Thursday, October 18, 2018

THE 31 MOVIES OF HORROR-WEEN: BLOODLUST: SUBSPECIES 3 (1994) *


Bloodlust:  Subspecies 3 starts with a wrap-up of the events of the last movie, which is more of an excuse to help pad the running time than anything.  Rebecca (Melanie Shatner) is still trying to rescue her sister Michelle (Denice Duff) from the clutches of Radu (Anders Hove) and his decrepit Mummy (Pamela Gordon).  While Radu tries to complete Michelle’s transformation into a full-fledged vampire, Rebecca gathers together a small team of cops and soldiers to storm Radu’s castle.

Bloodlust:  Subspecies 3 was shot back-to-back with Part 2 and it seems like they saved all the good stuff for that picture.  There’s even more filler in this installment, which leads me to believe this started out as one movie and producer Charles Band made director Ted Nicolaou split it up into two sequels in order to save money.  Once again, the scenes with Rebecca teaming up with a cop (played by Kevin Blair from Friday the 13th Part 7:  A New Blood) are deadly dull.  Whenever these characters are on screen (which is most of the running time unfortunately), the film comes to a dead halt.

The subplot where Radu tries to complete Michelle’s vampire training works slightly better.  That’s mostly because of Duff, who gives far and away the most engaging performance of the film.  Despite her efforts, Bloodlust never once comes to life.  I mean for a plot that’s been strung out for three movies, there’s not a lot to recommend here and the finale is awfully weak.  What’s worse, the little Subspecies dudes are reduced to nothing more than a last-second cameo, which is really disappointing.

The special effects are particularly lacking this time around.  There are no showstopping effects sequences.  Also, most of the effects for Radu’s shadow are done via animation now.  The results look pretty cheap and aren’t nearly as effective as the Nosferatu-inspired effects of the last movie.  

AKA:  Subspecies:  In the Twilight 3.  AKA:  Subspecies 3:  Bloodlust.

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