Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993)

Strong and Moving!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The evil Radu returns with a vengeance after his subspecies minions help put him back together. After taking care of his brother, the dastardly One finds that Michelle, his brother's love interest/newly turned vampire (also newly Denice Duff, replacing Laura Tate who lijkely balked at doing the nudity) has run off with the precious Bloodstone.This one being filmed back-to-back with part 3 should clue you in that you shouldn't expect any real semblance of an ending to part 2. So if you're not fully prepared to set aside around 3 hours to watch both together, you'll likely be disappointed by a fairly large cliff-hanger.That gripe aside, I enjoyed Subspecies 2 as much, if not more, than the first. It has more action and meat to the story.Eye Candy: Denice Duff provides a full-frontal

Radu (Anders Hove) won't let a simple thing like beheading keep him down. His minions reattach his body and he is risen before dawn, ready to kill his brother and his brother's freshly-vampired consort Michelle. But she escapes with the Bloodstone, and calls her sister to Bucharest. Also, the police get involved."Subspecies II" doesn't quite have the full power the original had. The lead actress has been replaced, which takes a bit out of the continuity (but at least the new chick -- Denise Duff -- is better looking). And the pace is somewhat slower. And the Bloodstone seems to have lost all its blood. But the film has some nice additions -- Kevin Blair, who has a bit of horror credentials under his belt. And Duff, unlike her predecessor, has little difficulty in being convinced into doing nude scenes, which really seemed a bigger aspect of the first.Radu seems less menacing, not able to kill as many people or turn them into vampires or create new minions. And that's too bad, because he's a very interesting vampire creature. He also seems very susceptible to sunlight, much less so than Michelle. Is it because he's older? Typically, vampires get more powerful with age. But who knows? There's a good scene where Michelle is falsely believed dead, but beyond that nothing stands out in my mind. It's a decent sequel, and I'm eager to see part three (and maybe even four). So it didn't turn me off by any means. Pretty much entirely the work of one man, this is a film worth seeing if you liked the original.

This is a straight-to-video vampire movie. Were some of you expecting a masterpiece? I wonder why people take such a perverse joy out of bombing a film like this! It really is much better than its low rating would suggest.Moody directing, lush Romanian locations, and deliciously over-the-top villains like Radu and Mummy add up to a gruesomely wonderful viewing experience. Denise Duff gives a sympathetic performance, and it sure doesn't hurt that she's a "10" on the Brian scale. The folk music score is another highlight.I've shown this movie to a number of people - gals and guys of different professions, with varying levels of sanity - and all of them have liked it. If you want to rent a horror movie that's violent but not repulsive, and clever enough to hold your attention when there aren't killings on screen, then "Subspecies II" is the flick for you (sorry about the bad poetry there!).

From puppetmaster to Castle freak Fullmoon pictures collection of lowbudget horror films have graced or in some cases disgraced the screen for sometime. Yet even in Fullmoon's lamest efforts we see the attempt to achieve a certain level of low end quality. Sadly, they tend to fall short. But occationally they hit the bullseye. Such is the case with the solid series of vampire films, Subspecies.As with most modern vampire flicks, Subspecies serves up the standard amounts of gore and undead erotica. What sets them apart from other lowbudget horror films is good acting, moody atmosphere and well defined charactors.In the subspecies series we are treated to an interesting game of cat and mouse waged between two erstwhile vampires. Radu Vladislas, a cadaverous master bloodsucker and the object of his desire, the fetching fledgling Michelle Morgan.After a pedestrian first outing subspecies 2 elevates the series with the addition of talented Denice Duff in the role of Michelle. She and well regarded Dutch actor Anders Hove who plays Radu share an excellent on screen chemistry.Picking up where the original film left off we find Michelle fleeing castle Vladislas for the imagined saftey of Bucharest. Radu, with the aid of some slick, shadowy special effects, pursues. In Bucharest the two vie for possession of the bloodstone, a mystical artifact known to 'drip with the blood of saints'.As events unfold, both Radu and Michelle acquire allies to aid them in their respective causes. It is through these secondary charactors interesting insight into Radu and Michelle is given.In conversations with his 'mummy' we discover Radu to be nothing like the vile nightcreature we have come to know. He is more like a frightened child. Shunned by his family. Unable to mingle with normal humans due to his ghoulish appearance, Radu is lonely. He is terrified by the prospect of being alone throughout enternity. He needs Michelle as much for company as any sexual desires he may harbor.In Michelle we find not the cringing co-ed from the first film. Miss Duff's interperetation reveals a fiercely determined young woman valiantly struggling against the bloodlust of Vampirism. Her mortality lost she opts for the next best thing. She plans to use the bloodstone for sustenance rather than attacking human beings. In this way she hopes to retain a semblence of her humanity.Rarely has such depth been given to charactors in a film of this level. The movie itself moves along at a steady pace ending in a satisfying cliffhanger climax. By the far the best of the subspecies series.