When the trailer for the long-awaited Full Moon production Subspecies V: Blood Rise arrived online last month, the expectation was that the movie would be available to watch on FullMoonFeatures.com by the end of February, and would then be available on Amazon Prime Video shortly after its debut. But plans have changed. During a new episode of his Full Moon Universe YouTube show, Full Moon founder Charles Band revealed that Subspecies V: Blood Rise will receive a theatrical release in thirty to forty cities, courtesy of Alamo Drafthouse, on May 15th. The theatrical screenings of Subspecies V: Blood Rise will be a one-night event, and Band is hoping to have a Full Moon representative at each theatre to do giveaways and sell merchandise. Full Moon will also be filming some kind of intro with director Ted Nicolaou and stars Anders Hove and Denice Duff to show before the movie begins.
The movie will then get its streaming release after its Alamo Drafthouse theatrical release.
Scripted by Nicolaou, Subspecies V: Blood Rise has the following synopsis: Stolen by crusaders on the night of his birth, he has no knowledge of his bloodline: his mother is a demon; his father is 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, and companionship, for the treacherous one who stole him from the sun, and for the Bloodstone he hopes will bring him peace. 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.
Hove reprises the role of Radu and is joined in the cast by Duff and Kevin Spirtas, both of whom have been in previous Subspecies movies. While Duff played the character Michelle in all of the previous sequels, for this movie she’s playing a new character, Helena. Spirtas played a character named Mel in his other Subspecies appearances, but here his character is Vladislas. Also in the cast are Staša Nikolić as Ariel, Marko Filipović as Ash, Petar Arsić as Marius, Yulia Graut as Circe, Olivera Peruničić as Diana, and Jakov Marjanović as Stefan.
Ash may be the character who took the lead in the 1997 Subspecies spin-off The Vampire Journals, which was also made by Nicolaou.
Band said, “It took twenty-six years to be able to afford to make this film. You know, we work on cash flow here, and I thought, ‘One day, when we can afford it, let’s make an amazing Subspecies movie.’ This is more of a prequel and we shot it in Serbia. It was a big production for us. Really proud of it.“
Before the Alamo Drafthouse release, Subspecies V: Blood Rise will be screening at the HorrorHound convention in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 25th.
Are you looking forward to Subspecies V: Blood Rise? Let us know by leaving a comment below. I’m a Subspecies fan and I can’t wait to check this one out.