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Subspecies V: Bloodrise
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Full Moon Features Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (25th July 2023). |
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The Film
 Born of the unholy union of vampire prince Vladislas (Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood's Kevin Spirtas) and the witch Circe (Yulia Graut), Radu was fated to slay his own father. Circe is ordered to circumvent this by killing the child, but Crusaders steal the child, clip his nails and ears and salve his face with potions so that he can pass for human. Radu grows into manhood (Nymphomaniac: Vol. I's Anders Hove) as part of the secret sect the Knight of the Dragon traveling the lands slaying demons, not knowing that he has been trained to fulfill his fate and destroy his immortal father until the day his men invade Castle Vladislas. Vladislas slaughters most of Radu's men, but upon learning his name, tells him that this is not the day of their reckoning and vanishes. Circe, however, is only too eager to tell Radu who and what he really is and what powers he stands to gain should he fulfill his destiny. Against the warnings of his squire Marius (Petar Arsic), Radu spares the life of Helena (The Straun House's Denice Duff), a woman defiled by Radu, and her son Stefan (Jakov Marjanovic) who have grown up in darkness but exhibit no signs of vampirism. Upon discovery that Helena has indeed been infected, Radu spares her life for Stefan's sake, feeding her with the Bloodstone which contains an endless supply of the blood of the Saints. With the knowledge gained from feeding, Helena's humanity slips away and she seduces Radu and bites him; whereupon Vladislas appears and spirits Helena and Stefan away, believing that Radu will eventually die without a master to teach him how to feed. Circe, however, saves him and offers to initiate him into the mysteries but he still longs for Helena and Stefan in spite of embracing the darkness. He betrays Circe and seeks to sooth the slow passage of the centuries with musical siblings Ash (Marko Filipovic) and Ariel (Stasa Nikolic); however, in his search for Helena and his desire to destroy Vladislas, Radu finds himself up against formidable enemies in vampire huntress Diana (Olivera Perunicic) and the mysterious Queen of the City Beneath the City. A quarter-of-a-century after the release of Subspecies IV: Bloodstorm, writer/director Ted Nicolaou (Puppet Master vs Demonic Toys) reunites with producer/studio owner Charles Band (Meridian), Subspecies mainstay Hove, Duff – who replaced the first film's Laura Tate (Dead Space) as Michelle from Bloodstone: Subspecies II onward – and Spirtas (unrecognizable here under prosthetic make-up as the "Kevin Blair" who played dashing US Embassy Agent Mel Thomas in the back-to-back second and third film) for a Radu origin story that manages to set up characters from the later timeframes of the earlier entries (Ash being a secondary villain in the fourth film and the hero of offshoot film Vampire Journals), leave options open for further films, as well as raise some questions about scenes that contradict things established in the other films. Sprawling in plot yet intimately-staged in the more cost-effective Republic of Serbia rather than the Romania of the earlier films – and gorgeously photographed in high definition by Vladimir Ilic in a manner that compares favorably to the 35mm work of Vlad Paunescu on the second and third films (the first film's look being limited by the resources in the early days of the local studio) and Adolfo Bartoli on the fourth film – Subspecies V: Bloodrise features some good vampire make-up, some passable gore, restrained use of digital effects that attempt to emulate the practical and optical effects of the earlier films, and some nudity; however, what the film is ultimately driven by the performances of Hove and Duff (who gets to do more here than in the other films as Radu's victim) and a plot that echoes the time-weary wanderings of Anne Rice-inspired vampires without feeling derivative of it as do so many other films told from the vampire's perspective. There are some plot turns that feel especially convenient in a seventy-five minute film (eighty with end credits), but if they do feel contrived, one can reckon that it is fate intervening to not only fulfill Radu's fate but the additional curses laid on him by both Circe and Helena. While other recent Full Moon productions look cheap, Subspecies V: Bloodrise has its rough edges but is a testament to the talent and ambition of Nicolaou under budgetary constraints and hope for future entries in the series and hopefully other Full Moon titles in a Gothic vein. 
Video
Digitally-photographed with the Arri Alexa, Subspecies V: Bloodrise' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.40:1 widescreen Blu-ray is satisfactory in conveying the low-light, naturalistic look of the film and its conservative color grade. A more exacting encode might be able to better tease out some fine detail but Nicolaou on the commentary track does reveal that the lighting some scenes simply prevented some of the subtler details of the cosmetic make-up from showing up on video the way they did in on the set (the director himself was heavily involved in the editing and grading so we'll take his word for it). 
Audio
There is no audio setup menu and the default track is a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. It gets the job done in conveying the mostly sync sound dialogue recording – only a few lines were redubbed according to the commentary track – directional effects, and the score of Sean McBride which adapts the main series theme and apes the feel of other familiar cues – and many viewers might not notice that a Dolby Digital 5.1 track is also available (only via remote) which gives some minor depth for much of the film but does go a little way towards give the film a bit more production value than the 5.1 upmixes created for Full Moon's Blu-ray releases of some of their older titles. Unlike other Full Moon releases, this disc includes optional English SDH subtitles (only selectable via remote) although they seem to have been transcribed from the spoken dialogue rather than the script so there are a number of obvious errors. 
Extras
The film is accompanied by an audio commentary by director Ted Nicolaou in which he discusses the seventeen day shoot of eleven hour shifts, compares the limitations of shooting in Serbia with Romania (which has become too expensive with the bigger studios making use of Vlad Paunescu's Castel Film studio), and reveals that the final product is as much a product of what was shot on the set as it is editing around and digitally-fixing mistakes (like cropping some shots where Hove's fingernail extensions were ill-fitting). He speaks highly of his cast as well as the input of cinematographer Ilic with whom he initially butted heads over his motivated approach to lighting and production designer Ivan Cirovic (Eight Eyes) whose more ambitious designs could not be realized on the budget. His referrals back to parts to and three say a lot about his feelings for the first film (for which he did not record a commentary). It is too bad that Full Moon did not record a track with Duff or Hove who previously appeared with Nicolaou on tracks for the second and third film while Duff contributed a solo track for the fourth film.  The disc also includes a behind the scenes piece (14:22) in the form of a round table talk with Band, Nicolaou, Duff, Hove, and Spirtas at Horrorfest that covers the shoot of the new film as well as their memories of the earlier films (with cutaways to behind the scenes video from those shoots). Besides discussing the differences between Serbia now and post-Communist Romania then, they also note how ahead of its time Band's Videozone behind the scenes video segments were for horror fandom and how these days they are able to keep audiences updated to the minute on social media (with Duff having shot Facebook Live segments during the production). The disc also includes a photo gallery (1:48), series trailers (1:16, 1:33, 1:50, 1:39, and 2:18 respectively) including one for Vampire Journals (2:00). 
Overall
Subspecies V: Bloodrise has its rough edges but is a testament to the talent and ambition of Nicolaou under budgetary constraints and hope for future entries in the series and hopefully other Full Moon titles in a Gothic vein.
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