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Released by: Full Moon Entertainment
Released on: August 16, 2011.
Director: Ted Nicolaou
Cast: Michael Watson, Laura Tate, Anders hove, Michelle McBride
Year: 1991
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The Movie:
Directed by prolific B-movie helmer Ted Nicolaou based on a script co-written by Charles Band, Subspecies begins with a quick prologue in which top billed Angus Scrimm plays a vampire named King Vladislav who is murdered by his vampire son, Radu (Anders Hove) who looks kind of like WWE wrestler Sting. Why? To get The Bloodstone, of course! What? Yep. The Bloodstone. It's a red stone that Radu feels is his birthright and which will give him super vampire powers.
While this is going on, two American students - Michelle (Lara Tate), and Lillian (Michelle McBride) - arrive in the Romanian town of Prejnar to meet up with a local student, Mara (Irina Movila) so that they can study local history together. This trio of moderately attractive ladies soon meets up with cool guy Stefan (Michael Watson), an expert on local history and vampire lore. He and Michelle soon hit it off and everything is coming up roses… until Radu and his mini-minions, some weird stop motion tiny red monsters, decide to do some kidnapping and set their sights on the ladies. Stefan, however, knows more about what's going on than anyone else seems to - but will he be able to save the girls from the clutches of an evil vampire?
While it's true, and at times painfully obvious, that Subspecies was made on a low budget for the straight to video market, that doesn't diminish the film's quirky charm and entertainment value. Pulling inspiration from the F.W. Murnau/Max Schreck book of cool looking vampires, Nicolaou's film has got some great gothic atmosphere and makes the most of its Eastern European shooting locations to wind up a surprisingly good looking vampire film. Despite the fact that Hove's Radu does indeed look like a mix between Sting and The Crow, he makes for a pretty sinister bad guy - none of this emo/Twilight soul searching nonsense here, nosiree, Radu likes to suck blood and he likes to kidnap hot chicks and he likes to make his weird red minions do his bidding. This minions are pretty cool in their own right, giving their scenes a sort of Harryhausen-esque vibe that old school effects fans will no doubt appreciate.
The female performers are all fine in their roles, and some mild topless nudity in the last half hour or so of the film doesn't hurt, while the heavily made up and almost unrecognizable Angus Scrimm makes the most of his five minutes of screen time and proves to be a good casting choice for the part of an aging vampire king. Just as important to the look of the film as the cast members is the castle setting that Full Moon managed to secure for much of the shoot. This makes certain segments of the film look considerably classier than they probably would have been had they been shot anywhere else and the movie winds up with some interesting gothic atmosphere because of it.
The film may not reinvent the wheel and the mystery surrounding Stefan's involvement isn't so much a mystery as it is a dead giveaway but Subspecies is… fun. It's a bit goofy in spots and maybe a little overdone in others but there's enough shadowy cinematography, melodramatic bloodsucking and miniature demon vampire monster dudes to more than make up for the film's fairly obvious plot-centric shortcomings.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Subspecies arrives on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1.78.1 widescreen transfer in 1080i high definition that improves on the previous fullframe DVD release but which suffers from some noticeable compression artifacts and minor macroblocking issues in a few key scenes. This is a low budget title to start with so you might not necessarily get clarity you might get from a bigger budgeted affair but other studios have proven that low budget titles really can look awesome in high definition. This transfer doesn't really make that case, however. Yes, detail is better than what DVD offered but the image is still on the murky side and suffering from poor shadow detail, obvious crush and minor smearniess. Colors look okay and there aren't any edge enhancement issues, but the movie probably could have looked better than it does here, particularly when you take into account some minor noise reduction and wonky contrast issues in a few scenes on top of the issues already mentioned.
Sadly, the only audio option on this release is a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, there's no lossless option in sight. It sounds fine for what it is, even if its flat for the most part, but it's disappointing that this disc doesn't take full advantage of what the format can offer. Regardless, the levels are well balanced, the dialogue is easy to understand and there are no problems here - but it would have been nice to get a lossless track. No subtitles or alternate language options are provided.
Extras are slim, limited to six trailers for a few other Full Moon releases, a ten minute vintage Videozone episode that takes a look behind the scenes of Subspecies and offers up some interesting footage in that regard, a static menu and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Subspecies is a fun movie but although this Blu-ray release definitely looks better than the DVD did, it's just not up to par. The transfer is weaker than it could and should have been, the extras are slim and the audio is nothing too exciting either. Worth the upgrade? You'll have to be a pretty big fan of the movie to think so. The cover art is pretty cool though.
Click on the images below for full size Blu-ray screen caps!
