As a fan, I cannot believe that Subspecies V: Bloodrise has finally arrived after twenty-five years. The movie was first promised only a few years after the release of Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm. I remember being a preteen on the Internet, on Full Moon’s original website, when the announcement of a new Subspecies, a prequel that would tell Radu’s origin down through the centuries, first hit. I hadn’t even seen any of the sequels yet, and I was still absolutely thrilled. Then nothing came of it. Full Moon became a smaller and smaller company, spending much of the early 2000s as Shadow Entertainment, the smallest scale era of the studio to date, before bouncing back by the end of the decade. But the budgets over time have still been much, much smaller than they had been in the ‘90s, when those first four Subspecies films were made. Given the fact that those movies were filmed in Romania, requiring much more location work than the average Full Moon effort, it often felt more than a little unlikely that the hopeful fifth entry would ever come to pass.
And yet, now it’s here. The biggest miracle of all, though, is that it appears to be almost the exact film it was always going to be, that same prequel conceived and written in the early 2000s is the movie we got. The fact that Ted Nicolaou not only got to make this movie, but to specifically make the film he always envisioned—with some degree of budgetary compromises, I’m sure—is worth celebrating all on its own. The fact that the movie is as good as it is, that’s more than this particular fan had ever dared ask for.
However, given the fact that it’s been twenty-five years since the last installment in the Subspecies saga, it’s reasonable to think viewers are going to need a bit of a refresher course. That’s why I’m here to walk you through what you probably should know and what you’ll likely want to see before you sit down to check out Subspecies V: Bloodrise on SCREAMBOX.
Full disclosure, though, Subspecies V is a prequel. It is set before any of the other movies occur, and thus, you will probably be able to follow along just fine. If you want to jump right in, the movie explains itself well, and you will not be lost. However, there is a whole other level of understanding and enjoyment to be gained from watching through the saga so far before viewing the new film. Each movie is reflected somewhat, each one brings in a character whose origins are first glimpsed here, which informs each of their characters in the present. This is especially true for Radu himself. Watching the previous entries before watching his origin unfold in Subspecies V will allow for such a deeper understanding of him, and I think will also subvert your perceptions of him, and why he is the way that he is, or at least the way he has been depicted through the previous installments.
So let’s walk our way through the series and bring ourselves up to date.
Subspecies
Obviously, there’s no better place to start than the original. This is where we are introduced to the evil vampire Radu, his noble half-brother Stefan, the peaceful Vampire King Vladislas, our heroine Michelle, who is a grad student studying local Transylvanian folklore, and the bloodstone, a relic that drips the blood of saints, a perpetual source of life for the undead. With Subspecies V in mind, pay particular attention to the backstory given in this first movie, to the events that are described and especially the supposed heroes and villains of that story, as it might not be exactly what happened—or at the very least, the events of the past are much more complicated than we had initially been led to believe.
Bloodstone: Subspecies II
In some ways, the Subspecies series became Full Moon’s Phantasm, with each new installment feeling more like a chapter in a book than a true sequel in its own right. Subspecies II picks up immediately where the last one left off, and even though it recasts protagonist Michelle, there are lead actors from here on out that carry through the rest of the franchise. Denice Duff is Michelle for the rest of the series. She is that character in the eyes of the fans, and for good reason.
In this sequel, Michelle struggles to adapt to her newfound vampirism while her sister Becky tries, and ultimately fails, to help her. Radu tries to take Michelle under his wing, but his mother, the sorceress who seduced the King to sire her monstrous son, insists he should kill the girl instead of wasting his time on her. Radu’s rotting corpse of a mother, nicknamed “Mummy” is the character to watch in this entry in terms of preparation for Subspecies V. She is integral to the lore, but had only been spoken of briefly in the original. Here, she appears in all her demented glory. Given how integral she is to Radu’s origin, having literally birthed him, you’d be correct to assume she shows up in Subspecies V. Witnessing those events unfold, seeing the dawn of the unique relationship between mother and son—bickering and supportive at the same time—is certainly enlightening.
Bloodlust: Subspecies III
At this point, you should watch Subspecies III primarily because you watched Subspecies II. The two films were shot back-to-back, and while they stand on their own a little more comfortably than Puppet Master 4 and 5 (which are truly one movie split into two parts) this one certainly feels like a proper finale to the previous. Still, there are things to look for in Subspecies III that do provide a greater context for Subspecies V. This is where the cracks in Radu’s hardened, monstrous persona truly start to show. He’s still evil and cruel, but in the previous entry, he was insistent that he would kill Michelle to get the bloodstone back, because it’s all he wanted.
At this point, they’ve spent more time together, and he can’t really fool her anymore. He wants Michelle by his side, and more than that, he wants her to want to be there, and he’s longing for something he simply can’t have. As you’ll be able to see in the new installment, that might simply be one of the defining traits of his character, right from the very beginning. The scene between Radu and Michelle, talking outside and almost playing chicken with the oncoming dawn, in which Michelle brings up forgiveness and Radu replies that there is not enough forgiveness in the world for the things he has done, is a highlight of not only this movie but the entire franchise as a whole. Pay attention to that shot of the two of them, which is one of if not the most common images you’ll see from the series online, because that shot is very cleverly inverted in the new film.
Vampire Journals
And now for something completely different—literally. Vampire Journals is not a Subspecies sequel and it features no returning characters, so you’re probably wondering why it’s included here. Well, it’s as essential as anything else on this list, believe it or not, for reasons that will become obvious later on. This is a totally new vampire film from Ted Nicolaou, three years after the end of what was then considered the Subspecies trilogy, once again shooting in Romania albeit in a very tumultuous time for Full Moon, and once again utilizing locations and cinematography to make the most visually captivating film of that late ‘90s Full Moon era. Vampire Journals is clearly connected to Subspecies. The vampire lore is the same and there are references made to those characters, but it nonetheless stands on its own.
If Subspecies was Nicolaou’s Nosferatu then Vampire Journals is absolutely his Interview With the Vampire. This is a poetic, romantic movie about eternal loneliness and longing on a direct-to-video budget, so different in that both its heroes and villains appear equally miserable, yearning to experience life. The biggest takeaway from Vampire Journals is its central antagonist, Ash, a character who becomes just as important to the Subspecies legacy as to his own movie.
Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm
A year after Vampire Journals, Nicolaou returned to the Subspecies franchise for a sequel that also serves as a sequel to the other vampire film as well. Ash is brought back into the fold, depicted this time as Radu’s fledgling, who Radu comes to for financial support more than anything. It’s interesting to see Ash here, so begrudgingly subservient to Radu, highlighting the notion that everyone is afraid of something, everyone serves a higher master. In his own movie, Ash was the vampire everyone else was afraid of. He was wealthy and powerful, and in this film, the moment Radu shows up he claims all of that for himself—essentially leaving Ash with nothing and there’s nothing he can do about it, because to dispute it would be to go against his master. Ash’s own, opportunistic fledgling Serena only seeks to stoke the fires and widen the divide between Ash and Radu. Admittedly, Subspecies 4 is the movie in the saga that hides its budget the least, but there are still many positives in terms of the story, especially as a conclusion to the present day saga of Radu and Michelle.
In this entry, Michelle seeks to find a cure for her vampirism as she starts to find it harder to grasp the notion of spending eternity either alone or as Radu’s fledgling. Once again, this is also worth watching for Ash’s continued development. You will see that character again in Subspecies V. While the new movie’s primary focus is in being an origin for Radu, it also depicts the origin of Ash, as well as his sister, Ariel. There are fascinating parallels to be made between the two vampires in their respective origins, too. Like Radu, Ash’s journey into vampirism is defined by his love of another, or even more specifically, by his projection of love onto another, by the version he loved that may never have existed, or that in Ash’s case he may even have destroyed in his own ambitions. Ash’s sister, Ariel, never introduced before now, is one of the major highlights of Subspecies V for me, personally. Her character is fascinating, complex, and there is so much to be learned about her brother simply by seeing their relationship and the way it unfolds.
Now you should be ready for Subspecies V. Luckily, with the whole Subspecies saga now on SCREAMBOX, you’ll be able to stream the old and new movies in one place, so why not make a marathon of it? If you don’t have time for that, or simply can’t wait to dive into the new entry—for which I truly can’t blame you—then I hope this refresher was helpful.
There’s simply no wrong way to celebrate new Subspecies.
Subspecies V: Bloodrise is now streaming on SCREAMBOX.
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