Two siblings, David and Lynn, are orphaned after their father dies unexpectedly. They are sent to live with their grandparents who resides in a victorian home somewhere in rural California. When David and Lynn were very young, they lived in that house together with their mother, but of this they have few memories and everything from that time is a blur. When they travel to their new home, a creepy woman is standing in the middle of the road and almost causes the bus driver to have an accident. Weird…but nothing much to reflect on, right? Creepy people are everywhere. And talking about creepy people, when the siblings meet with their grandparents, they feel that something is very, very off about them. Sure, they’re sweet and nice and all that, just like grandparents ought to be, but…something’s not right. And during their first night in the house, David has a nightmare where he witnesses his grandfather killing a woman.
Grandmother’s House (aka Grandma’s House) is a slasher film from 1988 directed by Peter Rader (writer of Waterworld) as his directorial debut. And it sure is a little bit of an oddball movie, with twists and turns that makes it an unpredictable watch, at least if you haven’t read any spoilers beforehand. I’ll do my best to avoid them here in the review.
The movie starts off with a well-trodden trope: children lose their parent, and must come and live somewhere else where things are strange and unfamiliar. A setup like this has often been used in everything from children’s movies to horror, so nothing new here. And while the grandparents seem loving and sweet, you notice that something is off, of course. It plays along with a mystery-fueled setting where certain scenes and character behavior makes everything seem even more off. While it’s apparent after watching it that several scenes and setups are made to deliberately confuse you, with the bright setting of sunlit days and a beautiful orange orchards and other picturesque locations. Yup, the countryside is indeed beautiful. It does actually feel a bit dreamlike at times, and while the mystery keeps building and you feel you know what it’s going to reveal, it still ends up surprising you. And yes, despite a somewhat slow build-up it eventually slams into full psycho-killer territory.
Overall, Grandmother’s House is an obscure slasher flick that despite a bit of clunkiness, provides enough surprises and twists to be entertaining and worth a watch. Best to go in blind, though, as knowing too much about the plot and turn of events beforehand is likely to ruin the experience a bit.
Grandmother’s House was restored and released on DVD and Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome and 88 Films.
Director: Peter Rader Writers: Peter Jensen, Gayle Jensen, Country & year: USA, 1988 Actors: Eric Foster, Kim Valentine, Len Lesser, Ida Lee, Brinke Stevens, Michael Robinson, Craig Yerman, David Donham, Joan-Carol Bensen IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097455/
Charles Brady and his mother Mary (who is also his lover) are shapeshifting energy vampires who needs to feed off virgin women. They can look like normal humans, but can also transform into big werecat-looking creatures which is their natural form. They also have a lot of powers: they can use telekinesis, and the power of illusion. So what could be their weakness? Well, it’s not a stake through the heart, garlic or silver bullets: it’s simply domestic cats. Yup, cats are their only real threat as the cats can see though their illusion and bullshit and will violently attack them, inflicting fatal wounds. So naturally, Brady and his mother are cat haters. They move around a lot, since they often leave a trail of dead bodies behind and need to avoid too much attention. Now they have come to live in Travis, a small Indiana town, after recently fleeing from Bodega Bay in California. At school, Brady meets Tanya Robertson and she believes she’s met a handsome boy with a romantic interest in her. If she only knew…
Sleepwalkers is a horror film from 1992 written by Stephen King and directed by Mick Garris. This movie was the first time when Stephen King wrote a screenplay intended for a movie rather than adapting one of his novels. It was originally supposed to be directed by Rupert Wainwright as Columbia Pictures initially approached him, but King insisted they offered the film to Mick Garris instead, who had previously directed Critters 2: The Main Course (1988) and Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990).
Sleepwalkers is a creature feature that derives a bit from the norm, as it is told from the perspective of the creatures themselves. They just want to spend the day making love to each other (despite being mother and son), kill cats who are their mortal enemies and suck the lifeforce out of virgins to keep themselves sustained. The movie is quite silly at times, with some odd dialogue, especially by the Sleepwalker Charles. There’s a lot of tacky one-liners like “This doesn’t have to hurt. Just think of yourself as lunch!“ and of course the “Cop Kabob!“ line during Andy’s murder. They almost went into full “Garbage day!“ territory here, that’s for sure. On top of that, there’s also the “death by corn cob” scene. Yeah…it’s not a movie you should take too seriously. The effects are of course quite dated when it comes to the CGI ones, but the practical effects are decent enough. It’s still that famousCGI morphing scene in the car, which was probably cutting-edge at the time but now just enhances the campiness and makes it look even more silly than it already is. There’s also a scene where the Sleepwalkers are getting down and dirty, and this scene was originally so explicit that it had to be cut in order to avoid an X-rating.
Alice Krige plays the role as the mother Mary, a role Mick Garris wanted to cast after having seen her in Ghost Story (1981). Sleepwalkers is also the only movie where both Stephen King and Clive Barker are present in the same scene. These aren’t the only “gag cameos“ however, we also have Joe Dante as a lab assistant, Tobe Hooper as a forensic tech, and John Landis as a lab technician. Ron Perlman (Hellboy) also plays a grumpy cop, and Glenn Shadix (who played Otis in Beetlejuice, and unfortunately died in 2010 so he could not reprise his role in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) also has a role as Mr. Fallows, a creepy teacher. So, yeah…lots of well-known faces and names on the cast list for sure. And then, of course, there’s the biggest hero of all in this movie: Clovis the cat. This feline is owned by a police man named Andy Simpson, and follows him around in the police car. Quite the duo, those two! When Andy is killed by Charles, Clovis manages to wound him severely. Of course, the mourning kitty decides to revenge his deceased owner, with the help of other cats.
Sleepwalkers is by no means any masterpiece, but it’s a cheesy enjoyable B-movie with gore, cute cats and silly monsters that scores pretty high on the fun factor.
Director: Mick Garris Writer: Stephen King Country & year: USA, 1992 Actors: Brian Krause, Mädchen Amick, Alice Krige, Jim Haynie, Cindy Pickett, Ron Perlman, Glenn Shadix, Cynthia Garris, Sparks. Cameos by John Landis, Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, Stephen King and Clive Barker IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105428/
The blind and wealthy Henry Mandore (Tom Simcox) keeps getting phone calls from his mother all the time. Problem is, she’s been dead for quite a while. Prior to her death, she demanded to have a phone installed in her crypt as she was terrified of the thought of being buried alive, but there is of course no way she’s still alive. Yet that black phone keeps ringing, nearly driving him insane, and all that comes from the other end of the line is a haunting wailing. His wife, Vivia Mandore (Diane Baker), seeks out a man named Nelson Orion (Martin Landau) who works as an architect but keeps meddling with the paranormal as a little side-project. He’s a skeptic as well so he won’t be expected to accept any supernatural goings-on if there aren’t any, and Vivia trusts he will find out the truth about the phone calls.
The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre is a made-for-tv horror film from 1964, written and directed by Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock’s Psyhco (1960). Originally, the film was a pilot for a supernatural-themed anthology series for CBS which was supposed to be called The Haunted. Nothing came of it after the CBS president James T. Aubrey left, so it was then released as a standalone film. There are some well-known names on the actors list, including Diane Baker who played Lorraine Warren in the 1991 TV movie The Haunted, and Martin Landau who played Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s 1994 movie Ed Wood.
What works very nicely for this aged obscure little ghost movie, is the atmosphere and the surroundings, and some of the effects are pretty spooky despite being very outdated today. While the movie plays mainly forwards as a mystery thriller with supernatural elements, the story itself does feel a bit too convoluted at times and there are certain scenes that simply doesn’t go anywhere and adds absolutely nothing to the plot, like one scene where Nelson meets a woman on the beach whom he arranges a meeting with later, but whom we never see again. I’m not sure if this is just pure filler content or if there were plans of expanding some of these scenarios a bit more.
Overall, though, The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre is a spooky old flick where I can easily imagine that the audience back in those days would find the effects of the ghost simply referred to as “The Bleeding Ghost“ to be scarier than what they were used to seeing on screen. In fact, one of the reasons for the TV pilot not being picked up anywhere was that it was considered “too scary“ for the American audiences at the time. Of course, that sounds perfectly laughable now, but aside from not exactly having the means to scare today’s audience, it’s an interesting little movie to watch.
Writers and director: Joseph Stefano Country & year: USA, 1964 Actors: Martin Landau, Judith Anderson, Diane Baker, Tom Simcox, Nellie Burt, Leonard Stone IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312723/
He’s Pure Evil. Pure Power. Pure Terror. And pure schlock! Good grief, no wonder Clive Barker himself hated the film despite having written the screenplay for it, and to such an extent that he decided his next movie Hellraiser would be made under a much stricter rule of his own hand. Thus he ended up directing that movie himself. For those that have read the original Rawhead Rex story in Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, or even read the graphic novel adaption by Steve Niles which was wonderfully illustrated by Les Edwards (which is a lot more true to Barker’s original vision of the phallus-formed monster), this movie goes into pure B-horror territory that’s as schlocky as it can get, with a monster design that looks like a demented ogre suffering from a lockjaw condition. In other words: perfect horror ghouls material!
We start off with Howard Hallenbeck, who travels to rural Ireland with his family in order to research some religious artifacts. In that same quiet town a lightning strikes a huge phallus-formed stone column that’s been placed in the middle of a field. Then, Rawhead Rex rises from the dirt after having been buried under there for a long, long time. Now he’s back and ready to wreck havoc on humanity! In the meantime, Howard enters the local church and sees a stained glass window featuring the monster, and the church verger Declan appears to act strangely and don’t want him poking around. In the meantime, Rex himself has started the kill count by offing some locals. When Howard is driving home with his family, his daughter needs to urinate and goes behind a tree. Their son stays in the van reading a comic book, and of course Rawhead Rex appears, killing the boy right in front of Howard and takes the body with him into the woods so he can continue to eat his meal in peace. All of this leads to them reporting this at the police station, where we are presented with one of the most hilariously unconvincing family-in-grief scenes I’ve ever seen. Now, Howard is hellbent on taking the monster down, but things have gotten even more complicated as Rex has gotten his own Renfield in the church verger Declan. There is supposed to be a weapon in the church which can defeat the monster, and Howard must try his best to get it before there’s an even bigger bloodbath.
Rawhead Rex (1986) was directed by George Pavlou, and as mentioned Clive Barker wrote the screenplay. The filming took place in County Wicklow, Ireland, Leinster, Redcross and Laragh. The actor in the Rawhead Rex costume, Heinrich Von Schellendorf, was only 19 years old at the filming and it took two hours to put him inside the costume. The film was given a limited release in the US by Empire Pictures in 1987. The 80’s have given us everything from pure gold to pure trash, everything from masterpieces to disasters to even some disasterpieces. There were a lot of B-horror movies from this decade, and a lot of them actually have a decent entertainment value. This movie falls well within that category, where you can’t really imagine anyone saying the movie is good, but if you have at least a tiny bit of appetite for so-bad-its-good movies, then you will at least have some fun with it. Rawhead Rex is what it is, pure schlock and B-horror where you shouldn’t take it seriously for a moment. The acting is hilarious at times, and while the monster looks more laughable than scary it does have a certain charm to it. It sure does provide a lot of cheesy fun.
Clive Barker talked a little about a possible remake of the movie, but nothing ever came of that. Could have been really awesome, though, if someone made a movie that kept the disturbing and wicked vibe of the original story, and didn’t hold back at all on the gore and nastiness. And of course, with a monster resembling the original vision, maybe something close to Les Edward’s version in the graphic novel. Oh well, I guess we can only dream.
Rawhead Rex was originally released on DVD in the US in 1999 by Geneon, and then re-released by Prism in 2003. Later, a restored version was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Kino Lorber in 2017. It’s also available on multiple streaming sites.
Director: George Pavlou Writer: Clive Barker Country & year: UK/Ireland, 1986 Actors: David Dukes, Kelly Piper, Hugh O’Conor, Cora Venus Lunny, Ronan Wilmot, Niall Toibin, Niall O’Brien, Heinrich von Schellendorf, Donal McCann, Eleanor Feely, Gladys Sheehan IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091829/
Has it gone over two decades already since the last film? Oh, my. As we all know by now, the fifth entry in the Subspecies series was going to be a prequel, which was announced many years before prequels became the new trend we’ve seen in the last few years. Writer and director Ted Nicolaou began to work on the script shortly after the release of Subspecies IV, but then Covid happened…ehr, no, my bad, this was the beginning of the 2000s, so… yeah, what happened and why did it take so long? Budget and resources, they say. OK then. Because we also know that the average Full Moon production, especially after the millennium, seems to have a budget of a salary from a part-time job at Mc Donalds. I’m not trying to be mean here, but if you take a look at some of the twenty releases only from the 2020s alone, how many of them have you seen, except for the modern classic, which is Femalien: Cosmic Crush, of course (s a r c a s m). Obscure means far from bad, but most of them looks like pure junk to porn, where the old Full Moon we loved in the early and mid 90s seems to have lost all of its identity and vanished into a black hole.
So, what I interpret as “budget and resources“ in a Full Moon standard must be something like “make it look like a 90s Full Moon film“. If that’s the case, fair enough. It wasn’t before the first teaser and some still images were uploaded when I began to have some hope. Another concern here was if we got something like we did with the wet fart that was Phantasm V: Ravager (2016) the last film from another beloved horror franchise of five films that took ages to be completed. I can say with a good conscience that Subspecies V: Bloodrise is a masterpiece compared to that film.
In the fifth and final entry of the Subspecies saga, we travel way back in the old, ancient Romania with swords, cloth and some horses, where we get the backstory of Radu Vladislas, and how he became the awesome EVIL Radu. The film is viewed from Radu’s perspective with narration from the man himself as we follow his transformation from human to the vampire we know him for.
The film starts appropriately enough with a witch giving a quick birth to a son in a cave. You can guess who. Some holy crusaders invade and take the newborn to a church where they dewclaw (ouch) the baby and make sure he grows up to be a fellow holy crusader – which he does. Then we see Radu Vladislas (Anders Hove) for the very first time without makeup, as the holy crusader he’s grown up to be, for now that is. He’s now on the quest for his life; to enter Castle Vladislas, kill his evil vampire king father with the Sword of Laertes, and claim the Bloodstone. The king uses his vampire magic to flee before Radu is able to kill him. Oh well. If this is the same king we saw in the first film, played by Angus Scrimm, I don’t know. I’m a little confused. Anyway – In the castle dungeon, he releases Leena (Denise Duff) a woman in distress, and a young boy, named Stefan. Yes, Radus’s lost brother, who he learns about many full moons later. But, UH-OH, Leena happens to be the vampire queen, shoves her fangs into Radu’s neck, takes the Bloodstone and leaves him like a newborn heroin addict. From here on, Radu’s hazy journey into vampirism begins, as he loses his mind and slowly morphs into the evil, drooling neck-chewer he’s best known for. Ceaușescu, eat your heart out, ’cause Romania will never be safe.
And waiting 25 years in order for Full Moon to get their “budget and resources“ in place for the fifth and final chapter of the Subspecies saga was certainly worth the wait. Who would’ve thought. Because this is the best film from Full Moon since … Subspecies IV. What struck me the most, also by only watching the teaser and trailer, was the tasty visuals, which I did not expect in a today’s Full Moon film. Ted Nicolaou, the oldest veteran who’s still working for Charles Band, who also directed all in the series, has been able to keep the style, tone and the vibe with — once again — great use of sets and locations. This one is not shot in Romania, like the others, but in the countryside of Serbia. That could be a concern of its own, but thanks to access to old castles and other historical places to shoot, Nicolaou knows how to take advantage of very little. There’s also a lot of use of natural light here, such as candles and torches where scenes get soaked with atmosphere. From a pure visual standpoint, it reminded me more of Subspecies II and III, where the creative use of light and shadow was a big factor to the distinct gothic look. So yeah, I’m both impressed and surprised by how great the film looks.
Then we, of course, have the man, the myth and the legend himself, Anders Hove, once again as Radu. Even though this is a prequel, I can’t deny that the guy has aged perfectly for a role like this, as in his older age he looks like he could’ve been a lost brother of Klaus Kinski. The makeup is top tier, maybe the best in the series, which makes him the creepiest and most demented Radu to witness, as we see stages of his transformation as his looks progress into the monstrous vampire he eventually becomes, inside and out. Anders Hove gives it all, and it’s clear as a full moon that he loves playing the character more than anything which he slips right into as if it was yesterday. Because in his home country of Denmark, he gets reduced to playing tiny roles, such as a tired, old babysitter who just sleeps on a couch, or a grumpy alcoholic sitting in a corner at a bar. The rest of the cast is hit-and-miss with acting that goes from OK to a wooden leg. Kevin Spirtas, who played Mel in II and III, is playing King Vladislas here, and you won’t recognize him. The strongest supporting actor here is Stasa Nikolic, a troubadour who, with her brother, ends up as one of the first victims of Radu. It was sweet to see Denise Duff again, even though it was somewhat odd to see her as a villain. Nostalgia, yes I know, and I don’t mind that.
So overall, Subspecies V: Bloodrise adds a nice little backstory to our favorite vampire where you’ll get your dosage of Radu. A satisfying and entertaining conclusion for the core fans of the series, and much better than expected considering where Full Moon has been as a company during the last ten years and so. Because they still can if they really want to.
Writer and director: Ted Nicolaou Country & year: USA/Serbia, 2023 Actors: Anders Hove, Denice Duff, Kevin Spirtas, Stasa Nikolic, Yulia Graut, Petar Arsic, Olivera Perunicic, Marko Filipovic, Jakov Marjanovic IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11075540/
Once again, this fourth installment in the Subspecies film series starts where the last one left off. Despite being exposed to the mother sun and getting brutally impaled by falling down the castle walls, Radu (Anders Hove) isn’t dead yet. Of course not. He wakes up while looking like a fried chicken, grabs his Bloodstone before he crawls back into his castle like a hobo. After Mel and Rebecca die in a car crash (RIP), Michelle’s (Denise Duff) body bag gets brought to a clinic somewhere in Bucharest. And the story gets pretty muddy from here on.
This clinic is run by Dr. Niculescu (Mihai Dinvale) and he’s as shady as he looks. He has some borderline big, bulgy crazy eyes that would poke straight through your soul, and looks like a pimp version of Frankenstein’s monster with a Duckula haircut. Can’t look more Romanian than that. He can quickly inform his assistant, Ana (Ioana Abur), that this is a vampire when he spots her neck-bite marks. She doesn’t believe him, of course, until she does.
In the meantime, we get to see what lieutenant Marin is up to. Yes, he’s still alive as well, despite the fact that he got stabbed to death by Radu in the previous film. Well, whatever. Here he’s confused and lost, pretty much like the script for this movie, and probably asks himself what the hell he’s doing here. He’s also a freshly-bitten vampire who hides and sleeps in the cabinets at work like a relapsed alcoholic. His boss, “the big boss“, is not happy with him, and makes it clear that he will fire his ass if he doesn’t get his shit together. Poor Marin. He never gets a break, does he. As Marin’s bloodlust starts to rise, he chews on rats and runs to the nearest cemetery to take shelter in one of the tombs. And from here on, we never see or hear from him again. What ever happened to Marin? I want the spin-off.
And speaking of spin-offs: here we also meet two new vampires: Ash (Jonathon Morris) and Serena (Floriela Grappini), who you’d maybe recognize from Vampire Journals (1997). Radu does not appear in that film, other than a quick mention. Anyway: They live in a cozy crypt and they both fear Radu. Ash and Serena doesn’t add much to the already messy plot other than some stiff melodrama with Radu. In the meantime, Dr. Niculescu is very keen to track down Radu so he can possess the Bloodstone. Because who would possibly guess in a million moons away that he’s actually a vampire? I’m shocked.
Subspecies IV: Bloodstorm is overall a pointless entry in the series, even though I must admit to being a little blinded by the sweet nostalgia. The first three worked well as a trilogy, whereas this one feels very forced and aimless. The dip in quality is apparent, and the moon isn’t as full as it was. The acting is stiff and goofy, even for a Full Moon standard, and as the title suggests, there isn’t much of a bloodstorm here. The film has its moments and tasty leftovers though, and this is far from the worst Full Moon film. It’s still shot in Romania among its gothic, beautiful surroundings, the music is still great, and Anders Hove still rocks your socks off as a menacing Radu. So it has that.
Writer and director: Ted Nicolaou Also known as: Subspecies: The Awakening Country & year: USA/Romania, 1998 Actors: Anders Hove, Denice Duff, Jonathon Morris, Ioana Abur, Mihai Dinvale, Floriela Grappini, Dan Astileanu, Ion Haiduc, Eugenia Bosânceanu, Cristi Rasuceanu IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181315/
Bloodlust: Subspecies III starts right off where the previous one ended. And now it gets real serious when Radu has taken all control over his dear bride, Michelle. The Stockholm Syndrome (or the Transylvanian Syndrome, if you will) has started to slightly hit while she does her best to maintain the last few fibers she has left of humanity. Michelle’s sister, Becky, is still in Romania trying to save her with the help of Mel.
The options start to run out as Radu has joined forces with his mother, still simply called Mummy, and they are actually such a badass duo who can cast their shadow way up to the moon. And no, don’t worry, he won’t do a Bowser and force-marry her up there. With Michelle, they have now isolated themselves behind the tall brick walls of their castle, here with the ext. and int. of the beautiful Corvin Castle. And good luck trying to get in without Simon’s whip.
So, what now? Yeah, great question. Now that the police can’t do shit and the options are down to zero, let’s … uhm … call The Expendables.
And that’s actually not a joke.
And since Sly Stallone wasn’t available, we have Michael Della Femina as none other than the CIA solder Bob. I’m not sure if Bob is meant to be a sort of a comic relief here, but (—MILD SPOILERS AHEAD—) there’s something hilarious about a buff military dude getting whacked down by an old, dusty granny mummy, just like that. Too bad he protected himself with silver bullets instead of garlic bullets. RIP Bob.
As Michelle’s lust and need for human blood starts to kick in, Radu has to take her down to the dark alleys of Bucharest to teach her how to hunt for victims. It’s either that or to suffer like a withdrawing heroin addict and die. And Lieutenant Marin is still here, trying to do his job with chasing vampires while trying not to disappoint his “big boss“. We also have some drama and a tension that boils between Radu and his mum, which also makes this a perfect film to watch on Mother’s Day. The big payoff here is maybe the most epic vampire death captured on celluloid.
There isn’t a lot more to say about this one, other than it feels more like an extended version of a missing third act of the previous film. These two were, after all, made back-to-back with much of the same production values, where we have great use of ancient Romanian locations, and overall soaked in thick, delicious gothic atmosphere. Yum! An overall solid entry that wraps it up as a nice little trilogy … until we got a fourth film five years later.
Writer and director: Ted Nicolaou Country & year: Romania/USA, 1994 Actors: Anders Hove, Denice Duff, Kevin Spirtas, Melanie Shatner, Michael Denish, Pamela Gordon, Ion Haiduc, Michael Della Femina IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109302/
Bloodstone: Subspecies II starts right where the first one left off. We’re in Castle Vladislas where Michelle (portrayed by Denise Duff from here on) is a freshly-bitten vampire, lying in a coffin while her friends are killed by Radu. And speaking of Radu, who’s gotten his head chopped off… according to the vampire encyclopedia, it isn’t enough to just cut off their head, you know. Because you also have to burn the head on a stake to completely finish them. If not, the head will somehow magically attach itself back, like what happens here.
After Radu’s epic little awakening, he finishes his brother Stefan by shoving a stake through his chest, drinking his blood that jets like a fountain. Shows you just how wicked Radu really is. First his father, now his brother. Oh, my. Radu opens the coffin of a scared Michelle, and is about to finish her off as well. A little too late as the sun rises just in time to make Radu rush himself down to his crypt in the basement. There’s a lot to process in these first ten minutes, but after the sun has gone down again, Radu is too late —again— as Michelle has escaped the castle.
To make matters worse for Radu, she has taken the ancient relic, the Bloodstone, with her that was in the coffin with Stefan. Radu gets furious as he trashes the corpse of his brother like an unhinged drug-addict (like he metaphorically is) before he gets on Michelle’s tail, who’s jumped on a train to Bucharest. Michelle checks into a hotel and phones her sister Becky (Melanie Shatner) in the USA. Before Becky is able to get on the first plane to Romania, Michelle dies in the bathtub in her room, and… that’s it, I guess?
Lieutenant Marin (Ion Haiduc) spots two bitemarks on her neck, and like most level-headed Romanian people, the last thing on his mind is vampirism. He gets hold of the Bloodstone, which he assumes is a stolen antique. Well, not far from the truth. Anyway, on the way to the morgue, Michelle suddenly wakes up in the bodybag, scares the daylight out of the coroners, before she runs to seek shelter from the sun. In other words, her sister, Becky, will have a hard time tracking down Michelle in Bucharest. What a mess.
Meanwhile, Radu pays his mother a visit, simply called Mummy (Pamela Gordon). She’s a ghoulish witch skeleton who lives in a cemetery tomb, of course. And she’s not related to the Crypt Keeper, just to clarify. She’s also as evil as she looks and does what she can with her magic to help her beloved son to claim back the Bloodstone and catch Michelle, who he now has some other plans for. Becky gets help from the US Embassy Agent Mel (Kevin Spirtas) to find her sister.
While the first film was mostly filmed in the Romanian countryside, here we expand the horizon in the big city of Bucharest. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if this was also the first American film to be shot in the capital. However, this is peak Full Moon. The first three Subspecies films as a whole are the best thing they’ve ever created (alongside with the first three Puppet Masters), where the second is the grand jewel of the series.
There are some more interesting characters here as well. Denise Duff, who took over the role as Michelle, does an outstanding job here as she slowly loses her identity and has to adjust to the dark, addicted life as a bloodsucking vampire. Melanie Shatner (yes, the daughter of William Shatner) does a solid job as the concerned sister as well. Kevin Spirtas as Mel comes off as more flat and dry, while we have some subtle comic relief moments with Lieutenant Marin, who doesn’t buy any of this vampire-fairy tale boolshit. We also have the old historian Nicolai Popescu (Michael Denish), a charming little oddball. Radu’s Mummy, adds some more of the cheese factor as she looks like something from a 80s fantasy horror movie.
Everything here is of high quality, all from the cinematography, the story, pacing, the effects/make-up, the music to the acting. Everything just clicks. The advantage of the old city of Bucharest really enhances the mood and the stylish gothic atmosphere all up to eleven while Radu casts his dark shadow over the city buildings. The use of light and shadows and the contrast-filled visuals are alone a delight to watch. It looks menacing and beautiful at the same time, and if you weren’t tempted to visit Romania after the first film, this one surely will.
Writer and director: Ted Nicolaou Country & year: Romania/USA, 1993 Actors: Anders Hove, Denice Duff, Kevin Spirtas, Melanie Shatner, Michael Denish, Pamela Gordon, Ion Haiduc, Norman Cabrera, Wayne Toth IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106436/
Hey, now that the evil dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu has finally been shot and executed on national TV, and Romania has been freed from the communist party, maybe we should pay the country a visit? Charles Band with his brand-new film company, Full Moon Features, certainly didn’t hesitate. Because after disbanding his decade-long Empire Pictures, he needed something quite special to add to his new company. Full Moon had already produced the first three Puppet Master films with great success, but here comes the coolest piece of trivia in the history of cinema: Subspecies was not only the first American film to be shot in Romania, it was also the first vampire flick to be filmed in that country after the fall of communism. Talk about a double win!
Charles Band quickly scrapped together the title and the classic poster we see on the right before thinking about the script. Director Ted Nicolaou (who also directed the four sequels, plus the spin-off Vampire Journals) asked what the hell the small creatures that carry the woman on the poster was supposed to be. How could he know, it was something that was cool to have on the poster, so the writers just had to come up with something. They ended up being the ones we actually call the Subspecies, and Radu’s (the film’s antagonist) minions, which are just a tiny minor element to the films. They only appear briefly as a quick afterthought in the first two and in the second and the third one.
This epic saga starts with a silhouette shot of the famous Bran Castle where the king Vladislas (Angus Scrimm) in a big fluffy wig, probably borrowed fromthis guy, is having a drop from an ancient relic called the Bloodstone, the films precious MacGuffin. This stone produces saints’ blood as quickly as a porn stars’ ballsack, so the vampires can live in their own darkness without hunting down humans. And in comes Radu, one of the sons of Vladislas. He’s pure evil, inside and out, with long fingers that would make Count Orlok jealous. He wants the Bloodstone for some reason, even though he hunts down humans just for the hell of it. He wants the whole pie for sure, and the Bloodstone is just the cherry on top. He kills the king with a dagger, claims the castle, and Romania is no longer safe. So much for the execution of Ceaușescu. La dracu!
Then we meet a group of three young female students who travel to Transylvania to study Romanian culture and folklore. Our main girl is Michelle from the US (Laura Tate) who’ll be the main protagonist in the first four films. After meeting at the train station, they drive to a village in the countryside where we get a unique glimpse of an obscure, broken and piss-poor country where the dust after decades of dictatorship hasn’t even begun to settle. It’s grim and moody with all real sets and locations, which gives the film a more raw, organic vibe. The special effects are a whole other aspect, though, which I’ll come back to.
After settling in at an old hotel in the town of Prejmer, they meet the young man, Stefan. He and Michelle fall quickly in love. But there’s only one problem: Stefan is actually a vampire, you see, and the brother of Radu. And Stefan is the polar opposite of Radu, as he’s a good-hearted handsome chad who tries his best to live a normal, civilized life with mortals, thanks to the Bloodstone. Those days seem to be over, though, especially when Radu gets those precious young female students on his radar and starts to hunt them down. Rasnov Fortess was used as Radu’s hiding place, just to mention.
Full Moon made a malicious villain here with Radu, who’s best described as a more monstrous-looking Eric Draven. He’s played by the more unknown Danish actor Anders Hove, who also repriced his role in the four sequels. He brings back much of the primitive and animistic mannerism we saw with Nosferatu while he adds his own distinctiveness to it. The new aspect of Radu is that he talks with a raspy voice like someone with stage 4 throat cancer. And he never seems able to wipe his mouth after biting someone’s neck as he drools like a baby where even the hardcore goth girls would cringe and say “ew“.
The music/soundtrack here is really remarkable, constructed by four composers and performed by the Aman Folk Orchestra. It’s dark and moody, filled with classical tunes that go hand in hand with the obscure and eerie Romanian surroundings. The theme for the opening credits, enhanced in the next two sequels, became such a classic that the black metal band Marduk made a cover version dedicated to Radu, called Nightwing.
While we have a compelling vampire villain, the biggest credit goes to the use of locations, as already mentioned. We have forest landscapes, castle ruins, villages, old ancient buildings in general, and considering the harsh circumstances, the film looks way better than it probably should. Because there are some clearly rough edges here on the technical levels, especially the scenes with Radu’s minion creatures. They originally used actors in costumes with large sets which ended up as deleted scenes. The problem was, according to the director himself (from a journal he wrote during the production), was that they were played by drunk Romanians who I’d guess were still in celebratory mode after the death of Ceaușescu. And then there were the language barriers. So instead, we have some charming creatures made of claymation in stop-motion made by David Allen, who also worked on the Puppet Master films. The only thing missing is their shadow where the moldy B movie cheese really reeks, and it’s a positive thing that they have very little screen time. They look much better in the next two films though.
So, despite its bumps in the road, Subspecies is a solid and a very ambitious start to a nice, little trilogy that expands on its own twist on Eastern European vampire lore. I’m not sure how much impact this will have on today’s generation as this is a product from its time – but Radu, the locations, the overall atmosphere and the music alone make it worth a watch. The two sequels are great as well, especially the second. You can watch them all on fullmoonfeatures.com.
Director: Ted Nicolaou Writers: Charles Band, Jack Canson, David Pabian Country & year: Romania/USA, 1991 Actors: Anders Hove, Irina Movila, Laura Mae Tate, Michelle McBride, Ivan J. Rado, Mara Grigore, Adrian Vâlcu, Michael Watson, Angus Scrimm IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103002/
Two siblings, David and Lynn, are orphaned after their father dies unexpectedly. They are sent to live with their grandparents who resides in a victorian home somewhere in rural California. When David and Lynn were very young, they lived in that house together with their mother, but of this they have few memories and everything from that time is a blur. When they travel to their new home, a creepy woman is standing in the middle of the road and almost causes the bus driver to have an accident. Weird…but nothing much to reflect on, right? Creepy people are everywhere. And talking about creepy people, when the siblings meet with their grandparents, they feel that something is very, very off about them. Sure, they’re sweet and nice and all that, just like grandparents ought to be, but…something’s not right. And during their first night in the house, David has a nightmare where he witnesses his grandfather killing a woman.
