Subspecies

Subspecies is a series of four horror movies directed by Ted Nicolau, produced by Full Moon Pictures and starring Anders Hove as vampire Radu Vladislas.

The series consists of

• Subspecies (1991)
• Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993)
• Bloodlust: Subspecies III (1994)
• Bloodstorm: Subspecies IV (1998)

It had a spinoff, made in 1997, called The Vampire Journals.

The story involves young Michelle, who came to Romania with her friend Lilian to study its folklore and ends up involved in a war between ancient vampires for the possession of the Blood Stone, a stone which drips the blood of saints.

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Tropes used in Subspecies include:

• The Artifact: The titular Subspecies... do next to nothing in the series. They're really only there because Full Moon productions always have at least one stop-motion element (usually so they can sell models and action figures of them).
• Artifact Title: The 'Subspecies' title in Bloodstorm, the only movie not to have the little creatures.
• Back For The Undead: Lt. Marin comes back as a vampire in Bloodstorm after apparently having been killed in Bloodlust
• Back From the Dead: Ash, villain of The Vampire Journals, is killed off pretty decisively at the end of that film. He returns with no explanation to be Radu's Dragon in Bloodstorm.
• Bloody Hilarious: Radu seems to think his killing of Stefan is this in Bloodstone. Bob The CIA Guy and Radu himself's deaths in Bloodlust fit the bill better.
• Contrived Coincidence: In Bloodstone, the theater Michelle hides in has a glass coffin backstage. Why? Is this theater a hostel for vampires?
• Creepy Long Fingers: Radu.
• Dhampyr: Both Stefan and Radu; Stefan is half-human, while Radu is the result of his father being magically seduced by a hag (of the D&D nonhuman variety).
• Downer Ending: Michelle will sure live forever, but she's a vampire so she will have to quell her killer instincts, her sister and friends are dead, she is vulnerable to sunlight and she's all alone in a foreign country with nary a way of going back to the US.
• Dull Surprise: Radu.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Radu. Subverted in Bloodlust when he kills her to prove his love for Michelle.
• Expy: Maria, the leading girl in Bloodstorm seems to be one for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• Looks Like Orlok: Radu, increasingly so with each movie.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Radu, oh so very much.
• MacGuffin: The Blood Stone, even in the sequel named after it.
• Negative Continuity: The vampires' ability to walk in the sunlight appears only in the first movie.
• Neutral Female: Michelle is mostly this in the sequels. She does kill Radu in Bloodstone, but as for the rest of the time...
• Not Quite Dead: Radu is seemingly killed several times, only to somehow survive. In the last they decapitate him (again) but take his head far away from his body and stick it on a post in the sunlight, which seems to do the trick.
• Once an Episode: Radu kills a family member of his and a man helping the main character(s) dies in each of the first three movies.
• Our Vampires Are Different: In the first movie, the vampires walk in plain sunlight.
  • Non-evil vampires can walk in sunlight such as Stefan, it also why he looks the most human unlike Radu who follows the path of evil and looks deformed. Michelle is sorta half in half. As she drinks blood from humans, she shuned by the sunlight but isn't really evil since its more of a survival thing and half the time is mostly forced on her.
• The Other Darrin: Michelle is played by Laura Tate in the first film and by Denice Duff in the following movies.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Stefan in Bloodstone, Radu's mother in Bloodlust, Becky, Mel, Lt. Marin (sort of) & Radu in Bloodstorm.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Bob from Bloodstone is one for the custodian from the first movie.
• Too Dumb to Live: Michelle, Lt. Marin and Radu.
• The Unfavourite: Radu. By both parents.