Bloodstone: Subspecies II - review

 Bloodstone: Subspecies II - review

PLOT - Continuing after the first "Subspecies", a woman who has just become a vampire tries to escape the evil vampire, Radu, who seeks her as his love interest. But she has taken the vampire family's bloodstone, and now Radu must find her to get it back. While her sister comes to Romania to save her soul. It might be to late.

LOWDOWN - I remember owning the first Subspecies on tape years ago when I was very young. In fact the only thing I remember about that movie was the scene where Radu the vampire would feed off the sleeping young girls. In my young mind this seemed very mature and dirty, in fact I remember more than once I would cover my eyes whenever the movie played, feeling as if I wasn't supposed to watch a film like this. This of course if laughable seeing that my parents really didn't put limits on anything I watched, and looking back that movie was pretty tame compared to a lot of the other things I used to watch. Years went by and the last time I saw that tape it was in my downstairs cellar. If I honestly didn't mind risking breaking my neck on those old rolling stairs, I would totally go down there to explore and see if I could find it, but I have a pretty good feeling after years of staying down there it's been destoryed. 

Just last year when I attended Monster Mania, my friend Jeanette was completely psyched that actor Anders Hove was going to be there. In fact after she met him she ran up to be showing the boxset of the movies she got. I was a little puzzled since I never knew they had made sequels but Jeanette told me she remembered watching the sequel more than the original.

Now with HorrorHound less than a few days away and a Subspecies reunion happening, I decided to finally take the time to watch these movies before I met the cast. Sadly I haven't found these little babies anywhere, so I figure at the convention I'll just end up getting the box-set. Searching I found the first sequel on YouTube. Now I'm no stranger to watching movies in parts online, but it was kinda a pain in the ass. In fact the last ten minutes were removed from the site so I had to google and look up how the movie ended. In fact just a few issues ago a wonderful article in HorrorHound magazine was written about all the movies and spin-offs. Seeing that part II and III were filmed back to back, I see that I really didn't miss much, and this movie opened up for the third film, which I plan on watching either tonight or tomorrow. 

I still haven't re-watched part one, simply because Denice Duff is going to be HorrorHound and she replaced actress Laura Mae Tate who played Michele in the original. Still, if I have the time I'll try to catch up and watch the original before my trip after watching part 3 and 4. 

What can I say about Bloodstone? Well, one thing I did do was go back and watch the last five minutes of the original on YouTube to catch up. One thing I've noticed about this series that I love is the fact they all branch off to the next movie. (sorta like the early Friday the 13th films.) This was one of the better Full Moon movies that was released which was very well written. Taking place just moments after the first off left off, Radu comes back to life thanks to his little Subspecies monsters and quickly kills Stefan in his coffin. The sunlight of course causes him to quickly leave and go into hiding. Poor Michele wakes up and finds her love dead and quickly grabs the bloodstone before taking off. 

This movie I found very interesting and one of the better tales of a vampire for the 1990's. I loved watching poor scared and confused Michele run into the city, checking herself into that hotel and calling her sister, completely terrified. As weird as this sounds it seemed realistic. Here is this poor scared girl, who saw her friends murdered, and the one man who she could trust killed. She's in a strange country, with a monster chasing her - talk about a vacation from Hell! I liked how they took the steps in following Michelle and how the maids in the hotel think she's dead only to have her wake up in the body-bag screaming. 

The effects in this movie were dazzling. For a low budget movie I really dug the makeup, most of all the mummy's entire get-up. Being able to see more into Radu's background is very interesting. I love how also beneath everything this is sorta a twisted love story. Radu goes against his mother's wishes in killing Michelle, and hates that she loved his brother Stefan. There is a strange human tragedy in the monster of Radu, how badly he loves Michelle and wants her to forget her human ways and become like him.

Mind you I really can't say much since many like to think that part II and III is one big movie, so a future review for the other sequels will come. Bloodstone though was a great movie that took classic elements of vampires and styled it in the perfect Full Moon way. 

So if you're looking for a cool sequel, and a perfect Full Moon movie, pop in Bloodstone. I have a feeling the Subspecies series is soon going to become a favorite of mine.

3 Stars!