You might be a bit confused here, but let me explain. Despite Radu finally being dead in Subspecies IV (so far), I did this review last. Why, you ask? Well, for a couple of reasons. For one, I thought you might be pissed at me for interrupting the narrative of the series just to stick to chronological order. Second, doing this one last exposes it to one major plot hole that came from making Subspecies IV. Lastly, well, you'll understand that part. After doing the epic story of Subspecies II and III, Ted Nicolau took a break. But his longing to return to Romania (really- he says it) is too strong. He decided that not all vampires (read four of them) would be a group that hides out in the Romanian Mountains. As such, he made this film about a new group of vampires. A couple bits connect this to Subspecies, aside from it being a vampire film made by the exact same director in the exact same country. Let's get our fangs out and finish up the Quintology with...
The movie begins with a woman being attacked by a vampire! Wow, don't rush the story on my account, Ted. She is bitten, but her man shows up to help. He decapitates the vampire, but is too late to save her from turning and kills her too. The End? No, it's only the beginning. We next see a woman playing piano in front of a large audience. In the crowd is...a man that is clearly a vampire. I'm sorry, I know this is Romania, but does that not attract attention? This man is apparently our lead, since his narration is beginning to drone over any action on the screen. He's not bad, but he's just 'eh.' Up in the balcony, another creepy man is watching her as well. This is why it does not pay to be a cute, virginal young woman in Romania! Apparently, the other man forces our hero to not bother him via the power of his mind. Mind power = low-budget powers. After the concert, the man begins to follow her, using the shadow effect that Ted just freaking loves. He corners her, but the other creepy man shows up to scare him off. She starts to liking to him, but gets a little 'weirded-out' when he talks about how she needs to leave. The next morning, an emissary of the Club run by the other vampire meets with her and hires him to perform for them. Dun dun dun!
He meets with her the next night before she goes. He gets a little bossy, which rubs her the wrong way. To note from her dialogue, however, she would not mind it if her boyfriend bossed her around. Um, okay. She goes inside and is warmly greeted by the vampires. That is to say that they stare at her like the girl who shows up to Prom with a mustache. Our hero ponders about whether or not to help her, but decides to abandon his Punisher-like mission of revenge to help a cute girl. Who hasn't been there? He uses his vampiric mental powers- which, again, marks the only time that they will appear in the entire series- to get all the way to the Inner Sanctum, but runs into the club's human owner, whose will is already controlled by the head vampire. Watch our limp-wristed hero...leave our heroine to be prey for the vampires! Oh the excitement! She gets bitten by the lead vampire- which draws more cheers than the music did- and locks her in a room. Our hero...does nothing. I'm sorry, but why are you here again?
Much like Michelle, our heroine is constantly antagonized by the villain to convert of her own free will. 'No 'means 'Yes' to Vampires, apparently. The next night, while our hero sulks around the outside of the building and narrates about his indecision, he is approached by the villain and his apprentice vampire. He gets invited in and immediately loses his one advantage when the Sword of Laertes is stolen by the villain. Good job, jackass! By the way, in Subspecies IV, this guy actually has the sword, but it gets stolen by Radu! What is it about this sword that inspires so much theft?!? Our villain locks up our hero and tries to turn him to the 'dark side' as well. Do all of these guys just need acceptance so badly?!? In one of my favorite pseudo-science moments, our hero explains that he can't do the 'shadow' trick to escape a locked door because no light is able to enter the room. Riiight...anyhow, the villain tricks our hero into drinking some blood right as the girl enters. Soon after this, our hero escapes, engages in some alright stage-fighting and kills our villain by slashing him with the Sword. He fall and explodes into ash. He and the girl escape to a crypt to live happily never after. The End...for real this time.
This movie is honestly not bad, but it is a bit too in love with itself for its own good. The setting is pretty good, but could do with some castles or two. With just dank buildings and streetlights, it could very well be Detroit instead of Bucharest. Let's get to the heart of this though, shall we? Is this a prequel to Subspecies 4 or a sequel, albeit one made a year earlier? It can't be a prequel, since the villain is dead here, but not addressed as having come back from the dead. But it can't be a sequel, since he does not have the Sword of Laertes at the beginning. Maybe there is a deleted scene from the fourth film in which Radu just hands the Sword to a random goth guy. As an aside, the Sword plays no part in Radu's death in IV, making you wonder why you have a 'vampire-killing sword' in a film and do nothing with it. Whatever spot this film has in the series, I can tell you what it means to me. It means that I am done with Full Moon vampires. Thank you and good night.
Up next, a blatant rip-off film comes to you via Blockbuster Trash. Oddly, it is ripping-off a Disney film and not the one it looks like. Stay tuned...
Cant say I am as fond of this one as you are, but I have only seen it once, so maybe I was just burnt out by the fifth installment in the series.
ReplyDeleteIt's by no means a 'good film.' It's just different enough from the other Subspecies films that I was a bit congenial to it.
ReplyDeleteEspecially when you consider the fact that they try and explain the shadow flying crap, have our hero be so much of a pansy and give us that silly, downer ending.
Then again, our hero would have probably just been stabbed to death at the beginning of the second film, which was never made.
Full Moon has made Evil Bong 2, but not Vampire Journals 2. That really speaks for itself.
Vampire journals is definitely a sequel to subspecies 4. If i'm not mistaken, they say somewhere in the film that Zachary stole the Sword from Radu. Let's face it, the protagonist was not the star of the film not was he bilked as such. It was all about Ashe. Though David Gunn did a fairly well job as a tragic hero but could not outshine our antagonist. It was a well deserved break from the usual"monster" we see in the subspecies films. Here's hoping for sequel.
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