Subspecies (film series)

Subspecies (1991) follows three college students, Mara, Michelle, and Lillian, as they begin a study on Romanian culture and superstition in the small town Prejmer. They are befriended by Stefan, a student studying nocturnal animals. It is revealed that the nearby Castle Vladislas has been caught in a power struggle between vampire brothers Stefan and Radu. Centuries prior, King Vladislas was seduced and cursed by a sorceress who eventually gave birth to Radu. After banishing Radu's mother, the king met a mortal woman. She gave birth to Stefan, who prefers to live in the open, and loathes his vampire heritage. To gain control over the Bloodstone, a relic that is said to drip the blood of the saints, Radu kills his father. In an effort to hurt his brother, Radu turns Mara and Lillian into vampires. Stefan, having fallen in love with Michelle, helps her try and free Mara and Lillian from Radu's control. Stefan drives a stake through Radu's heart and severs his head with a sword, killing Radu. Unfortunately for Stefan, Radu bites Michelle before his brother can kill him and mingles his blood with hers, which forces Stefan to turn Michelle with his own blood in order to keep her from becoming like Radu. As Stefan and Michelle sleep, Radu's minions set about resurrecting their master.[1]

Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993) picks up directly after the events of the first film, with Radu's minions, the Subspecies, reattaching Radu's head and removing the stake from his heart. Radu finds Stefan and Michelle sleeping, and immediately kills Stefan. The rising sun forces Radu to seek refuge; Michelle wakes at sunset and finds Stefan dead in his coffin, with the Bloodstone still in his hands. Michelle flees to Bucharest with the Bloodstone, hoping to contact her sister, Becky, for help. Radu, with the help of his mother, "Mummy", sets out to find Michelle and the Bloodstone. Becky arrives in Romania and with the help of Lieutenant Marin, Professor Popescu, and US Embassy Agent Mel Thompson, attempts to find her sister. Radu eventually captures Michelle, who has been fighting her craving for blood since Radu took the Bloodstone. Mel and Lieutenant Marin do not believe Popescu and Becky, so the two of them go to a nearby crypt where they believe Michelle might be. Popescu is murdered by Mummy, while Becky is also captured and given to Michelle to feed from, as a way for Michelle to shed her mortal ties. Instead of killing her sister, Michelle stabs Radu in the face with an enchanted dagger, and sets fire to Radu's mother, who flees the room in flames. Becky and Michelle attempt to escape the catacomb, but Michelle is halted by the coming sunrise. Becky promises to return that evening, but as Michelle descends back into the tomb she is grabbed by a revived Mummy and carried off.[2]

Picking up where Subspecies II leaves off, Bloodlust: Subspecies III (1994) finds Michelle deep in the catacombs with Radu's mother, who brings her son back from the dead with Michelle's blood and the enchanted dagger that killed him; Radu, his mother, and Michelle return to Castle Vladislas. Michelle promises to obey Radu if he teaches her everything that he knows. Radu takes Michelle out hunting so she can enhance her powers, while Mel contacts a former operative of the CIA for help. While trying to rescue Michelle, Radu's mother quickly kills Mel's CIA friend, and knocks Mel unconscious. In an effort to get Michelle to stay with him forever, Radu kills his mother when she attacks Michelle. Becky arrives to save Michelle, but before everyone leaves, Michelle takes a gun from Becky, which contains silver bullets, and shoots Radu. The rising sun slows Michelle, so she is placed inside a body bag that was brought along; the delay allows Radu time to catch up to the group. Wanting the Bloodstone, which was taken by Michelle, Radu attempts to barter the group's lives in exchange for it. Becky throws it over the roof's edge, and when Radu attempts to follow it he is engulfed in the rays of the Sun. Radu's body bursts into flames and falls from the castle wall. Becky and the group make it to their car and drive off. Radu's burning corpse is left smoldering and impaled on tree branches, with his burning blood dropping to the ground; the flames soon go out and the blood morphs into new subspecies.[3]

Vampire Journals (1997) is a spin-off of the Subspecies film series, featuring the vampire Ash. Vampire Journals follows Zachary, a vampire with a conscience, who hunts the vampire bloodline that sired him. After witnessing the love of his life get turned into a vampire, Zachary destroys both her, and his master, and former protégé of Ash, Serena. Zachary, armed with the enchanted sword of a great vampire slayer called Laertes, seeks out the rest of Serena's bloodline to eradicate them. Zachary travels to Bucharest to find Ash. Zachary uses Ash's penchant for music and women to bait him out into the open for attack. Ash sets his sights on pianist Sofia, but is thwarted by Zachary during his first attempt to take Sofia. It is revealed through a conversation between Ash and a seer that Zachary's coming was expected and that the two are destined to fight; however, Ash is to be the victor. Ash does not give up on acquiring Sofia, and hires her for his nightclub, Club Muse. Over the next few nights he drains her of blood, so that he may turn her into a new apprentice. He also makes a deal with Zachary: he will give Zachary a consort, protection from the Sun, and allow Zachary to see Sophia if he leaves the city the following night. While Ash is preparing to sire Sofia, he gives his daytime consult Iris the key to Zachary's room, so that she may dispose of his sleeping body in the sunlight. Seeing that his obsession with Sofia will ruin both their lives, Iris releases Zachary instead. Zachary arrives too late; Sophia has already accepted Ash's blood. Fighting off a weakened Ash, Zachary and Sofia escape from the nightclub. Ash follows them, but the rising sun becomes a problem. Zachary manages to get back the sword and kill Ash, whose body falls into the Sun's rays. Zachary and Sofia then find refuge in a nearby closet.[4]

Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm (1998) begins with a badly burnt Radu able to find refuge in his crypt. A car accident takes the lives of everyone but Michelle, who is discovered by a stranger named Ana. Upon seeing Michelle's reaction to the sunlight, Ana takes her body to her former professor, Dr. Nicolescu, who quickly determines that Michelle is a vampire. When Michelle wakes, Dr. Nicolescu promises to cure her of her vampirism. Dr. Nicolescu is a vampire himself, but uses science to allow him to be immune to vampire weaknesses, with the exception of needing blood, and hopes to use Michelle to get the Bloodstone and therefore a cure for his condition. With his strength restored, Radu travels to Bucharest to claim the financial wealth one of his previous "fledglings", Ash, who has acquired in the Vladislas. Radu enlists Ash's help to track down Michelle, while Ash's own fledgling, Serena, attempts to play Radu and Ash against each other. Radu discovers Michelle's location, and Dr. Nicolescu agrees to give her to Radu in exchange for three drops of blood from the Bloodstone. Radu agrees, but it was only a trick to allow Dr. Nicolescu the opportunity to capture and stake Radu. Michelle arrives releases Radu, and the two flee to safety. Serena arrives immediately after and gives Ana a key to the Vladislas crypt, where Radu is, with instructions to kill Radu. Ana and Dr. Nicolescu arrive at the tomb, but Radu awakens and kills Nicolescu. Radu turns his attention to Ana, but Michelle slices his throat, allowing Ana enough time to decapitate Radu. They burn his body and take the Bloodstone. Ash and Serena are waiting at the opening of the crypt, but a caretaker, hearing Ana's screams, opens the crypt and spills sunlight inside. Michelle is hidden in a coffin and transported out of the cemetery, while Radu's head sits on a pike burning in the sun.[5]

A fifth film for the main story, entitled Subspecies V: Blood Rise, was announced in April 2019, as part of Full Moon's "Deadly Ten" initiative with Hove and Duff as Radu Vladislas and Helena, a vampire queen that resembled Michelle, respectively.[6][7] Kevin Spirtas portrayed Radu's father, Prince Vladislas, while Marko Filipovic took over for the role of the Vampire Ash from Vampire Journals and Bloodstorm, where he had been played by Jonathon Morris. Filming was to begin in July 2020 in Croatia but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming was rescheduled for spring 2022 in Serbia.[8] Principal photography eventually took place in September 2022. The film had its world premiere at the HorrorHound Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 25, 2023. It received a limited theatrical release via the Alamo Drafthouse on May 15, 2023.[9]

Blood Rise begins with the birth of Radu. Moments after, his mother Circe is impaled by crusaders from the vampire slaying order of the Knights of the Dragon. They steal her vampire slayer knife and Radu. His ears and fingers are clipped and holy potions used to hide his vampiric deformities. As an adult, Radu is raised by and initiated into the Knights of the Dragon. However, when he and a monk named Marius are sent to Prince Vladislas' castle to kill the vampires there and recover the Bloodstone, Radu learns he was a stolen child and Vladislas was his father. After Vladislas and Circe flee, Radu and Marius find a seemingly human woman named Helena, and her son Stefan. Stefan was born when Vladislas raped Helena after claiming her as a consort. Radu helps the two flee, and takes the Bloodstone with them, and Marius, afraid of Helena and Stefan being vampires, leaves. After finding out that Helena was in fact turned into a vampire, she and Radu drink from the Bloodstone, and Helena tries to turn him into a vampire to keep him from ever leaving her. In that moment, Vladislas then returns and abducts Helena and Stefan, as well as taking Radu's enchanted vampire slaying sword given to him by the Knights of the Dragon, the Sword of Laertes. Radu, believing Helena made him a vampire, is then told by Circe he was one at birth. He returns with her and over the next century, learns sorcery, demon summoning, and how to use his vampiric powers to hunt. After he attempts to steal from Circe, he is banished by her.

Grieving the loss of Helena and Stefan, he seeks out new companions to turn and finds two aspiring musicians, Ash and his sister, Ariel. Radu turns both of them into vampires and attempts to coerce them to accept him as their master while also wanting them to comfort him with music. During an attempt to play, Ariel learns that vampires are susceptible to shrill dissonant notes. Despite this, Radu "initiates them into the mysteries" and allows them their first kill outside of the castle. That night, their castle is infiltrated by Diana, another monster slayer from the Knights of the Dragon. Diana comes armed with Circe's Knife. Radu recognizes her as a stolen child descended from Callisto, like himself, but she persists in trying to slay him, and he bites her and turns her into a vampire. Ash and Ariel take the demon slaying weapons Diana brought, and attack Radu with shrill notes from a Flute, fleeing him. In the intervening centuries, Ash and Ariel come under the protection of Helena, having impaled Vladislas on the Sword of Laertes, and Stefan travelling the world. The three hunt out of a casino that has vast catacombs sprawling under it (which is implied to be the Club Muse nightclub from Vampire Journals). Radu degenerates into the vampire appearance he was born with (thus finally looking how he does in the other four films). 300 years later, He finds Ash and Ariel, who take him to Helena. The two reconnect and negotiate with each other. Radu gives Helena mastery of Ash and Ariel, but Ash and Ariel spurn Helena and the mood sours. Helena attempts to bribe Ash to accept her with a piano and a drink from the Bloodstone, while Radu takes Ariel to the catacombs under the casino to find Vladislas, where he impales him repeatedly with Laertes. Helena and Radu then encounter each other and each confesses hatred for the other. After being rejected by Helena, Radu attacks and breaks her neck. Helena curses Radu that she will be reborn and haunt him. Ash steals the Bloodstone and tries to convince Ariel to leave, but she stays with Radu, now wanting to be his consort. After the pair escape the catacombs, Diana appears and kills Ariel but leaves Radu alive, wanting Radu to suffer immortality and loneliness. In the closing narration, Radu reflects on Helena's dying curse on him, and how that was eventually fulfilled and drove him to madness, while thinking of Michelle, who resembled Helena.

List indicator(s)

• Italics indicate a transition to a minor role, such as an extended flashback, after the initial appearance.
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