Bloodlust: Subspecies III (1994)

BLOODLUST: SUBSPECIES III

WRITER: Ted Nicolaou

DIRECTOR: Ted Nicolaou

STARRING: Anders Hove as Radu
Denice Duff as Michelle
Kevin Blair as Mel
Melanie Shatner as Rebecca
Pamela Gordon as Mummy
Michael Dellafemina as Bob
Ion Haiduc as Lt. Marin

QUICK CUT: Radu brings his new girlfriend home to meet his mom, and it does not go well.

THE MORGUE

Michelle - A neophyte vampire who is just learning the ways of the undead, and increasingly corrupted by Radu. She just wants to die.

Rebecca - Michelle’s sister, desperately trying to save her, and will go to any lengths to do so.

Radu - An ancient vampire who just wants to be loved.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! It felt like a good time to check out Subspecies 3, Bloodlust, since it feels like I've had a whole buncha shitty vampire movies lately. I almost swapped one in earlier, but was saved by Head Cheerleader Dead Cheerleader. Which is...maybe more of a lateral move. But anyways, back to the adventures of Radu and his drooly chin.

First up, the movie makes sure to give everyone a PREVIOUSLY ON SUBSPECIES recap for anyone just joining us. Not a bad idea, since it ended on a cliffhanger.

Once Michelle is dragged away into the reused footage again, we jump right into Rebecca still waiting outside the mausoleum. It's been a couple years, night must have fallen by now!

Down below, the vampires sleep, and Mummy curses Michelle for her beauty, and because she's jealous of the connection Radu has with the living dead girl. Mummy also uses Michelle's blood to restore Radu.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating; this whole family has a drooling problem.

Meanwhile, Rebecca finds a local tavern, and calls the US embassy in Bucharest to come get her. We then have Marin and his cops showing up to the crime scene and taking the dead bodies that are staying dead, and a bit more recapping of the plot.

Rebecca tries to explain to Mel and Marin that it's vampires, but even here in Romania, you can imagine how well that goes over.

As the menfolk argue topside, Rebecca sneaks back into the crypt to try and find her sister. She hears Mummy's cackling as the vampires wake up, and follows the sound through the catacombs.

They hear Rebecca approaching and the cops rustling around, so do some magic hoodoo to have Radu shadow them away back to the castle.

Radu takes Rebecca up to the throne room and traps her in the cage he was once imprisoned in, so at least they're getting some good use out of these sets and props.

Despite all my rage, I am still just a bat in a cage.

While she's trapped, Radu goes to find Rebecca to do who knows what, but he leaves when he sees she is not alone. Mel is sleeping right next to her, watching over Rebecca, and the vampire doesn't want to risk a confrontation.

So he ventures into downtown Bucharest to find a victim to feed on, Radu picks a random woman, and spirits her back to the castle.

Radu feeds on the woman, and then sets her in front of Rebecca, like a bird offering up the pre-chewed food to it's child.

Seriously, will someone PLEASE increase this movie's napkin budget??

Mel and Rebecca arm up, and head for the castle. A surprising move only 20 minutes in. They find Lt. Gomez Addams already there, trying to find a way in, himself.

Fortunately, the kids know the professor's secret way from the last movie. Unfortunately, the vampires blocked the tunnel, so that's out.

Night falls, and Rebecca bargains for her sister's life. Meanwhile, the humans find a hotel until morning, and give us some of that Romanian culture to the film.

Mel reads over one of the professor's book, and recaps more of the backstory. Thanks, mister exposition.

Back at Castle Radu, the vampires head out into the night, so Michelle can receive some late night tutoring from Professor Radu. They lure someone away from the town, and have a late night snack.

Not wanting to raid the castle with just the two of them, three if Marin's feeling generous, Mel calls an old CIA buddy to join in the vampire hunt.

They head outside and hear the townsfolk clamoring about their missing citizens. They also drop in "strigoi" which is a folklore reference I appreciate.

Our heroes head to the castle, and meet up with Agent Bob, who helps Mel scale over the walls of Castle Radu. Once done, they look for a door to let everyone else inside.

Your mother was a hamster, and your father smells of elderberries!

As highly camp as it is to bring in a sudden new CIA agent character, it's not the worst idea to show up in the middle of the day, well armed, and with a soldier.

Once over the wall, Bob takes charge and they start exploring the castle, without letting the others in. I rescind my comments about this being a smart play.

They find the witch, taunting a woman Radu grabbed after she came across last night's feeding, and Bob goes to attack her. Instead, he gets a knife in his face.

We hear gunfire, and they play it like Mel is hurt, but we won't find out his actual fate for a bit longer. Rebecca and Marin wait outside to see if anyone comes back, and night inevitably falls.

Mummy sees Michelle is wearing some of her jewelry, and she has an argument with her son over it. The witch demands she kill the fledgling, and when her child refuses, she tries to kill Michelle herself.

Radu rips off his mother's arm, her head, and then tosses the witch's skull into the flames. This causes her to curse Radu forever, but I dunno, she's been tossing that word around all movie, and they've not done much.

Mel tries to reach Michelle's humanity, tell her he knows her sister, but Radu encourages her to feed on him instead. He gashes the man's arm, and the blood calls to her.

Fortunately, he's saved by the bell, when Rebecca uses the walkie talkies to try and get anyone's attention.

Radu smashes the walkie, and Michelle insists she needs to talk to her sister, to make her decision, either to go with her, or sever all ties to her humanity and stay with Radu.

I swear this is a stolen shot from one of the other movies.

During all of this, Marin is lurking in the trees, hoping to get a shot off, as the vampires are lured out, or SOMEthing. The plan all seems very vague. But, unfortunately, Radu finds the cop first, and takes out Gomez.

Radu finds the sisters, and Rebecca holds him at gunpoint, with a gun loaded full of silver bullets. He agrees to take her to Mel, and let them both go, along with Michelle.

See? He can be reasonable when he needs to be!

I'll never clean my chin, not even with a gun to my head!

Radu holds up his end of the bargain, up to a point, until he tells Michelle to kill them all. And she's probably going to do it, too. She's too far gone, and she knows it, so Michelle begs her sister to kill her.

Michelle takes the gun when her sister refuses, and seems ready to take her own life with it, until she realises, hey! There is a MUCH better target, and empties the clip into Radu's face.

She takes the bloodstone and everyone runs away, as the sun comes up. Radu is in rough shape, but he still gives them a hard time as they try to escape.

They get Michelle into a lightproof body bag, and we keep seeing that they are dragging the poor random girl Radu kidnapped earlier. This poor girl must be SO confused and/or terrified.

Radu shows up, demanding his bloodstone, so Rebecca chucks it over the castle walls. The vampire chases it, right into the rising sun.

He coughs up black sludge, bursts into flames, and melts. So they are going all out with his death this time around, huh?

Radu dives off the ramparts and manages to hit the one dead tree below, piercing himself repeatedly on the branches.

Everyone else packs Michelle's body into the trunk, and drive off into the sunrise, leaving Radu's body to burn away. But not before chunks of flesh and blood pool around him, and rising as familiar little tiny demons once again.

The triumphant return of the blood sprites, yay!

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: It’s not great, but it’s not terrible either. Just on the wrong side of average. It’s a bit too dark

Audio: Not bad, it gets the job done.

Body Count: A bit lacklustre. They need to feed more.

1 - After 19 minutes, Radu finally pauses for his first meal
2 - Another random victim becomes a late night snack
4 - Soldier dude gets a knife to the face
5 - Radu chars his mummy
6 - Marin gets stabbed by Radu
7 - Radu barfs up Venom and bursts into flames in the sunlight, after eating a whole clip of silver bullets

Best Corpse: Is this the third time Radu has gotten this shout out? I dunno. But you gotta admire everything he goes through, even if he’s Not Really Dead.

Blood Type - B-: A bit clean at times, but there’s plenty of chin blood, a few bites, and Radu’s demise is very effects driven, and gooey. And a bit of extra points for Mummy.

Sex Appeal: Radu randomly rips off a victim’s top to get her boobs in the movie

Drink Up! Every time someone gets stabbed.

Movie Review: It’s not quite as good as the second movie, and I’d put it probably on par with the first. The acting is about the same, the plot is a bit looser, and there’s a bit more camp. Which I’m fine with, but it feels out of place, particularly the all too brief inclusion of Agent Bob. I also feel like Radu’s makeup isn’t quite up to snuff. A well made, decent enough story, for a Full Moon picture. While it’s flawed, they just don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Three out of five blood sprites.

Entertainment Value: The usual Full Moon-ness of it all abounds. Random castle, weird little dudes, and camp. Radu chews the scenery with his giant teeth, although he does feel a bit toned down from earlier movies. Marin is a treat as he was in the previous movie, but not used as much as I would have liked. And while Bob was briefly there, and maybe just a BIT silly, it’s the right kind of silly. A fun ride, if not the best of the franchise. Three out of five bodybags