Audience Member
Remember how Radu fell off a castle, landed in a tree and burned up? Well, he was able to make it out alive just as everyone else from the last movie died in a car crash except for, of course, Michelle, who is saved by Ana, who takes her to the mysterious Dr. Nicolescu, who realizes that she's a vampire.
While Dr. Nicolescu promises to cure her of her vampirism, the truth is that he's also one of the undead and uses science to make himself immune to all of the negative parts of being a vampire. Now, he wants the Bloodstone.
Radu has traveled to Bucharest to claim the financial wealth one of his previous henchman Ash, who we met in Vampire Journals. Meanwhile, Ash's own underling Serena wants the two vampires to kill one another. Yet when Radu comes for Michele and is attacked by the evil doctor, she's the one who saves him.
Of course, the end of this all has Radu, Ana, Ash and Serena engaging in so much drama over who controls the Bloodstone and our favirite vampire dead again, his head chopped off and burning in the sun.
For more than twenty years, that's all we saw of Radu. But now, thanks to Full Moon's Deadly Ten project, Blood Rise will tell the story of five hundred years in the life of Radu. This prequel will show "Radu's descent from a noble warrior for the Church to a depraved creature of the night. Stolen by crusaders on the night of his birth, he has no knowledge of his bloodline: his mother a demon; father a vampire." Anders Hove and Denice Duff will come back and so will I, because as we all know, once I watch every film in a series, I have to watch everything that comes out after like some kind of obligation.
If you watch the Full Moon remix movie I, Vampire, you can see this movie in short form as "Spawn of Hell." You also get to see all the flashbacks from the other films.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Anders Hove returns as the vampire Radu is the surprisingly good Full Moon Features Charles Band production. Most Band productions are rather tongue-in-cheek, but this Ted Nicolaou written and directed series took a more straight-faced approach and remained consistently good despite it's low budget and some weak acting from the supporting cast. This fourth and final film in the series has Michelle, the heroine from the previous films, finding herself turned into a vampire and seeking help from a scientist to cure her. This, of course, leads to a confrontation with Radu, who is also having his own royal court intrigue when a vampire fledgling of his, Ash, as well as Ash's fledgling, begin plotting against Radu. As with the others films, this was filmed during the time when producer Band owned an Eastern European castle, which Nicolaou made the most of to add scope and production value to his low budget endeavors. The Subspecies films also benefit from a better that average story than most Full Moon Features, and this series feels more like a continuous narrative than stand alone stories or rehashes of the first film, which is the path of far too many sequels. Overall, "Subspecies: The Awakening" and the series in general are by no means great vampire films, but they're better than the trashy direct-to-video horror film that you might expect and is well worth watching if you're a fan of low-budget horror.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I loved this movie that is until Radu was destroyed.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I'll start this off with a *spoiler alert* as Radu is back! As is Denice Duff as Michelle. Not letting the series die at a trilogy, Full Moon continued on with the story directly from the third film. This time we add in another vampire who's also a doctor. There is some hints at science, blood therapy, and vampire conflict but in the end it's all about Radu and Michelle.
Of course, in order to finish off the series (it is over right?) Radu must die again but I've already given you a spoiler warning.
Missing are his little "subspecies" minions which is about the only real let down with this film.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/28/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"its a beautiful movie and the most tragic, radu and michelle are the most amazingly tragic vampire couple, on screen although the ending leves you wanting more!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
Full Review
Audience Member
After a fatal car accident kills her sister and prevents her escape from Romania, the struggling vampire Michele is taken in by a deranged doctor and his assistant, who claim that they can cure her. Her master, the evil Radu, is brought back to life once again by the Bloodstone, returning to his former coven to track down the woman who scorned him. Although it was made just a few years after the earlier entries, SUBSPECIES 4 feels like an entirely different film. The ugly opening gives an immediate sense of cheapness to the production, which is continues with the inferior make-up effects and Z-movie plot. SUBSPECIES has always been built on the growing sexual tension between Radu and Michele, yet here they share very little screen time. Only in the final moments are the two brought back together at last in one of the series' most powerful moments. Anders Hove and Denise Duff are subpar compared to before, but Dan Astileanu's obsessive and over-the-top professor drags the picture down. Regardless of its flaws, SUBSPECIES fans are sure to sink their teeth into this final entry, although it is easily the weakest in the series.
-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/16/23
Full Review
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