BroadcastChic
Excellent, a Must See
Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Benas Mcloughlin
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
Mandeep Tyson
The acting in this movie is really good.
a_chinn
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.
sanzar
"Subspecies IV: Bloodstorm" is yet another Charles Band production that unfortunately fails to deliver the goods. Journeyman director Ted Nicoleau fails to generate any suspense, let alone interest, in this uninvolving variation on well-worn Vampire themes, despite the advantage of authentic "Old-World" locations and morbidly Gothic set designs.Vampire King Radu Vladislas (Hove) survives (albeit, without much explanation) being staked and burned to a crisp (at the conclusion of part three, which forms the opening scene of this latest episode), and renews the search for Michelle, his fledgling vampiric initiate (Duff), who's been placed in a hospital with hopes of kicking her blood addiction. Her Doctor is a vampire, too, who seems to keep his bloodlust somewhat in check.Radu journeys to Budapest in search of Michelle and moves in with his former protege, Ash (Morris), whose exploits were recounted in the equally boring Full Moon release, "Vampire Journals". Ash is put out with the Master's intrusion and begins plotting to eliminate his uninvited houseguest. This sets up a three way battle for possession of the Bloodstone (the vampire doc wants it, too), an arcane artifact that dispenses an elixir good for vampires., with Michelle played as a pawn between the 3 bloodsucking protaganists.There's plenty of bloodletting, but little atmosphere or even shocks. Pic is decidedly unscary and fails to deliver even a modicum of thrills. One wonders what some of the great Italian directors from the 60's (Bava, Freda) could have done with this material. Certainly, they would have established a creepier mood, a must for effective vampire flicks.One bright spot is that the film looks & plays infinitely better than much of the Grade Z junk that Band usually releases. Small praise, but at least it's something.
twltzone
I usually don't waste my time commenting on bad movies, but this is quite possibly one of the worst movies ever made. I've heard that the earlier series are much better, so I guess I'll still reluctantly give its predecessors the benefit of the doubt. I don't mean to ruffle any feathers, because I love this genre, but come on? Call a spade, a spade! This movie is bad....real bad!!!Its sad to know that there are many talented independent film makers out there who can't rub two pennies together to finance a film and stuff like this is in its 4th sequel.That gives me exactly 4 reasons why this movie is so bad:1. For starters, this movie almost looks like it was filmed with a cheap video camera.2. The plot is super weak: Simply, Michelle must hide herself from the evil vampire "Radu" who wants the bloodstone- Wow!!! that is so provocative and original??? I highly suggest that Ted Nicolaou watch "The Cronos" and notice that there is a solid plot and story line there. Notice too that the protagonist has a goal and a counter goal. The plot in Subspecies 4 is so weak and tired it makes my head spin! One gets the impression, he wrote this "on the spot" as they where filming.3. The cinematography is pathetic. Who did the cinematography in this film? Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles? The lighting tries to be cool almost like modern Film Noir, but fails miserably. The only thing I can honestly say that was visually appealing about this film is the shadow when Radu, the vampire appears, the rest is some of the fakest, un-natural, and obvious lighting in movie history.4. Horrible acting!! I mean this is God awful acting at its finest!!!! The guy who played the doctor was a terrible actor! How could anybody take him seriously??? I mean really? Furthermore, you would think that a director with more than 15 films under his belt would have caught the fact that the vampire "Radu" sounded ridiculously like Marlon Brando in "The God Father." The first time I heard him speak, I almost died laughing!!!!!! From that point on, every time the vampire opened his mouth, I expected to hear the theme from "The God Father." -Laughs
mgreb
I will admit that I am a fan of the Subspecies Series to start with. The enjoyable movie was greatly added to with the Commentary tracks on the DVD. The director, Ted Nicolaou, was surprisingly candid about the problems with the Site, budget, and some actors. Denise Duff's commentary was funny and at times a bit sarcastic. This movie looks much better than the other movies, I don't know if it was the production or because I was viewing it from a DVD. LOTS of blood and twisted humor.