Better than most other fourth entries in straight-to-video series, this vampire adventure does eventually wind up descending into the formulaic.
Having escaped a fiery fate, Radu Vladislas (Anders Hove) travels from Transylvania to Bucharest in search of Michelle (Denice Duff), who was rescued from him by her sister and a friend. Doctor Ana Lazar (Ioana Abur) finds Michelle at a car crash that killed her saviors. Ana's colleague Dr.
Nicolescu (Mihai Dinvale) recognizes Michelle as a vampire's victim and says he can help her. Arriving at the lair of vampire Ash (Jonathon Morris), Radu takes over, seducing Ash's protege Cassandra (Floriella Grappini). Dr. Nicolescu begins Michelle's treatment--but he is a vampire himself, and
hopes to use her blood to synthesize the Bloodstone's serum, which can grant him eternal life.
Spurned by Radu, Cassandra encourages Ash to destroy him and claim the Bloodstone. She follows Radu to the clinic, where Dr. Nicolescu springs a trap and stakes him. Overwhelmed by Radu's influence, Michelle frees him, and the two vampires vanish. Cassandra offers to help Ana kill Radu and rescue
Michelle, giving her a key to the Vladislas crypt. Ana discovers Nicolescu's vampiric nature, but he quells her fears and joins her in entering Radu's lair; once inside, however, he offers Ana to Radu in exchange for a taste of the Bloodstone. Radu kills him and offers Ana to Michelle, but she
fights off Radu's influence, and the women decapitate Radu. They are confronted by Ash and Cassandra, but manage to escape into daylight.
The SUBSPECIES films have always been the best-looking films to come from the Full Moon studio, and such is the case with this sequel, as writer-director Ted Nicolaou wrings effective atmosphere out of the Romanian locations. And unlike the previous films in the series, this entry features a busy
plot that, for the first half, helps to disguise how tired the basic material has become. Dr. Nicolescu is a fun addition to the overcrowded plot, and Dinvale plays him in the great tradition of crazed mad scientists.
The longer the film goes on, though, the more it emphasizes the struggle between the possessive Radu and the no-longer-innocent Michelle--a war of wills that quickly wears out its welcome. The movie actually could have been longer, and could done more with the character of Ash (from the 1987 Full
Moon production THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS); as it is, his inclusion here seems a mere gimmick, and his potential is wasted. Still, his survival at the film's (abrupt) conclusion presumably points to yet another entry in the series. (Graphic violence, extensive nudity, sexual situations, profanity.) leave a comment
