Two and a half years have gone by since Full Moon first announced that they were developing a new entry in their Subspecies franchise. With Ted Nicolaou (who directed all of the previous Subspecies films as well as the spin-off Vampire Journals) on board to direct, Subspecies V: Blood Rise was heading toward production when the pandemic hit and things had to be put on hold. Now the news fans have been waiting for has finally arrived: Full Moon founder Charles Band says Subspecies V: Blood Rise will finally start filming next spring!
Band provided the update in a new Vidcast, saying:
As you know, we are prepping – have been prepping for a while – the fifth Subspecies film. That was scheduled to shoot in Croatia early last year, 2020, and of course that got messed up because of Covid. But we’re back now; in April probably, May at the latest, shooting. Ted Nicolaou’s at the helm, (returning stars) Anders Hove, of course, Denice Duff. We’re rocking it there and everybody’s been wanting to see this show for so long, we’ve been wanting to make it, and now hopefully we’ll be shooting sometime in the spring.”
Subspecies V: Blood Rise has the following synopsis:
Spanning 500 years in the life of the vampire Radu Vladislas, this long-anticipated prequel to the SUBSPECIES series chronicles Radu’s descent from a noble warrior for the Church to a depraved creature of the night. Stolen by crusaders on the night of his birth, he has no knowledge of his bloodline: his mother a demon; father a vampire. Trained and exploited by a brotherhood of mystic monks to slay all enemies of the church, fate brings him back one night to the castle of his father, armed with the monster-slaying Sword of Laertes, to destroy the vampire Vladislas and reclaim a holy relic: the Bloodstone. The events of that night turn Radu from a noble man into a vampire with no master, setting him on a centuries-long quest for sustenance, for companionship, for the treacherous one who stole him from the sun, and for the Bloodstone he hopes will bring him peace.
Anders Hove is reprising the role of the vampire Radu, who was also recently added into the video game Horror Legends.
If you’re not familiar with this franchise, here’s a short synopsis for each one of the previous movies:
SUBSPECIES – Three young students studying the folklore of Transylvania uncover an ancient clan of vampires ruled by the sadistic, monstrous Radu, who becomes obsessed with making them his fledglings.
BLOODSTONE: SUBSPECIES II – Radu s fledgling, Michelle, flees from his castle with the holy relic the Bloodstone and struggles with her emerging bloodlust while hiding in the basement of a theater in Bucharest, waiting for her sister to arrive from the U.S. to help her.
BLOODLUST: SUBSPECIES III – Radu kidnaps Michelle back to the castle he shares with his sorceress mother and teaches her to master her vampire powers, sacrificing everything in his obsession for her, while Michelle s sister mounts an armed assault on his stronghold.
SUBSPECIES 4: BLOODSTORM – The vampire Radu returns to Bucharest in pursuit of his headstrong fledgling Michelle. He reclaims his underground stronghold from Ash, a powerful vampire who mingles with the world of mortals, while he devises a way into the secret clinic where Michelle is being held by the evil Doctor Niculescu.
VAMPIRE JOURNALS – A 19th-century vampire on a quest to destroy the vampires of his bloodline comes to modern-day Bucharest to battle the vampire master Ash the music lover using as his pawn the innocent soul of a beautiful concert pianist.
The Subspecies movies are pretty cool, so I’m glad to see the team getting back together to make another one.