Subspecies

Review by Mike Finkelstein

Full Moon Features made a name for themselves making cheap, almost knock off films for the direct-to-video market. Although a few of their early works debuted in theaters (such as the first Puppet Master), most of their releases were designed for video stores, making solid bank for the company via rental stores and later home video sales. This was possible because Full Moon made cheap films, using the “less is more” philosophy when it came to budgets. You didn’t have to make a lot of money if your films didn’t cost much, and the more they made, the more they could make back after so long as budgets were kept reasonable. It’s a similar philosophy that producer Roger Corman had with his works, as well as pretty much every film released by Troma Entertainment.

Full Moon had a few notable series they made, such as Puppet Master, Killjoy, and Trancers (the latter of which originated with another company before transferring into Full Moon’s care), but the series that falls under the purview of this site would be Subspecies, a vampire horror film series that went through film main entries plus a loosely related spin-off. The first of the films came out in 1991 and, due to being filmed in Eastern Europe with no real stars and the tiniest of budgets, it proved successful enough that creator Ted Nicolaou could revisit it again and again.

Going back and watching this film now, 30-plus years after its initial release, the film isn’t bad, although it’s certainly not good either. It has some interesting ideas, decent makeup work, and the chutzpah to try for composite masking special effects when, it’s clear, the budget didn’t really allow for it. But the story is linear, there’s a lot of weird character moments that don’t work, and the acting is subpar at best. It’s a bit of a messy movie that expects you to stay interested because it has vampires and a fair bit of nudity. Clearly that formula worked back in the day and it almost works now, despite itself.

There college students – Irina Movila and Mara, Laura Tate as Michelle, and Michelle McBride as Lillian – meet in Transylvania to work on their thesis. They’re studying the mythology surrounding vampires and here, in the town of Prejmer, they can get interesting history they couldn’t get anywhere else. Prejmer is the home to one of Vlad Dracula’s old fortresses, the site where a great battle was fought between the peasantry and the Turks. Since those days, the people of Prejmer have been fearful of vampires, worried about what would happen should the demons ever return.

While the girls studied vampire mythology, actual vampires vied for control. The land was ruled by King Vladislav (Angus Scrimm) who, centuries before, had struck a deal with a witch for ultimate power. She gave him the Bloodstone, a magical rock that drips fresh blood, in exchange for the king fathering a son with her. That son became Radu (Anders Hove), the king’s power-hungry first son who had no concern for the wellbeing of humans. It was the king’s second son, Stefan (Michael Watson), who the king wished to pass his power, lands, and the Bloodstone to when he died. But Radu wanted everything for himself, so he killed his father and prepared for his brother’s return. Now the two have to settle the matter, fighting for control while Stefan tries to protect the three ladies from Radu’s desire to turn them into his consorts.

If I’m being honest, Subspecies is a mess. We have two different plotlines – Radu wanting control and the students studying vampires – that only converge by sheer happenstance. If the ladies had gone to a different castle Dracula had ruled from back in Wallachia, they wouldn’t have been around to witness the whole affair between Radu and Stefan, and we wouldn’t have a story. Or it could have happened a different month and the two storylines wouldn’t have connected. Narrative contrivances throughout the movie are required to get the girls to Transylvania, have them catch the eye of Radu, and have him want to take them as his brides just to spite Stefan.

Because there’s the other reason they become his targets: Stefan has the hots for Michelle. The two fall madly and passionately in love with each other, which would be fine for motivation if the movie actually developed this at all. Instead the two characters share one furtive glance and two incredibly brief conversations about nothing, and suddenly they’re star-crossed lovers meant to be together for eternity. It doesn’t take much to sell a love story, just a few character moments, but either those moments were never in the script, or they were filmed and then removed afterwards, because the film as it stands doesn’t put in the work. “But I love her,” Stefan says at one point, and I found myself yelling at the screen, “why? You don’t even know the woman!”

All of this comes in the first two acts, when barely anything happens at all. The girls wander around the ruins, they interview a villager, they go places they probably shouldn’t, but nothing of consequence actually happens to help carry the story forward. It’s just a lot of exposition and padding. It takes a long time for Radu to reveal himself to the student, and once he does the film picks up some. We eventually get some light scares, a bit of gore, some tense dialogue from characters, all of which works once the film gets going, but it’s a long slog to get there first. Still, I would say the last act does help to make up for some of it. It’s a worthy act on its own, you’ll just wish the film could have gotten to the action sooner.

There are elements of the film I did like. The very first scene, between the king and Radu is interesting, with great gore and a really weird twist on vampire powers that I don’t want to spoil here just on the off chance that anyone reading this decides to go watch the film after. I also think Radu’s makeup is pretty great, making him look very monstrous, almost like a nosferatu, showing how the witch’s evil magic corrupted him in ways that make him very different from his half-brother. I could have used more of this, mind you, with cooler vampire effects and more neat twists of vampire lore. What we get is good, but more would have been better.

I think, deep down, the film was hobbled by its lack of budget. Full Moon wasn’t sure if this new series would be a hit or not so they didn’t invest much into it, which is understandable. But that meant that the creative team, led by Ted Nicolaou, had to do a lot with almost nothing in the way of resources. It’s a very loosely put together film that tries its best but can never quite get to the level it clearly wants to be at. You can feel the film reaching for more, but it doesn’t have the money to make it happen.

But hey, we have five more of these to go. Maybe, just maybe, one or two of the continuations might be able to rise above the budget and do something interesting. I have my doubts, but you never know in a long-running film series like this.