Bloodlust: Subspecies III

Plot synopsis:
NOTE: Sequel to Subspecies II: Bloodstone (1993).Mummy heals Radu's wounds while Becky summons Mel Thompson and Lt Marin to the
tomb in the cemetery. They find Professor Popescu's body but nothing else to
substantiate Becky's story about vampires and a witch. As night
approaches, Radu, Mummy and Michelle leave the tomb and return to Castle
Vladislav. Becky, Mel and Lt. Marin follow but cannot enter the castle
because the professor's secret entrance has been blown up.Villagers begin to disappear. Mel calls his CIA friend, who shows up at the castle
with silver bullets and full commando regalia. He and Mel scale the
castle wall. Mummy kills the CIA agent, imprisons Mel, and orders Radu to kill
Michelle. But Radu is in love with Michelle and beheads Mummy instead.
Radu begins to realize that he has killed off his entire bloodline out of
love for Michelle and bargains with her--Michelle's devotion for Becky's
life. Michelle agrees and goes outside to talk with Becky. Radu kills Lt
Marin who is watching from the bushes. Becky holds a gun with silver
bullets to Radu's head and orders him to release Mel. Michelle takes the
gun from Becky and turns it on Radu. She retrieves the bloodstone then,
along with Becky and Mel, runs from the castle with Radu in pursuit.But daylight is approaching, and both Radu and Michelle are in pain. Becky and
Mel zip Michelle into a light tight body bag and toss the bloodstone over
the castle wall. Radu attempts to retrieve it but the sun is too strong.
He catches on fire, tumbles over the castle wall, and is staked on the
limb of a dead tree. As Radu's body is destroyed, drops of his blood
transform into his subspecies. [Synopsis by BJ Kuehl]

Tags: tragedy, violence, gothic

Review:
Just edges out S2 as my favorite in this hugely entertaining vampire series, mostly on the strength of Anders Hove and Denise Duff's performances.
Same basic plot: Rebecca and her Fearless Vampire Stalkers continue where they left off, in pursuit of her sister Michelle, Radu, and the Bloodstone; while Radu tries futilely to gain the love and loyalty of his adamantly defiant "fledgling", Michelle.Hove has completely sounded the depths of Radu's character and his portrayal of this tragic monster is poignant and heartfelt.
Unable to command his headstrong protégé's fealty to the master she refuses to acknowledge, unable to win her heart with gifts or intimate displays of trust, Radu's despair is utterly human, yet he never turns on her.
Despite his constant praise of pain and suffering, his deathly face conceals a heart capable of loyal and true love.As for Denise Duff as Michelle, she is probably the coolest vampiress EVER, and if it not for Radu would no-doubt be the star of this series.
The Subspecies movies deserve acclaim for their strong female characters, and Michelle is the toughest, a determinedly human woman who resists becoming a vampire with every fiber of her strength and will.
At the same time, we see her grow in undead power and skill, and realize that if she keeps control of the Bloodstone - with which she can resist the need to kill - she'll become an immortal to reckon with.
Her scenes with Radu are really something to see, as the two vampires match wills eye-to-eye again and again, and she forces Radu to blink every time.Their story is truly "Beauty and the Beast" without the happy ending, and indeed it's hard not to think of that classic story in the sequence where Michelle begs to see her sister just one last time.
Like the Beast, Radu is unwilling to let his "pretty one" go, but gives his permission, hoping to prove his love by a gesture of faith in her; and just as in the fairy tale, his hopeful gesture has sad consequences.
The look on his face as she sweeps past him while he pleads for her devotion could bring a tougher fan than me to tears.
--These are some of the best characterizations in modern vampire film, and among the very few that I really care about.Once you see this you will NEED to see #4!.
Love Will Tear Us Apart.
Poor Radu.
He's been stabbed and staked by his fledgling Michelle and her sister Becky and left for dead in the bottom of a dusty crypt in a Bucharest cemetery.
But Radu's mummy comes to the rescue, recapturing Michelle almost instantly and healing her much abused son before the next moon rises.
Upon awakening, Michelle is horrified to realize that Radu is not dead, nor has he released his hold on her.
Michelle, disgusted by her vampiric urges, nevertheless demands that Radu show her the ropes.
Radu, pathetically in love with the beautiful Michelle, alternatively tries to win her affections and force her into submission.
Mummy resents the new fledgling and urges her son to destroy her.
And Becky has not yet given up on the idea of a rescue, and she's brought plenty of back up this time.This third entry in the Subspecies series is every bit as fun as the first two, allowing its cast of characters to grow and evolve.
Anders Hove as Radu becomes an object of pity here, revealing Radu not as evil incarnate, but as a lonely, miserable wretch who has never been loved...not even by his mummy.
Michelle's continued rejection of her hideous Master is heartbreaking to watch.
Time and again she professes her hatred for Radu, and Radu accepts it in silence and takes her back without a word against her, protecting her no matter what the cost.
His love for her is genuinely pathetic and one can't help but feel some pity for him at last.
Denise Duff as Michelle is very good once again, expressing sorrow and pain but also satisfaction and enthusiasm in her new found powers.
Highlights include an emotional scene between Radu and Michelle atop the battlements of Castle Vladislas, and a brief but very funny sequence involving Becky, Radu and a gun loaded with silver bullets.
Followed by a fourth film (Bloodstorm: Subspecies 4) which, sadly, is nowhere near as good as the first three Subspecies films..
Though not quite as great as "Subspecies 2," and with an unsatisfying ending, it was still better than the original.It picks up where the last one left off, with babe Michelle in the vampiric clutches of Radu and his shrivelled, cackling mother, and the forces of good attempting to save her.
There were some great and legitimate moments of tension, mostly due to characterization, and that's always welcome.
Anders Hove does a fantastic job as the pitiful, all-too-human vampire, Radu, in love with Michelle who can only hate him.
It was well-written, although a lot slower-moving than "Subspecies 2," but definitely worth a look..
Conclusion to the planned trilogy directed by Ted Nicolaou this third film ends rather openly suggesting that Full Moon Productions were already sizing up future instalments.
This time Radu kidnaps Michelle and takes her to the castle that he shares with his mother, a Sorceress.
He teaches her to master her vampire powers, willing to sacrifice everything to empower his true love when Michelle's sister Rebecca attacks his stronghold.The trilogy is weakening here with little original storyline and little excitement.
However the series still - at this point - remains highly unique and still fantastically riveting.
Once again the acting is of a high standard, the Romanian locations breathtaking and the script, score and direction, even in this 'weaker hour' surpass many larger budget films.
Radu's romantic side.
Now I know that most of the Subspecies fans prefer the second movie over Bloodlust: Subspecies III, but I think this was actually my favorite of the series.
This is where we see a little bit of Radu's weakness and that he can have mortal feelings for another, even love.
Weither or not he's in love with Michelle, I think he admires her innocence and beauty, the power she holds over him, she knows it and definitely takes advantage of it, who can blame her, right?
But I love how the story goes into Radu, he fears this emotion, understandably, and it blinds him.
This is strangely a tragic love story that really intrigues me, it goes from teacher/student to love/hate.
Radu though I promise still delivers the good scares like the other Subspecies movies.Radu and his student, Michelle, are up to a lot, while he teaches her what it means to be a vampire, Radu's mother thinks it's a bad idea to keep her.
Michelle's sister, Morgan, will not give up and she will do anything to save her sister's should.
Michelle tells Radu that she can never love him, that she hates him and would rather just die instead of being a vampire but Radu wishes for her to stay with him forever.Bloodlust: Subspecies III is just continuing where the second Subspecies left off.
My favorite scene was where Michelle is outside and Radu comes from behind her and she asks what can kill them, the dialog he delivers as well as his expressions, for a low budget film, Anders Hove is a good actor and makes Radu very believable.
This was a fun series to get into, I really have enjoyed it, these are the horror films I've been looking for and would highly recommend them for a good scare.7/10.
One of the Better Full Moons.
Still in the thrall of the evil vampire Radu (Anders Hove), Michelle yearns to be taught the skills of the vampire.
Meanwhile, her sister Becky tries to free her from his evil clutches, and this time, she has brought some help.Shot back to back with part two, the "Subspecies" series is one of the better things to come out of Full Moon.
Maybe it had creative independence, or maybe the budget was better in that era.
But we haven't seen anything this good from Full Moon in a long time.Others have commented that, despite the low budget, the film is a lot of fun because it doesn't take itself too seriously.
Solid sequel to the surprisingly straight faced Charles Band horror franchise.
I'm quite surprised at myself for having not watching this Charles Band Full Moon Features production before and have quickly become a fan of the Subspecies series of films.
I think what I like most about the series is that the vampires here are neither the Bela Lugosi elegant gentlemen type, nor are they the emo Anne Rice/Sookie Stackhouse type of vampires.
The vampire Radu is a nasty scary looking monster.
In many ways, he reminds me of the Steve Niles vampires in "30 Days of Night." In this third installment, Radu is still controlling one of the sisters from the previous film and her other sister is trying to free her from Radu's thrall.
As with the previous films, this was competently directed by Ted Nicolaou, who makes the most of the European locations and the real-life castle that was owed by Band's production company at the time (and which appeared in just about every Full Moon film of this era, even one misguided Trancers film).
Anders Hove continues to be creepy as Count Radu, the practical special effects are solid (and bloody), and the production values are better than most Full Moon productions.
Overall, this one is a must see for fans of Charles Band films, but honestly this film is probably not one for non-fan of Full Moon Features..
Enjoyable if flawed Gothic vampire tale.
After escaping from the vampire lair, a woman continues the search for the deadly vampire and his bride in her sister with the help of her friend only to have the local authorities disbelieving in their story which complicates matters until they finally are forced together to stop them.This was an enjoyable if somewhat flawed entry.
Once again, this one manages to get plenty of mileage out of its Gothic trappings, which are kept to a high majority of the time throughout here.
The opening resurrection ceremony, featuring the demonic hag performing the ritual on the girl by slicing her arm and using the blood to reanimate the other vampire or the discovery of the bloodied and mangled bodies from the previous encounter gives this a great start, and the use of them flying away out from under the investigators eyes is a solid and engaging ploy.
Keeping the vampire and his mummified mother on-screen for a large portion of this section as he attempts to teach her the ways of the vampire like she wanted gives this a kind of enjoyable entrance into the whole affair.
Those training sessions offer some rather fine moments being held in the candlelit room which adds to the atmosphere of him training her before eventually forcing her to drink from the city girl he captured for her.
That also leads nicely into the final half where it really manages to let loose with some fine action in the assault on the impenetrable lair high inside the castle walls with their initial scaling of the walls and the resultant firefight with the mummy before having the tables turned and leading into the fun of the vampires being awakened which gives way to them being captured and tortured by the two.
Even without the frantic actions and confrontations throughout here, the violence and gore manages to hold off enough to really work quite a lot to really like here.
The main issue holding this one down is the fact that there's not a whole lot of real vampire action in here unlike the others in the series.
The middle portion of the film descends into an endless series of either investigation scenes with the two trying to look into the history of the vampires in the area while avoiding the authorities or scenes of him trying to teach her how to be a vampire.
While there's some fun to be had with the idea of her out stalking those around the city and upsetting the community which in turn leads into their distrust of the investigation, that this is what the movie descends into leaves it not all that exciting for a large portion of the running time which is somewhat frustrating.
As well, the film manages to spend a great deal of time worrying over the grave seriousness of finale but it just drags it all out to endless degrees which severely reduces their impact as it features a ton of elements that pad this one out quite heartily, from their turning on each other to the escape attempt and finally leading into the actual way out of the castle which is far longer than necessary.
Continuing directly after the major cliffhanger of the previous film (well after a short recap of the aforementioned movie at least) Subspecies 3 jumps right back into the thick of it.
With Rebecca trying to save her beloved sister/recent vampire Michelle from evil vampire Radu and his witch of a mother.While there are parts of the film that I really enjoyed, this third film as a whole is a bit too padded and i believe that it would've been better served (artistically if not financially) by trimming it down and combining the footage left with part 2 to make a much better film.
As it is, the film was OK, it just could've been such better.Eye Candy: Elvira Deatcu gets briefly topless and Melanie Shatner provides T&A.
An excellent job yet again, but this is where the cracks start to appear in this great series.
I know, my screen name is "SubspeciesRaduFan," but even I have to admit that the series begins to get more cheesy here, with a few minor flawed moments moments.
So here's my summary: Michelle killed Radu, but his mother grabbed her and brought her son back to life using Michelle's blood.
Radu continues trying to get Michelle to accept her condition and his love..
Meanwhile, Becky, Mel, and a CIA agent plot to help Michelle escape the vampire's clutches.
As a previous reviewer said, Radu is becoming more of a pitiful creature than an evil monster like he was in the previous movies.
Poor guy is completely unloved, even by his mother and (now permanently deceased) father giving some justification for his evil.This movie is still a masterpiece, don't get me wrong; it just lacks the atmosphere of the first two.
Bloodlust: Subspecies III starts where the previous film Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1994) finished with Rebecca (Melanie Shatner) running off to find help while her poor sister Michelle (Denice Duff) is kidnapped by Radu (Anders Hove) & his zombie Witch Mother (Pamela Gordon) who whisks them back to Radu's castle.
The police are called & Popescu's (Michael Denish) body is found in the crypt but no Michelle, Witches or Vampires.
Together with Mel (Kevin Spirtas) Rebecca sets out to find her sister Michelle (again) while Radu tries to convince her to love him (again)...Written & directed by Ted Nicolaou who ended up directing all the Subspecies films thus far I have to say that out of the first three Bloodlust: Subspecies III is the worst.
By low budget horror film standards it's not too bad I suppose but after a fairly decent original & a surprisingly good second Subspecies film this definitely felt like one Subspecies film too many.
The story is slow & Radu the evil Vampire is getting less & less to do with each film, here he spends almost the whole running time in his castle trying to convince Michelle to love him for reasons never explained, I mean why he is so infatuated with her anyway?
Then there's Rebecca's attempts to find her sister which wastes more minutes until the inevitable showdown at the end.
This is fairly forgettable stuff to be honest, the romance tinged plot is standard fare in Vampire films & nothing else really happens besides.
It's alright & it's watchable enough but I am glad I saw it on TV for free rather than spend any money on it.
Not one I will be adding to my collection anytime soon.Bloodlust: Subspecies III was actually shot back-to-back with Bloodstone: Subspecies II, I would imagine that the same thing that happened with Puppet Master 4 (1993) & Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter (1994) made around the same time as this also befell this in that Full Moon Entertainment had a deal with Paramount going to theatrically release some of their films but when that fell through the planned films (both a Puppet Master & Subspecies one) were split into two films each & made at the same time with the same cast's & crew.
Certainly Bloodstone: Subspecies II & Bloodlust: Subspecies III feel like they could have been edited down into one film & as it is both feel a little incomplete & empty, especially this one.
The film looks alright but no different than the previous film & there's a distinct lack of gore too.
The little stop-motion animated monsters from the original make a brief appearance at the end to set up yet another sequel.Shot in Bucharest in Romania the location work is the best thing about Bloodlust: Subspecies III to be honest, the production values are OK & it looks nice enough but it's just all a bit dull really.
Most of the cast from Bloodstone: Subspecies II feature here & are alright.Bloodlust: Subspecies III is definitely my least favourite Subspecies film so far although I still haven't seen the final one to date Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm (1998) although I will have within the next week or so.
This is an OK Vampire film but forgettable & not as good as the previous two, difficult to recommend to anyone other than die hard Subspecies fans.