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Film: Bloodlust: Subspecies III
Year: 1994
Director: Ted Nicolaou
Writer: Ted Nicolaou
Starring: Anders Hove, Denice Duff and Kevin Spirtas
Review:
This film begins where the last one left off. It shows scenes from the previous film to fill us in to where we are at. We see that the professor, played by Michael Denish, is killed by being stabbed through the chest with a spear. Melanie Shatner escapes from the crypt they are in and her sister, played by Denice Duff, cannot because she is a vampire. She goes back down into the crypt where she is taken by Pamela Gordon back deeper.
We then are back outside with Shatner. She takes off the dress that she was wearing as it has blood on it. She changes into a shirt she finds in the back of the car that is parked outside, but she can’t find the keys to start it. She flees through the cemetery.
Inside of the crypt, we see that Duff sleeps next to the vampire, played by Anders Hove. Gordon is his mother and she cuts the wrist of Duff. She drains the blood into a cup and uses the knife to bring her son back to life.
Shatner makes it to a tavern that is oddly full for being so early in the day. She asks the bartender if she can use his phone. He takes one look at her and agrees. He actually helps her raise the American embassy. She gets in touch with Kevin Spirtas, who is an American that works at the embassy. An investigation begins into the crypt where the events of the previous night happened. They do not find anything and the lieutenant starts to believe that nothing happened here, he is played by Ion Haiduc. They do find the body of Denish though and the investigation continues. He tells her though that he could not find anything of Hove, Duff and Gordon. He doesn’t believe it is vampires.
The investigation goes into the night. Hove and Duff wake up. Gordon demands that they go back to the castle. Hove uses his power to make them fly there. Shatner can hear her sister’s screams and pleads to Haiduc to find them. Trying to fly causes smoke and red light to appear. Haiduc thinks it is a bomb. Shanter goes back to her hotel knowing they are gone now. Hove comes to visit her and watches as she sleeps. He also sees Spirtas who is sleeping in a chair.
The following morning, Spirtas and Shatner visit the office of Denish and meet with his secretary who is distraught over what happened. Spirtas lies that he left something in his office and instead gathers weapons. They then head for the castle. Upon arriving they find Haiduc with some other police officers. He tells them that they cannot enter until they are given permission as the gate is closed and no one will open it. They see Gordon in the window, but when he tries to use binoculars, she is gone. Spirtas leads them to the secret entrance and Haiduc scolds them. The three do enter it, only to find that it has been blocked by rocks. Haiduc demands they return to the village, but Spirtas and Shatner hang back. They see Hove as he leaves and flee back to the village as well.
Shatner and Spirtas go back to the hotel where we learn that Gordon is a witch from a powerful family of sorcerers from a book that Denish gave them. Hove’s father married Gordon and had Hove, then drove her family from the castle. Shatner shows interest in Spirtas, but they have to stop when she has issues going forward after what happened to her the previous day.
Duff continues to demand that Hove teach her the ways of the vampire. He is reluctantly until she sees him as her master. Gordon wants him to kill her as she knows Duff will betray him. Hove does take her to the village to teach her to use some of her vampire gifts and to feed. A young woman is kidnapped, played by Rodica Horobet.
Will Duff give in to what Hove wants or will free herself of him? Spirtas calls in a friend who is in the CIA to sneak into the castle to save her and kill Hove, can they succeed in this mission or will they become his prisoner as well?
I will say that I can clearly tell that the second installment of this series as well as this one was filmed back to back. The story has much more continuity and it doesn’t violate what the previous one did to lead into this one. Something else I really liked about this one is that it answered my question about what Gordon was from the previous film. I thought Hove was good as the monstrous Radu again. Duff also was a bright spot for me. She is torn between wanting to be a vampire and not wanting to. Hove’s younger brother in the first film turned her after Hove bit her and she wanted to be one with him. Now that he has been dead, she doesn’t want to stay with Hove, who loves her so much he is forcing her. I like seeing that she is torn by the pain and pleasure of the power of being a vampire, but still is holding on to some of her humanity.
This film came off a bit of a comedy to me and I wasn’t a fan of it. Haiduc was definitely comic relief as the cop, but I felt that wasn’t needed. I also thought having the CIA guy to be over the top as well, played by Michael Della Femina. He comes in with machine guns, night vision goggles that are never used and what he had to go through to make silver bullets. I don’t mind introducing him, but I felt that they went way too far in having him be a stereotype. The acting outside of Hove and Duff was decent, but nothing that really helped the film. This one’s ending seemed forced even though I didn’t mind how Hove comes to an end or the scene we get afterwards either.
I would unfortunately say that this film is the worst in the series. Hove and Duff were good with their tragic love as well as were they are coming from. The rest of the acting is decent at best. This one’s story did follow without violating anything, but it didn’t add much except the back-story to Gordon. This one seemed to add some comedic elements that I wasn’t a big fan of. I would only recommend this film if you want to watch all the films of this series. If you are fan of the low-budget company, Full Moon Pictures, then I would recommend this one as well. This film isn’t horrible, but it definitely could have been better in the execution.
My Rating: 5 out of 10