"Bloodstone: Subspecies II" *does* assume you've seen the first in this Full Moon vampire series. It begins as evil blood sucker Radu (Anders Hove) is resurrected. Michelle (Denise Duff), our lead from the first movie, has been "vampirized" and is struggling with her drastically altered existence. Radu is now quite taken with her, but she's managed to steal the precious "Bloodstone", the ancient artifact that drips the blood of the saints. Radu becomes determined to get this object back and to win Michelles' favour. Meanwhile, Michelles' distraught sister Rebecca (Melanie Shatner) takes a flight to Romania to lend whatever help she can. Rebecca is soon joined by a kindly old professor, Popescu (Michael Denish), and Mel (Kevin Spirtas), a hunky young man from the American embassy.
"Bloodstone" bucks the odds and succeeds at being even better than "Subspecies" # 1. It's got absolutely beautiful atmosphere, having actually been filmed on location in Romania like several other Full Moon productions. The Old World flavour really helps a lot. The music and cinematography further assist in this regard. The makeup effects by Michael Deak and Wayne Toth are superb, but not that plentiful. The opening resurrection is particularly neat. The David Allen created title creatures appear only fleetingly. Although the material (director Ted Nicolaou also wrote the script) is treated with a great deal of seriousness, it leaves room open for some comedy relief, courtesy of a well meaning Romanian detective played appealingly by Ion Haiduc.
The actors are all terrific. Both Duff and Shatner make their characters sympathetic, and Denish is a delight as the helpful old man who becomes quite eager to play vampire slayer. Pamela Gordon is vivid as Radus' extremely decrepit old "mummy", and their scenes together are effectively creepy. But the real star, once again, is Hove, who's as solid an antagonist as one could hope to see in a horror film.
Overall, this is good entertainment, competently made and decently paced. It wraps up with a cliffhanger ending, setting up the next sequel, "Bloodlust: Subspecies III".
Seven out of 10.
"Bloodstone" bucks the odds and succeeds at being even better than "Subspecies" # 1. It's got absolutely beautiful atmosphere, having actually been filmed on location in Romania like several other Full Moon productions. The Old World flavour really helps a lot. The music and cinematography further assist in this regard. The makeup effects by Michael Deak and Wayne Toth are superb, but not that plentiful. The opening resurrection is particularly neat. The David Allen created title creatures appear only fleetingly. Although the material (director Ted Nicolaou also wrote the script) is treated with a great deal of seriousness, it leaves room open for some comedy relief, courtesy of a well meaning Romanian detective played appealingly by Ion Haiduc.
The actors are all terrific. Both Duff and Shatner make their characters sympathetic, and Denish is a delight as the helpful old man who becomes quite eager to play vampire slayer. Pamela Gordon is vivid as Radus' extremely decrepit old "mummy", and their scenes together are effectively creepy. But the real star, once again, is Hove, who's as solid an antagonist as one could hope to see in a horror film.
Overall, this is good entertainment, competently made and decently paced. It wraps up with a cliffhanger ending, setting up the next sequel, "Bloodlust: Subspecies III".
Seven out of 10.