#8 - Subspecies (1991)

Subspecies (1991)

(dir. Ted Nicolaou)

Charles Band's Full Moon Features has been producing low-budget genre films, the vast majority of which are direct-to-video, for almost 25 years.  Even if you've never actually watched one of their films, chances are pretty good that you've at least seen one on the shelf in a video store (or in the bargain bin at Walmart).  They are responsible for a number of cheesy classics, from cult favorites like the Puppet Master or Trancers series, to very silly schlock like The Gingerdead Man and Evil Bong.  I confess that before I watched Castle Freak last week, I had never actually seen any of their films. With that in mind, one of my goals for this year's Horrorthon is to remedy that - let's hope I don't regret this decision.

Anyway, the Subspecies films are one of their most popular series, and I can see why.  This is a pretty solid vampire movie with an original story, shot on location in Romania and featuring some neat stop-motion animation.  The story involves two vampire brothers;  Stefan is half human and peaceful, while Radu is a full vampire and just wants to do typical vampire stuff - drink blood, summon demons, the works.  They fight over a group of college students doing research in the area; Radu tries to turn them into vampries while Stefan tries to save them. Radu looks like a slightly more demonic Nosferatu, and spends much of the film with blood slobbered all over his mouth and chin.  His design ranks up there with some of the best movie vampires I've seen, and he's probably the strongest thing that this film has going for it.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one.  If you want a fun and slightly schlocky vampire movie set in Transylvania (and that isn't just another remake of Dracula), this is highly entertaining and worth your time.  While not a "great" film by any standards, overall it's pretty solid.  Recommended to fans of vampires and B-movies