After Puppet Master, Subspecies is undoubtedly Full Moon’s most successful franchise. The two are similar in that they both have an intricate central mythology that is expanded upon over time, and while both have their share of quirky humor, the films are much more serious in tone than other notable Full Moon franchises like Gingerdead Man or Evil Bong. The two series, however, also have their share of stark differences. For one thing, the Puppet Master series has spawned 15 films to date: 13 official entries from the home studio, plus a crossover by the Sci-Fi Channel and a remake. They also play it fast and loose in terms of continuity. Many different screenwriters have come and gone, adding to and contradicting the established mythology—sometimes in equal doses.
Subspecies, meanwhile, is only just now seeing the release of its fifth entry after a twenty-five year gap since the last sequel, Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm. In addition to that, the Subspecies movies are known for a clear vision, a single story unfolding through each movie, driven by writer/director Ted Nicolaou. It also features returning cast members throughout each sequel, particularly Anders Hove as Radu and Denise Duff as Michelle. But these things, which are perhaps the two things that fans celebrate most as well as make Subspecies stand out from the rest of the Full Moon output, really began with the second movie.
When you ask fans to name their favorite movie in the series, you’ll most often find that the answer is Bloodstone: Subspecies II. I think there are a lot of strong reasons for that, but first and foremost, I think that is because this movie set both the tone and the story for the rest of the franchise. While the original is certainly celebrated, there are things that make it stand out from the rest of the series. That first film was the only movie in the series that Ted Nicolaou did not write. He still directed it, of course, but took over writing duties for the second, and has written each movie since. It was also the only movie in the series in which the protagonist, Michelle, was not played by Denise Duff. She took over the role with the sequel, and is one of the rare cases in which an actor recast for a sequel became the face of that character in the eyes of the fans. She joins the likes of Danielle Harris in the Hatchet series, Guy Rolfe in the Puppet Master franchise and, well, Don Cheadle in the MCU, in that regard.
Story-wise, Subspecies II picks up immediately where the first one ends. After Radu was decapitated at the end of the previous movie, we get to watch his head re-attach to his body in one of if not the greatest practical gore effect in any Full Moon feature. In the last moments of the original, Michelle expressed her fear at becoming a vampire, having been bitten by Radu. She had her lover, Stefan, bite her in the hope she would become more like him than his evil brother, and they went to rest in Stefan’s coffin as the sun rises, hopeful for their future together. The opening moments of the sequel undo all of that. Radu kills Stefan and Michelle escapes with the bloodstone—the relic that eternally drips the blood of saints, sort of the MacGuffin at the center of the franchise—while Radu gives chase. The story is expanded wonderfully as our heroine Michelle finds herself becoming a vampire, and that world of the undead goes from something kept at arm’s length to something we are given a much more intimate perspective into as Michelle undergoes all the learning curves of her transformation. From this point on through the rest of the series, humans are relegated to supporting roles, with the most important of them in this entry being Michelle’s sister, Becky.
In Becky’s introduction, there’s a clever inversion of the sibling relationship in Subspecies. Stefan and Radu could not have been more different in every way. One was a handsome, tortured soul, the other a wickedly ruthless ghoul. In Bloodstone, a very different sibling relationship is shown. Michelle and Becky appear to be endlessly supportive of one another. Becky jumps on a plane to Romania the moment she fears Michelle is in trouble. Throughout this movie, she does everything she can to try and piece together what happened and to help Michelle however she can.
There’s another clever inversion of the original in the sequel’s introduction of Mummy, the grouchy, rotting, mummified corpse of Radu’s witch of a mother. At the beginning of the first movie, Radu killed his father, the vampire king. His mother, a sorceress who had supposedly seduced the king, had only been mentioned briefly. Her introduction is a major expansion of the lore. The relationship between mother and son could not be more different than what was seen in the single scene Radu shared with his father. King Vladislas, while clearly disappointed in Radu and even attempting to kill him, approached him with a degree of sympathy and kindness, and Radu murdered him without hesitation all the same. In Subspecies II, Radu relies on the support and guidance of Mummy, but she is openly antagonistic toward him. They bicker and fight, she is overbearing in a “mother knows best kind of way” especially when it comes to Michelle, and yet in other ways they are completely in sync.
While this sequel goes bigger by expanding the franchise and introducing a character crucial to the lore who had only been mentioned in the original, it does what any great sequel should do and goes deeper at the same time. The Radu we saw for the first time in the opening scene of Subspecies was an evil, petty, depraved creature living solely for power and carnage—and in most respects, he remains that way. But Bloodstone is where we begin to see the cracks. There are hints of vulnerability with Radu this time around, whether it be in moments with Michelle or with his domineering skeleton of a mother. In both of those relationships, there’s an almost pathetic quality that might have been somewhat visible in the original, but is more clearly rising to the surface in the second.
With his mother, Radu yearns to step out of the shadow of his family’s legacy and create something of his own. And in Radu’s scenes with Michelle, it truly starts to become clear just how lonely he is. He puts up with more from Michelle than he’d probably allow from anyone else, and even sometimes insists he’s going to kill her, but it never sounds like anything more than an empty threat, and I don’t think it’s meant to be anything more than that. In Radu’s mind this might be some twisted kind of love, and there are moments in the series when he seems to insist that’s the case—but honestly, more than anything, I think it’s just that he doesn’t want to be so alone. Radu is a boogeyman among vampires and yet in being such he’s also kind of a pariah. No vampire would ever dare be close with him, not with his record for ruthlessness and betrayal. He believes himself to be utterly unlovable, but with Michelle, more than any kind of feelings he may project onto her, there is simply the hope of finally having found someone who might not leave him. She needs him to help mentor her in the ways of being a vampire, and Radu is a monster perfectly happy to mistake dependency for gratitude.
Another thing worth mentioning about Bloodstone: Subspecies II is that it was shot back-to-back with Bloodlust: Subspecies III. Full Moon did this with several films in the ‘90s, shooting two at the same time in order to save cost. At this point, they had previously done it with Puppet Master 4 and 5. That had been an established franchise, and I think the decision to make the second and third Subspecies at the same time did a great deal for its ongoing success, turning it into a franchise pretty much right out of the gate. Within three years of the original’s release, there was a Subspecies trilogy that told a cohesive, mostly singular story.
Thirty years after its release, it is so obvious to see why Bloodstone became the franchise favorite, even topping the original in the collective eyes of fans. This is essentially where the series truly began. This is where Denise Duff stepped into the role of Michelle for the first time. This is where we were introduced to Mummy, a character integral to the lore, who would continue into further sequels. Most importantly, this is where Ted Nicolaou took over as writer/director, after having only directed the first movie. He continued to write every Subspecies sequel as well as its spinoff, Vampire Journals, all the way up to the release of Subspecies V: Bloodrise. All of these things shaped not only this movie, but every entry as the franchise moved forward. This is the sequel that set the tone and defined the arcs of both lead characters of the franchise and that legacy continues to this day.
Radu returns in Subspecies V: Bloodrise, on SCREAMBOX and Full Moon Features on June 2.
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