Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993) (Blu-ray Review)
Directed By: Ted Nicolaou
Where to get it: Full Moon Direct
Continuing after the first “Subspecies”, a woman who has just become a vampire tries to escape the evil vampire (this would be Michelle if you remember her), Radu, who seeks her as his love interest. Radu kicks things off by quickly killing his brother, Stephan (guess he didn’t sign on for the sequel). But wouldn’t you know it, Michelle has taken the vampire family’s bloodstone, and now Radu must find her to get it back. All the while her sister comes to Romania to save her soul. BUT it might be too late!! I can’t tell you if it is too late of course that would be a spoiler. And I don’t know about you, but I loathe spoilers and people who spoil stuff in their reviews.
First off let me talk about the casting here, because it’s a real head scratcher. Radu is of course played by the same actor, but Michelle is different. Also with the recast of Michelle, she now has hair that is noticeably much (much) longer than it was in the original to spite the story picking up no more than a couple hours after. And to add to the confusion, the girl who is playing Michelle’s sister has shorter hair and overall looks much more like the original Michelle from part one?? Why not have her play Michelle?? I guess they went with the hotter of the two. Also, the old man that helped Michelle and Stephen in part 1 isn’t here, isn’t recast, and isn’t spoken of that I can recall. There’s a negative for continuation right there, Full Moon! Also, Radu now is in love with Michelle? I guess the longer hair really did go a long way.
Now besides all that, it’s a much better film overall. The stop motion isn’t here as much but the blood sure is. I can’t even put into words how much better off this film is with the larger amount of blood and gore. Radu still drools for those of you who wanted to know as well. Also for at least the start of the film, the film takes off running. The first part of the film is head and shoulders above the original. More gore, better pace, and it even takes a moment or two to have a laugh here and there. That was strongly missing from the original. Or at least if there was a scene or two that made you laugh it wasn’t intentional. If you watch this and don’t at least chuckle when Radu seeks out his awful looking Mommy you have no soul.
SOOOoo, things are going great and this film has topped the original and heading towards classic levels when something happens. The film slows its pace down and starts creeping along at a snail speed!? Why, Full Moon?! Why!? You had this thing going soo well and you slow it down towards the end soo much that it drops the movie a full point, but none the less we have a hot lead, cool vampire, and some freakin’ gore finally! So I’m a little more lenient towards this Subspecies. There are still some bad things here that can cut the legs off the story, but it’s a little more fun than the original. At the end of the day, even if the plot leaves a lot to be desired, you got the film here on blu-ray looking its best. I’m not saying hardcore HD fans will be comparing it to the best, but you should be more than happy with how it looks.
– Making Subspecies: The Recollections of Ted Nicolaou, Anders Hove, and Denice Duff video interviews
– Audio Commentary by Ted Nicolaou, Anders Hove, and Denice Duff
– Killer Subspecies Montage
– Full Length Original VideoZones
– Full Moon Trailers
