Subspecies

As a major horror fan, for some reason, vampire flicks never really appealed to me entirely. I may enjoy the old classics from time to time, like, Tod Browning's "Dracula" (1931) or "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" (1922), but that is mostly because I enjoy the old cinematographic style and the declamatory acting. However, I grew up in a time where vampires were mostly portrayed as cool, elegant, interesting, charismatic, sexy and even fun. Not necessarily a bad thing per se, but I feel that this new wave of vampires tends to draw away from the horror genre and leans towards a more approachable, romantic and even comedic tone. Of course, vampires have been always described as charming and captivating to a certain degree, and while many films succeed in making them attractive, they fail to portray them as remotely scary (because they don't even try). In "Subspecies", Charles Band (who wrote it) and Ted Nicolau (who directed it) give us two very different types of vampires in the same film, cleverly aiming to a broader audience: on the one hand, we have Stefan, a vampire that is not at all intimidating and, on the contrary, is portrayed as sweet, loving, delicate and, as one would expect, very good looking. On the other hand, we have Radu... ah, the unapologetic, depraved Radu, with his beast-like features, the gigantic claws, drooling blood and craving for power throughout the entire film. See? Everyone can be happy and, even though the film mostly focuses on the kind-hearted Stefan, Radu surreptitiously steals his place in the later installments, where he becomes the main attraction. And trust me, while Stefan is a necessary character for the story, his presence is probably more appealing to "Twilight" fans, rather than real horror lovers.

In "Subspecies", the story opens in a Romanian castle, with an intense confrontation between Radu, a horribly grotesque vampire and his father, King Vladislav (portrayed by Angus Scrimm from the "Phantasm" franchise). Radu demands his father an object, which is referred to as "the bloodstone", which is said to contain the blood of all the saints and that was crafted with the specific purpose of feeding the vampires, preventing them from attacking humans. King Vladislav, a noble ancient vampire who wishes to live in peace in his forsaken castle and avoid confrontations with the mortals, denies this object to his depraved son. The bloodstone, while useful to feed the vampires, can also become a dangerous drug, when used by a greedy creature, like his monstrous son, Radu. The father-son confrontation results in King Vlasilav being murdered by his evil spawn, who then proceeds to take the aforementioned bloodstone and drink the blood from it, while looking fantastically evil.

American college girls, Michelle and Lillian, travel to Romania to work on research about the history of said country. The lovely young ladies are welcomed by Mara, a Romanian girl who used to be their class mate (presumably, as an exchange student) and now moonlights as their unofficial tour guide. Mara takes the girls to an old fortress, that also serves as a shelter for college students (isn't that totally awesome?). In the shelter, the girls are greeted by a rustic and somewhat hostile old man named Karl, who shows them the place, while looking incredibly uncomfortable the whole time. After settling in, the girls meet a charming young man named Stefan, a zoologist who is living in the same place as they are and who looks like he's in a darkwave band. Unbeknownst to the girls, but not to Karl, Stefan is actually a vampire and not just any vampire... he is Radu's little brother! Fortunately for the girls, Stefan, just like his late father, wishes to get along with the mortals and plans to slay Radu, in order to stop him from perpetuating more atrocities and retrieve the bloodstone. Though this is still a horror flick about blood-thirsty vampires in Romania, romance manages to claw its way into the story, where the impossibly good looking Stefan and the devastatingly gorgeous Michelle fall in love (ugh! but who the hell cares, right?)

While working on their research, Michelle and Lillian meet up with a few locals (who are mostly old, ragged and creepy because... stereotypes) who tell them the story about the vampires who arrived to Romania in the XV century and helped them fight against the Turks. According to their legend, the villagers decided to barricade themselves inside of the fortress to prevent being attacked by the Turks. Eventually, when the hopeless villagers had to leave the fortress and go out for food, they found all the Turks dead. This was no miracle, the vampires took credit for this little favor (aw, isn't that adorable?) and, in exchange, they asked the Romanians to let them stay in their peaceful zone. The vampires managed to (sort of) live in harmony with the villagers and, even though the ungodly creatures are not described as inherently evil, it is implied that when vampires are, in fact, evil, it's better not to come across them at all. Skeptical about all these folk stories, the lovely young ladies don't pay much attention to the locals who advice them not to wander around when it's dark (stupids!). As it is expected, the young and vibrant ladies attract the attention of Radu and, eventually, find themselves being targeted by him, who craves for blood and feels more powerful than ever. Things escalate quickly and, in the end, Stefan and Radu will have to battle head to head in an epic confrontation that will define, not only the girls' fate, but also the entire village of Prejmer's.

The cinematography in "Subspecies" is very artistic, while not being too all over the place and distracting, which is something that happens in certain films where the ominous photography and lighting work steal the attention from the story (not necessarily a bad thing per se, but I find that this is more appropriate for a music video or a short experimental film). The tastefully achieved contrast and vivid colors manage to stand out, even in dark scenes, while looking solemn and avoiding an artificial style. The lighting and the shots are very reminiscent of the German expressionism, from time to time.
The great photography, combined with the epic locations give a very visually satisfying final results. A vampire flick that was actually shot in Romania is not something that we get very frequently and one of the main reasons why people are delighted with "Subspecies" and its following sequels. With the quietness, the beautiful eerie atmosphere, the gloomy ruins, the gorgeous forsaken landscapes, the majestic castles (yes, real castles!) and the local actors speaking in their actual native Romanian from time to time, Ted Nicolau manages to make us feel like we are visiting Romania with the three girls. Though it's difficult to go wrong when the locations are so fitting to the story, poor choices in the wardrobe and art direction could ruin the previous efforts in a heartbeat, but, thankfully, that is not what happens here (well, mostly). The items, costumes and different props to complement the scenarios are mostly good enough to enhance the visual aspect of "Subspecies". (In a few cases, the make-up department fails horribly, but I'll get to that later). Plot-wise, "Subspecies" is very neat, it wraps up nicely, there are no lose ends, nothing too ambiguous is left out there and the story offers just the right amount of complexity for what is meant to be an entertaining and unpretentious flick. I like the fact that, at some point, the story dwells into the vampire mythology, portraying them in a way that brings them closer to the animal kingdom, rather than spiteful and organized creatures pushing some kind of convoluted and evil agenda to take over the human kind, by being seductive. Here, the vampires are nasty little creatures that kill because they need the blood and decide to make a deal with the mortals, choosing pragmatism over an unnecessary war, which makes Radu and his evil nature stand out from the rest of his kind. Vampires are not evil per se... Radu is. Not to say that the villagers aren't afraid of the vampires, because they still regard them as "ungodly" creatures and they are aware of their savage nature, but at the same time, they manage to pull off a living arrangement with them, understanding, of course, that, from time to time, people will get killed by them.

The dialogs are suitable for the film; not extremely artificial or cheesy, but also, nothing that tries to be too serious either, avoiding something too pretentious for the original premise. While most of the characters are portrayed in a mildly solemn light, I find that Radu's dialogs are deliberately written to provide him a semi-cartoonish nature. Anders Hove, who portrayed the infamous Radu in the four "Subspecies" installments, delivers his lines flawlessly, giving us a very fun villain that manages to be both creepy and somewhat humorous too. Hove's facial expressions, even behind all that latex prosthetic and heavy make up, manage to stand out. The way he whispers his lines, the eyes wide open, the deranged smile and the blood constantly dripping from his fangs, make his portrayal very distinctive. The rest of the cast gets the job done, though, besides Hove, no one's acting appealed to me in a way that I feel that deserves a honorable mention. Of course, superb acting wasn't necessary either, since the characters aren't too complex in the first place. Laura Tate, the lead girl, does a fine job giving us a sweet and somewhat oblivious girl who falls for the good guy and finds herself at the mercy of the main baddie. One thing that bothers me a lot with horror flicks, is when they drag endlessly towards the end, and this is something that happens very frequently with this genre. In a film like "Subspecies", where the story isn't too complex, but they still need to fill ninety minutes, the likelihood of pointless and boring sequences is high. Thankfully, Ted Nicolau manages to tell a modest story in said amount of time, without dragging a lot during the final twenty minutes or so. No, actually, Nicolau cleverly fills the "voids" with haunting sequences depicting the nature of his native country and inviting the audience into its darkly beautiful places, in favor of developing a great atmosphere. In addition to the mood-setting imagery, there are some striking sequences that are just very fun to watch, like the scene where the girls assist to an outdoors celebration, where we see the villagers wearing colorful and creepy masks and cheerfully dancing around a bonfire to a festive traditional Romanian music (played by The Aman Folk Orchestra). The scene is there to show us that the villagers are fearful of the vampires, which had been established before, but it's done so beautifully, that I feel is one of the highest points of the film.

As much as I adore "Subspecies", it's not perfect by any means; it definitely has a fair amount of dreadfulness, being the badly done digital effects one of the worst aspects of the film. The subspecies creatures, which originate from Radu's blood, were done with CGI, which looks incredibly fake and cheap, like it belongs in a bad video game. In certain parts, the little creatures seem to be digitally animated and then, in other parts, it looks like they used a different technique, which looks more realistic (I'm not sure if it was stop-motion or if they used real man wearing rubber suits). Though one can understand that, in 1991, digital effects weren't as realistic as they usually are these days, this CGI really wasn't necessary and, as I mentioned before, it could have been replaced with a more realistic technique. Of course, this doesn't bring the movie down, but the little devilish creatures appear more than once and the artificial look they have doesn't fit with the beautiful authentic look of the castle. The make up department fails more than once too, and even though I realize that "Subspecies" doesn't take itself 100% seriously, something tells me that the tacky look of certain characters was not intentional. The movie opens with King Vladislas (Angus Scrimm) confronting his son, Radu and what is supposed to be very dramatic and intense moment, ends up looking more campy than anything else. For the life of me, I just can't understand what happened there, in the hair and make up department, but the look of King Vladislas is so ridiculous that I just can't even begin to describe it. Scrimm appears sporting a bizarre wig that makes him look more like someone's great aunt Dorothy, rather than an ancient vampire and, as if this wasn't ridiculous enough, he also appears wearing a really bright red lipstick, and a white foundation, as if he was doing a Robert Smith cosplay or something (seriously, I just couldn't believe my eyes). King Vladislas only has a brief appearance, so the ridiculousness doesn't last long. The problem is that Radu, our main villain, also look is a little cheesy and caricaturish for the most part. I believe his appearance may have been partially inspired by Count Orlok from "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" (1922), which, as I mentioned before, made him look more sinister than seductive and I commend Nicolau for this. Now, Radu's gigantic claw-like hands are simply too distracting, not only because of their size, but also because of the artificial and all-over-the-place look (in one scene, one of the fake hands even sort of falls off). Besides the gigantic hands, from time to time, Anders Hove appears to be a regular guy wearing a very elaborated Halloween mask, instead of a realistic beast-like vampire. I swear, I am not very nit-picky when it comes to these things and, while the cheesy make up doesn't make the movie less appealing, it cheapens it considerably.

Leaving aside my few complaints with it, and, less than perfect as it is, "Subspecies" is a very fun movie and I honestly didn't think I was going to enjoy it so much, but I think it's safe to say that it managed to claw its way into my all time favorites. For some reason, I had a negative preconception about it and I arbitrarily assumed that it was going to be unbearably cheesy and not even remotely entertaining... I was wrong. Though the low-key tongue-in-cheek nature of the film is very palpable, that doesn't make it a comedy at all; for the contrary, "Subspecies" is gothic horror at its finest and I simply love it. Oh, and, by the way, the opening theme is simply epic and it's one of those little niceties that make the film special.

Transylvanian castles, torches, villages, superstitious locals and… vampires

Two college gals meet their friend in Romania to study the region’s culture and folklore (Laura Tate, Michelle McBride and Irina Movila). They are forced to reside at an ancient fortress due to a busy festival wherein they meet a handsome man researching nocturnal creatures (Michael Watson). Unfortunately, an evil vampire is on the loose at a nearby castle and takes interest in the women (Anders Hove).

"Subspecies” (1991) is gothic horror in the modern-day that’s similar to Dracula flicks, just with a different antagonist. It was the first American film to be shot in Romania after the breakdown of the Iron Curtain. Romania, incidentally, was the sole country in Eastern Europe to overthrow its socialist government with violence.

Beating “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” to the theaters by over a year, “Subspecies” is like a low budget take on similar vampire happenings in Transylvania, except that Coppola’s flick was shot in the studio in Los Angeles whereas this one used actual ancient ruins, castles and woodland areas of Romania. In short, this is a great Gothic flick for authentic Carpathian atmosphere.

The setting, ambiance and festival are similar to “Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf” (1985), which was shot in the Czech Republic, minus the campy humor. This one’s totally serious and the revolting vampire is like a meshing of “Nosferatu” (1922/1979) mixed with Marvel’s Morbius.

As far as the women go, Irina Movila stands out as Mara. Meanwhile main protagonist Laura Tate as Michelle is reminiscent of Nastassja Kinski, albeit nowhere near as stimulating. There are tasteful bits of top nudity, but zero sleaze; just a heads up.

The colorful stop-motion puppet-effects are quaint and kinda cheesy. Just roll with ’em.

There would be three sequels in the next seven years, plus one spin-off flick.

The film runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot entirely in Romania, including Bucharest.

GRADE: B