‘Subspecies V: Blood Rise' Review: More Blood and Backstory Make for a Solid Series Return

Jul 30, 2023

Back in the 1990s, Charles Band, Ted Nicolaou, Anders Hove, and Full Moon Pictures came together to create one of the most fun and extensive vampire franchises in horror. The Subspecies series wasn't made up of incredible, award-winning movies by any means, but they were a blast of prime ‘90s cheese and did a great job of keeping the viewer invested in both the storytelling, which was woven with classic vampire folklore, and Radu Vladislas, the series’ main character, played by Anders Hove.

The Subspecies series was chock-full of entertaining characters, fun practical effects, brutal deaths, catchy music, and easy-to-follow stories. From 1990-1998, each entry in the series provided a decent level of quality, aside from maybe the extremely cheesy spinoff, titled Vampire Journals.

Now, 25-plus years after the last installment, Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm, the original team is back at it again, as Subspecies V: Blood Rise has been released. Ted Nicolaou returns to write and direct, Charles Band returns to produce, and Anders Hove reprises his role as Radu the vampire.

Aside from Hove, the new film stars Kevin Spirtas (Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood), Stasa Nikolic, Olivia Perunicic, Marki Filipovic, and Denice Duff, who played Michelle Morgan in Bloodlust: Subspecies III and Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm, returns to the franchise as a new character named Helena.

Subspecies V tells the story of Radu, who, on the night of his birth, is stolen from his demon mother and vampire father by Crusaders. Radu is raised by the church and trained by monks to go on missions to cleanse the Earth of any and all enemies of the church and supporters of dark forces.

When on a mission to kill a vampire named Vladislas and retrieve the Bloodstone for the church, a series of events lead to Radu becoming bitten and turned into a vampire himself, destined to spend many lifetimes looking for his purpose.

First a foremost, I really enjoyed the story for this one. I’m typically a little weary when it comes to prequels because, a lot of times, they feel like there are no stakes (no pun intended). But Radu's backstory was one I’ve wanted to know since seeing the first entry, and Subspecies V does a great job of laying out a tragic tale that leads into the other four movies quite well.

I’m a sucker for a revealing backstory anyway, so seeing Radu as this groomed warrior of God who completely loses his purpose to the very things that he's been hellbent on destroying, is an extremely cool character arc, especially when you figure in his forlorn personality throughout the rest of the franchise.

It was great seeing Anders Hove return as Radu. His character makes these movies, and I was sort of afraid that with this being a "legacy sequel", we wouldn't see much of the 67-year-old Greenlandic actor. But I’m happy to report that Hove is front and center for the entire movie, and fully encompasses the loneliness, sternness, and brutality of Radu from the previous entries.

Denice Duff's appearance was a welcome surprise as well; she appeared as Helena, a vampire that Radu saves from her captor, and then betrays him, turning him into the bloodsucker we know.

One of my few complaints was the lack of focus on supporting characters. I know this is supposed to be Radu's story, but I couldn't find myself caring about anyone else in the film, as they had little-to-no development and very limited appearances in a film that isn't too long to begin with. While Hove's performance made the audience feel for Radu through his personal losses, I couldn't really share his sentiment.

Granted that Subspecies V has 25 years of technological progress on its side, on technical and cinematic levels, it was much better than the last few entries of the series. The Serbian environmental shots were gorgeous, the camera work was crisp and clean, and the practical gore effects, familiar props, and set design all looked great.

There were still a few questionable CG effects to signify specific vampire powers throughout the film, but many bigger films have done worse with more money.

Surprisingly, Subspecies V was able to capture the classic feel of the original movies more than two decades after the last film's release; a feat that not many franchises can boast about. If I were to rank them, I’d put it right after the first two, which were the stronger entries in the series.

Admittedly, I went into this movie skeptical about the return of the franchise but left excited for more entries. That's a pretty big win for Full Moon Features in my book.

Subspecies V: Blood Rise will begin streaming on ScreamBox and the Full Moon Features app on June 2nd, 2023. The film will be available on Bluray on July 11th, 2023, and the Alamo Drafthouse is doing a one-night screening event on Monday, May 15th, 2023, at several of its locations. You can check here to see if the film is playing near you!

Actually they do have dates for all of the various ways to see the movie. Streaming on Full Moon's app and Screambox on Friday, June 2nd.

July 11th for bluray

July 15th signing for Dark Delicacies with director Ted Nicolaou

Hey Chris – Thanks for looking out! I’ll get that updated on the article ASAP.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Δ

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.