assures a vampire of an unlimited supply of blood. Michelle makes a break for it, taking the Bloodstone with her, and heads for Bucharest (capital of Romania, as if you didn't know). Radu fails to find the Bloodstone on his brother's now-skeletal remains, and simply loses it - ripping his murdered brother's skeleton apart, throwing it to the floor and then stops on it repeatedly (THAT'S brotherly hate!). Radu assumes correctly that Michelle will head for Bucharest so he heads that way as well. Michelle checks into a hotel and calls her sister Becky(played by the lovely Melanie Shatner, daughter of William Shatner of Star Trek fame). I don't want to spoil the rest of the film, but basically Michelle has to struggle with her newfound vampirism, Becky goes to Romania to rescue Michelle, and Radu falls in love.....it's well worth the watch, as are Bloodlust: Subspecies 3 and Bloodstorm: Subspecies 4. These are the finest films Full Moon has ever produced.

This 1993 horror sequel stars Anders Hove, Denise Duff and Melanie Shatner. This picks up where the original left off where vampire, Radu (Hove) is revived, killing his half-brother, Stefan whose love, Michelle (Now played by Duff) has fled with an ancient, bloodstone containing blood of Saints. Radu searches for her while, Michelle's sister, Rebecca (Shatner) is in town doing the same, but soon discovers she's become a vampire. This is a pretty good follow-up, I like the music, make-up effects and Hove & Duff are great in it.