Subspecies (1991)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com May 3, 2022

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s a pretty good vampire tale. The digital special effects haven’t held up over time, but the makeup and practical effects are solid. It’s got a great location, Romania. It’s one worth a watch.

Synopsis

Radu walks in on his father, King Vladislav, who is drinking blood from the Bloodstone. The old man doesn’t seem happy to see his freaky-looking son. Radu knows his brother has been summoned from abroad but doesn’t want to see him ascend to the throne. “The bloodstone is my right as firstborn,” he hisses. The king springs a trap, imprisoning Radu. Radu, not to be outdone, pinches off his own fingers, which then morph into little demon things. The little demons open the cage and let Radu out. Radu then stabs the old man, who just sort of stands there watching the whole thing. Credits roll.

Three girls arrive in Transylvania on school break. They stop as a funeral procession marches slowly past. They continue on to the evil looking castle, where they meet Karl, the caretaker. In 1443, Vlad Dracula defended against the Turks in this very castle. The Turks were wiped out, and the locals believed it was vampires who saved the defenders. They go up into a storage area that contains several coffins.

The girls travel around looking at ruins and the village. Night falls, and Radu rises from his coffin and notices the girls. The girls meet Stefan, a zoologist who is staying at the castle as well to study nocturnal animal life in the region. An old woman explains the way the gypsies made a truce with the vampires way back in the day. The Bloodstone is said to ooze with the blood of the saints, and since the stone was given to the king of the vampires, no one has been attacked or bitten. The vampires survive from the stone peacefully.

The girls take a nap in the countryside and oversleep. They spot Radu in the woods; they run away and meet up with Stefan, who leads them back to the fortress. We then see Stefan finding the dying old vampire king as Radu attacks him. Stefan is Radu’s brother, and he goes to Karl for help. We next see Radu dining on Lillian, one of the girls. Radu taunts Stefan by withholding the Bloodstone from him. The sun is rising, and they are too far from their crypts. Karl shows up and rescues Stefan just in time. Stefan tells Karl to find Radu’s resting place, and the next scene has Karl sharpening pointy stakes and loading shotgun shells full of rosary beads. “You and your father should have killed him a long time ago,” Karl says to Stefan. Stefan wants Karl to get rid of the girls quickly before there is more trouble.

The doctor examines Lillian’s wound; she appears to be anemic. That night is the big parade and festival the girls came to see. Stefan is there, and we know that he really likes Michelle. From all the kissing, we soon figure out that she likes him as well, although Karl has warned him not to take a mortal as a lover. Radu kidnaps Mara, a local girl, and kills the old woman we saw earlier.

Michelle teams up with Stefan and Karl, and they tell her the whole story. He insists that the girls need to leave town in the morning. Unfortunately, Lillian dies of “blood poisoning” before morning comes. The villagers cut off the head of the old woman to keep her from becoming a vampire, but Karl, who ought to know better, helps Michelle bury Lillian without this safety measure. Surprising no one, Lillian rises from the grave as Radu watches and waits.

Stefan finds Mara in Radu’s dungeon, but it’s a trap. A net falls on Stefan. Lillian makes off with Michelle and puts her in the dungeon next to Mara, so now everyone is in trouble. They get loose and try to find a way out. Of course, Mara is a vampire now too, and all the vampires take Michelle to see Stefan. They plan to turn her right in front of Stefan, just for spite. He bites her just as Karl breaks in with his anti-vampire weapons. Karl kills Lillian and frees Stefan.

Stefan and Radu have a sword fight, and Mara and Michelle do the cat fight thing. Radu and Mara both lose dramatically. Both the baddies get beheaded, but Radu swears that nothing can kill him, so who knows? There could be a sequel.

Stefan takes the Bloodstone and kisses Michelle, who now has bloody holes in her neck. She doesn’t want to be evil like Radu, so Stefan bites her to make her like he is. As the sun rises, they both lay in a really big coffin built for two.

We then see the little demon things wake up Radu’s severed head…

Commentary

The CGI demons are simply atrocious, even by 1991 standards. Radu’s look and makeup make him an especially creepy-looking vampire, and he speaks really clearly, even with those huge fangs in his mouth. Angus Scrimm, as the King, looks creepy-looking a bit ridiculous with a frilly wig on. This was also the first American film to be shot in Romania.

For a long while, I thought the bits with Radu and the Vampire King happened long in the past as flashbacks, but it turns out, all this stuff was happening at the same time.

This was good enough to spawn several sequels. It’s a good, if not particularly original, vampire film. The CGI makes the whole thing look dated, but otherwise, it holds up pretty well today.