(1991)
Dir - Ted Nicolaou
Overall: MEH
Kicking things off with Angus Scrimm looking like an absolute clown in a ridiculous afro wig, Subspecies is the first of many in the Full Moon Pictures direct-to-video series. Shot in Budapest and making fine use out of gothic castles, local actors, and crumbling ruins, it scratches that throwback Hammer itch with an enhanced level of authenticity. Anders Hove's long-haired/long-fingered undead baddie is appropriately hammy, plus his make-up is good and striking, even if he is the only vampire here out of a few that has a monstrous appearance. Sadly, the rest of this production leaves something to be desired. The stop-motion doll-sized demons from Tibor Takács' The Gate are both useless and look appalling, the pacing is meandering, the plot is largely uneventful, the cheap keyboard score plays with full bombast even when characters are simply walking around and looking at things, and most of the actors besides Hove seem bored to be there. One could be surprised that such mediocre silliness launched a franchise, but coming from Charles Band whose production credits are over four-hundred titles deep, well, what is there to be surprised about?
(1993)
Dir - Ted Nicolaou
Overall: MEH
Shot concurrently with the following year's Bloodlust: Subspecies 3, Bloodstone: Subspecies 2 picks up right where Subspecies left off and is a typical inconsistent Full Moon Productions hack job. On the plus side, director Ted Nicolaou and cinematographer Vlad Paunescu once again have an excellent eye for Gothic detail. The Budapest catacombs look fantastic, everything is back-lit for maximum gloomy atmosphere, and the make-up effects still make Anders Hove look like a Goth-rock Nosferatu from hell. We also get a new character in Hove's mother, (simply and ridiculously referred to as "Mummy"), who could pass as the Crypt Keeper's even more gnarly-looking girlfriend. There is little else to recommend, since the story retreads events that happened in the first movie as Denice Duff's sister Melanie Shatner arrives on the scene and slowly and boringly comes to realize that her sibling has inadvertently joined the legions of the undead. The film is clearly padded at regular intervals to get eighty-six minutes worth of content on the screen, with the opening act being particularly, (and unintentionally), hilarious as both Hove and Duff nonchalantly take their time doing things like crying, mugging, walking around, not grabbing the bloodstone of the title when they easily can, not leaving a place of danger during the daylight when they easily can, and awkwardly dusting off some bones so that they can sleep on a stone slab.
(1994)
Dir - Ted Nicolaou
Overall: MEH
Ain't no vamp mug at the camera the way Andres Hove's Radu does. Bloodlust: Subspecies 3 once again picks up where its predecessor left off, giving us a montage recap and a lengthy opening credit sequences just to stretch things out long enough. In this respect, it is more of the same shit, different Subspecies movie. Melanie Shatner is still trying to rescue her now fully undead sister from the vampire clutches of Hove and his "Mummy" Pamela Gordon, the bloodstone is still a coveted item, there is still swelling keyboard music playing throughout the whole thing, the grisly makeup effects are excellent, (as is the Gothic on location shooting), and it still results in competent yet tedious boredom. While these films deliberately adhere to the Hammer style of churning out horror sequels without breaking the formula, they also suffer from such adherence. In other words, one could skip any of these and get the full experience by simply watching one of them and/or reading a plot synopsis. They get to the eighty minute mark and look more professional than their modest budget would allude to, but they also lack memorable set pieces, have zero stakes since everyone keeps returning to undead life again and again, and take themselves too seriously to laugh at.
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