Subspecies V: Blood Rise
Written and Directed by Ted Nicolaou
Starring Anders Hove, Denice Duff
Unrated
Runtime: 80 minutes
Now streaming on Screambox or for digital rental/purchase

by Billy Russell, Staff Writer

Subspecies V: Blood Rise is the first new entry into the Subspecies movie series since Bloodstorm in 1998. Wisely, perhaps, writer/director Ted Nicolaou sets part five in the past, serving as a prequel, instead of another continuation in the ongoing series of Radu the vampire stalking and following his long-time prey and object of obsession, Michelle.

Blood Rise tells us the origin story of Radu. Whenever I hear “origin story” I instinctively roll my eyes. Origin story. Prequel. Decades-delayed sequel. Straight to streaming. These are all red flags. Still, the Subspecies movies and I go way back. Even if the movie was no good, it was something I was excited about, and my own (perhaps morbid) curiosity compelled me to watch Subspecies V was soon as I could.

The film begins with the birth of Radu. If this movie is an origin story, it was going to get it from the beginning. Radu is birthed in a monstrous fashion, a demon spawn from two elder, inhuman vampiric parents. Moments after birth, Crusaders kidnap the baby, clip his claws, disguise and obscure his features, and raise him as a monster hunter. He roams Eastern Europe with a team and cleanses castles of vampires and their spawn. When he is ordered to cleanse the castle of his parents, he learns the truth about himself and takes pity on two familars kept imprisoned by his father. In a moment of weakness, the vampire woman converts him back into his monstrous state and he begins on his path of darkness.

Anders Hove returns to the role of Radu, and Denice Duff returns, this time subverting the original dynamic, by being the one to convert Radu to the darkness. She is his master. He spends centuries haunted by her image.

Subspecies V: Blood Rise is a type of low-budget movie I feel like doesn’t get made anymore. It feels like a relic of another era, and I mean this in the best possible way. It doesn’t feel beholden to modern trends. It doesn’t feel referential or derivative of whatever is currently trending in the world of horror or vampire movies. It doesn’t even feel particularly beholden to the previous entries in the Subspecies movies. It’s very firmly its own movie, leanly told in only 80 minutes, and wastes no time in getting to the point.

Eschewing modern low-budget filmmaking techniques, Blood Rise is refreshingly free of green screen effects. The sets are real. The shots are on location. The atmosphere is real. The secret ingredient to the original movies were basic, but crucial: The atmosphere, and the chemistry between Radu and Michelle. Those two crucial ingredients return, richly and fully realized, and the movie wisely avoids the usual decision decades-delayed sequels indulge in, where it’s packed wall-to-wall with references and easter eggs to previous entries in the series. Blood Rise has no interest in pandering fan service. It instead wants to service its fans by creating an entry worthy of the series.

Subspecies V isn’t perfect (what is?), and there are some areas where it stumbles along. And for a movie that’s a brisk 80 minutes, there are some sections in the middle where it seems to drag, or where the plot meanders before correcting itself and moving on to the next chapter. But, where it sets out to succeed, it does so with exceptional grace. To be clear, Subspecies V has no business being as good as it is. The reason it is, though, isn’t due to some lightning in a bottle, or perfect storm of this or that. The strength of these movies is, and always has been, due to the strength of the filmmaking itself. The writing is fun and imaginative, with witty dialogue between tortured immortals. The filmmaking is elegant, touring us through dilapidated catacombs and dungeons lit by candle. The acting, as always, is great–Anders Hove and Denice Duff take on a new dynamic and don’t miss a beat.

This time around, Blood Rise ponders on the nature of humanity itself, what makes us tick, and what gives us our soul. Two musicians are converted into vampires and without their humanity, they are unable to make music. Their muse has left them, they say. All that they can create with their instruments are hideous, pained shrieks. But there’s more to it than that. They do still have souls. Radu is driven by emotion, or proto-emotions, anyway, like fear, obsession and self-preservation. Perhaps their humanity has not left entirely. Any movie that tries to answer, with any sort of authority, what makes a soul, or what makes a human, would be laughable, so Subspecies V poses questions and then answers them with nuance and a certain ambiguity that ultimately leaves it to each individual viewer to decide.

While not totally (forgive the pun) toothless in its portrayal of violence or nudity, Subspecies V is light on gore. Though unrated, it would firmly earn an R-rating. The movie isn’t interested in an ongoing game of one-upmanship, or pushing boundaries of how far it can go in onscreen-bloodletting. The violence is essential to the story and never goes further than it feels it needs to, but doesn’t whimper away or pull its punches in showing the consequences of decisions that characters make.

Subspecies V: Blood Rise is sure to satisfy fans of the series–of both Subspecies and Full Moon Pictures as a whole.