Format: Streaming video from Tubi TV on Fire!
The vampire movie has changed a lot since the originals. Many modern vampire movies play with the standard vampire myth in a lot of ways. Some can’t transform into bats or other creatures, or are vulnerable only to some things. There’s always been a sense of romance around the vampire, though. While there are exceptions (say, 30 Days of Night), typically vampires are as tragic as they are terrifying, at least in theory. Subspecies is a vampire film that dives back into the roots of the subgenre. We’re not hanging out in Alaska or Louisiana. No, we’re going to be spending our time in the OG vampire capital: Transylvania.
We need to start, as we often do, with setting up the bad guy. In Transylvania, around the town of Prejmer, the vampire king (Angus Scrimm) lives in peace and solitude. He possesses an artifact called the Bloodstone, which constantly drips the blood of the saints, meaning he doesn’t need to hunt and kill to survive. King Vladislav has two sons, Radu (Anders Hove) and Stefan (Michael Watson). Radu looks undead—long, skeletal fingers, fangs, unnaturally pale skin. Stefan looks human and poses as a researcher studying nocturnal animals. Desiring the Bloodstone, Radu murders his father, and in the process creates a quartet of little demon-like creatures to do his bidding.
While all of this is going on, three scholars named Mara (Irina Movila), Lillian (Michelle McBride), and most especially Michelle (Laura Tate) arrive in the area. The three are working on post-graduate studies about Romanian culture, and are in the area for the yearly festival honoring a battle where the locals believe they were saved from the Turks by vampires. The trio meets Stefan, who looks human and is thus a sexy boy, and we’re led to believe that he and Michelle are especially attracted to each other, despite them not having any real on-screen chemistry.
What happens from here is exactly what you think happens. Over the course of a day or so Stefan and Michelle find themselves compelled by each other. Radu discovers the presence of the three scholars and takes it upon himself to turn them, naturally leaving Michelle for last. Why does Radu crave their blood when he now possesses the Bloodstone? Because he’s evil and wants to create brides for himself, and because we need a plot.
And that’s pretty much the movie. Stefan decides that he wants to keep Michelle safe and Michelle decides that she wants to do what she can to protect Stefan. Both of them rely on Karl (Ivan J. Rado), who is Stefan’s assistant/second-in-command to track down Radu and get us to the ending we want, which, to be fair, is not really the ending that we get.
The absolute best thing about Subspecies is the presence of Radu, who is a fantastic design for a vampire. Radu is absolutely horrible to look at, although still human enough that if you saw him in a shadow, he would pass (so not like Count Orlac). His mouth constantly drips blood, his fangs are prominent and awful but not ridiculous looking, and there is a glint of evil in his eyes that makes everything he does look manic. He’s not as feral as the 30 Days of Night bloodsuckers, but he’s definitely on that spectrum.
It's also worth noting that his little demon creatures, which are stop-motion puppets of some sort, look genuinely good for 1991 effects. I mean, there are moments where it’s clear how the effect was done and this movie is a good deal more than 30 years old. They don’t hold up the way Jurassic Park has, but they’re solid for the time, especially given the fact that this is a fairly low-budget film.
What doesn’t work is just how dumb everyone seems to be. Stefan wants to get rid of Radu but wants Michelle to be safe, but Michelle decides that it’s time to go after Radu herself. She says that she needs to find where Radu sleeps so they can kill him during the day. Karl says that he knows where Radu sleeps. And then suddenly it’s night. Did they kill Radu during the day? No, they did not. Why? Did Karl take that long to make a wooden stake when the plan was to decapitate Radu? No, it’s just that there’s no drama if they find Radu in the middle of the day.
There are also a lot of unanswered questions. Why doesn’t Stefan have fangs except for when he needs them, and why does Radu always have fangs? Why does Stefan look human at all? How did Radu figure out he could make the demons? If the people in the area know that there are actual vampires around, why are the surprised when people start dying from them?
I want to like Subspecies because there are things I really like about it, but ultimately the problems with it outweigh any of the things that work. This thing spawned a bunch of sequels, most with a new Michelle and none with Stefan reappearing at all. Make of that what you will.
Why to watch Subspecies: Radu is a genuinely cool vampire design.
Why not to watch: How come Stefan doesn’t look like a vampire?