Review: Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993)

Directed by: Ted Nicolaou
Starring: Anders Hove, Denice Duff, Melanie Shatner
Written by: Ted Nicolaou
Music by: Richard Kosinski, William Levine, Michael Portis, John Zeretzke
IMDb

The sequel to 1991’s Subspecies opens up right after the events of the original film, and boy does it open strongly. Right away, it is obvious that the special effects have been greatly improved, as evidenced by a gnarly head re-attachment scene and the refined stop motion and puppetry used for the subspecies creatures. Radu’s makeup (extended fingers, in particular) look better, as well, and the introduction of Radu’s “Mummy” is pretty repugnant. However, the promise of the first 30 minutes is mostly squandered by an uneventful second act during which Michelle, the survivor from the first film and now Radu’s fledgling/would-be concubine, and her sister, Becky, try to track each other down while Michelle struggles with her new vampirism. (Somewhat interestingly, the role of Michelle has been recast with an actress that doesn’t look much the previous, while Becky is played by an actress who looks a lot like Michelle from the original film.) Once Becky and friends finally meet up with Radu and Mummy, things get bloody again, but not nearly to the extent that the first act led me to believe they would. Radu, despite all his venomous, raspy speech, doesn’t kill or feed on a single (living) person in this entry and is mostly in the background. I would have loved if Nicolaou et al. had really gone for it with the gore and set Radu loose. It’s also obvious from the non-ending that this was filmed at the same time as Bloodlust: Subspecies III, and the lack of storytelling inertia hurts it. However, other than the disappointingly low body count (and very limited screen time from the subspecies themselves), Bloodstone is a very atmospheric and engaging movie, with pretty impressive cinematography, that improves on the original in every way.

Rating: 7 out of 10