Great as always Lupa. May I ask if you're going to be covering "The Vampire Journals" (which for those that don't know, was an ungodly boring spinoff of Subspecies) since it's techincally part of the serise, and some characters pop up in part 4? Just wondering.


Oh, what the Hell, FIRST!

Yes! Was waiting for this! Thank you!

Very funny!

Oh wow Modest Mouse intro XD Didn't expect that, haha...

I'm going to be very upset when you're done with the Subspecies series and I never hear your Radu accent again.

Speedy Eric wrote:
"I’d like to see a sitcom of Radu and his mother. I mean they are the most memorable characters in this whole thing."

By Darwin's beard, would be an awesome concept for a sitcom. *giggle* It's like something out of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Radu and his mother would go to the UK for the holidays and dribble over everything and paw things and be disgusting, while everyone (being British) would politely overlook their hideous faces and try to make polite conversation with them because they're obviously foreigners and Romanian aristocrats, and aristocrats can't be insane, only eccentric. And Radu would go "Aw, mom!" every time his mother embarasses him.

Radu and his Mother Visit the UK
Radu and his Mother Visit Madame Tussauds (in London)
Radu and his Mother visit the German Fastnacht (Carnival) and Octoberfest
Radu and his Mother Visit the Louvre (in Paris)
Radu and his Mother Visit Venice (in Italy)
Radu and his Mother Visit Disneyland (in the USA)

Of course, the series would have to bring back Michael Watson as Stefan for the season 1 finale. Hey, resurrecting dead vampires by magic worked on Buffy...! ;-)

The voice you use for Radu is just hilarious. Though you keep pronouncing his name wrong. The accent is on the "a" and the "u" is pronounced like the "oo" in "doom".

Never knew this series was filmed on location around here, it's kinda fun to see the occasional local actor make a cameo.

unc wrote:
"The voice you use for Radu is just hilarious. Though you keep pronouncing his name wrong. The accent is on the "a" and the "u" is pronounced like the "oo" in "doom"."

Agreed. Although to be fair, the movie actors itself get it wrong too.

Michelle gets it right. Maybe it's part of her vampire powers.

In some parts of the world, vampires can't bear the sound of church bells, because it's a sacred sound. Silly as it may seem to us today, it used to be pretty common knowledge. Just as vampires having trouble crossing any running water.

Indeed. Church bells were thought to be anathema to all kinds of supernatural creatures, including vampires and fairies. Smaller, silver bells were used in a number of protective charms.

Stakes to kill vampires had to be made from wood, specifically rowan wood, because rowan wood and rowan berries were likewise thought to be effective in warding off or hurting fairies, witches, and the like.

Bracken (the fern known under the scientific name of Pteridium aquilinum) was put in or under a crib to ward off fairies from stealing the baby and replacing it with a fae changeling or an enchanted piece of wood (enchanted to look like a baby that would usually wither away and "die" a few days later). Basically the medieval explanation for sudden crib death, which gets the mother off the hook if her baby dies suddenly, because otherwise people would accuse her of being a witch who killed her own newborn.

It gets worse, though. How did you know fairies had stolen your infant and replaced it with a changeling? Well, if your baby was sickly and too small and didn't grow properly or was physically disabled in some way, maybe because due to an inborn congenial defect, well then you knew you had a changeling on your hands! So how could you force the fairies to take away the sickly changeling and bring back your own, precious baby? Easy. Take the fae changeling and fling it into the open hearth fire. If it tries to crawl out, push it back with a broom. Yell at the invisibly listening fairies to bring back your real baby, or else! There's no medieval statistics on how effective this was to return the "real baby", but it probably was very effective in getting rid of the "changeling".

Common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare, also known as goldbuttons) is a tall composite plant common in Eurasia; it has a characteristic floret of small and buttonlike, strong-smelling (read: stinky), yellow flower heads without petals and has fern-like leaves. It was a plant thought to be very effective in warding off supernatural evil, as so many strong-smelling plants were supposed to be. Common tansy specifically kept away witches. Its leaves were also used medicinally.

[continued below]

Which seems to be a 20th century invention, though, is fake folklore connecting wolfbane with werewolf lore. Wolfbane, scientifically known as Aconitum lycoctonum, also known as i.e. Alpine wolfsbane, aconite, monkshood, or Devil's Bane, is a poisonous Eurasian perennial herb from the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), growing up to 1 meter tall, with broad rounded leaves and violet or pale yellow flowers.

Various species of Aconitum were used medicinally in China and India, and in Europe back in Roman times, or probably earlier, but the Romans and Greeks were the first to write it down. In Asia and Japan, several species of aconite were used to make poisons for hunting (and probably assassinations).

Connecting Aconitum lycoctonum to werewolves, though, is new. It's taken straight from "The Wolf Man", the 1941 American Werewolf Horror movie by Universal Pictures, the screenplay written by Curt Siodmak. Throughout the film, various villagers recite a (fictional) gypsy poem, whenever the subject of werewolves comes up:
Even a man who is pure in heart
and says his prayers by night
may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
and the autumn moon is bright.

So, yeah, that was a total fabrication. Curt Siodmak also invented a number of other werewolf legends out of thin air, which have entered modern folklore, such as the idea that a werewolf can by identified by the pentagram that appears in his palm on nights of the full moon signaling the transformation.

I just love learning obscure minutiae that will never be practical and only interesting to those with the same interest. =D

Seriously, wolfsbane thing...makes sense. Good for killing WOLVES, not werewolves. If you can't kill a werewolf with arsenic or such, why would another poison work better?
Not that its ever better than the wonderful fall back of BURN EVERYTHING.
There are very few things that don't die from that.

well said, the sound of church bells was thought to dispel most if not all supernatural creatures. Especially fairies with their weakness to iron in general.

Hilarious ^_^ Kinda miss these craptastic films. I would love to see you review Demonic Toys. Now that's scraping the bottom of the Full Moon barrel.

Radu is my favourite. :D

Funny enough, the whole "Head vines" thing I've seen done before in Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure. There, a vampire by the name of Dio Brando could survive decapitation and could attach his head to a different body if he lost his own. Cool Story, bro.

Lupa those dialoge that you added were extremely funny.

I take it that the Subspecies series is like the Back to the Future trilogy, but instead of 2 sequels, there are 3.

2:15- And the bloodstone can illuminate?

The changing of the actors reminds me of “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.”

4:42- Good thing I don’t do that to my brother whenever he pissed me off.

To give this series some credit, I like the creepy shadows Radu gives off, and that includes the spooky imagery.

Looking at Radu’s mother, I’m starting to think if he and The Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt are related in some matter.

10:23- And this movie has gone into “Death Becomes Her” territory.

12:27- She probably has nightmares that doubles as an alarm clock, but that’s just me. =)

I think the romance novel version of this film would be better than Twilight, because it would be intentionally funny.

Michelle cries more than Julianne Moore.

I’d like to see a sitcom of Radu and his mother. I mean they are the most memorable characters in this whole thing.

I gotta say, I really liked those shadow effects to show that Radu was following her.

Unfortunately, the "creepy vampire shadow effects" are ripped off wholecloth from Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's 1922 famous genre-classic vampire movie "Nosferatu", the word derived from the Slavic "nosufur-atu" which is a derivation of the Greek "nosophoros" or "plague carrier."

Nosferatu itself was Murnau's own re-imagining of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula", since Murnau didn't have the rights to film Dracula, he called the vampire Nosferatu and made him hideous, more akin to medieval legends of vampires than the aristocratic, charismatic, Romantic era and Gothic era British vampires of the 19th century, most famously John Willam Polidori's vampire Lord Ruthven ("The Vampyre", 1819), said to be modeled after Lord Byron, and Stoker's Count Dracula ("Dracula", 1897).

Most of the tropes of the modern vampire come from Varney the Vampire from the Victorian era gothic horror penny dreadfuls "Varney the Vampire; or, the Feast of Blood" (1845–47) by James Malcolm Rymer: gaunt figure, with "fearful looking teeth—projecting like those of some wild animal, hideously, glaringly white, and fang-like" that leave puncture wounds, the long sharp nails, the strange gliding movement, superhuman strength, hypnotic powers. But (like Dracula) he could go out in sunlight, and (unlike Dracula) he did not fear crosses or garlic.

Murnau or Schreck may have taken inspiration from the English Varney stories, too, because Varney "clashes together the long nails that literally appear to hang from the finger ends", something which Schreck did, too, when he played Nosferatu.

Seriously, Radu's whole look is reminiscent of "Nosferatu": The animalistic grey face; the sharp fangs replacing not the canine teeth as common in modern vampires but the front teeth; the spidery hands with the freakishly long, spindly fingers with long sharp nails; the oldfashioned, dark coat; the stick way he walks. Only differnce is Nosferatu (Count Orlock, played by German actor Max Schreck) was bald, Radu has hair.

Of course, the movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) with Gary Oldman as Count Dracula copied the shadow effects, too, most famously the scene were the Count's shadow reaches out long hands while he is standing still. Call it a homage?

It has been copied so many times, it's pretty much a trope today.

wow, that's quite an explanation O_O

Even if it is a trope, rip-off, homage or whatever you wanna call it, for a low-budget movie as this, it is well done.

"MOOOOM! My fledgling stole my bloodstone!!" Bwahaha, oh Radu.

Your Radu Impression was hillarious.
Absolut terrific.^^

Radu is just awesome, the best movie vampire ever. And that accent continues to be hilarious, it adds awesomeness to Radu I think.

At least based on this review I'd say that part one seems better.

@ lupa :you should invite Maven to do a review with you

The vampire lore in folklore is not nearly as sexy as in litterature. It was believed that a premature death (whatever that is) can created a vampire. These vampires tend to come at night to suffocated neighbours and family members in their sleep. They are protrayed as tanned not pale, have blood shot eyes and are rather bloated. This coincides with basically how a body behaves after death. When opening the caskets the vampire hunters would find blood gushing from mouth, nostrils (perhaps due to pressure?) and the gasses in their bodies would bloat the stomach. Hair and nails also continue to grow after death and the skin peels off looking like it sheds itself.
Hence I think Radu could just pass off as being a drunk metalhead in Romanian countryside where they have a different concept of vampire :P

The film Strigoi, a delightful little horror comedy from 2009 is the closest a film has come to the original vampire in folklore. Strigoi is the name of the vampire in the Slavonic and Romanian folklore, its etymology derived from the word "strega" in Italian meaning witch. There are local variations as to what are the powers and nature of these supernatural beings, but basically you can safely assume they share common traits enough to make them a generic group. Whereas werewolves, a different being is called Varkolak (Vrykolas in Greek) in the same regions.

I realized something: Radu is basically Cartman from South Park..and thats just making this so much more fun to watch.

Indeed, you have just made this movie even more hilarious for me :)

Lupa's "Radu" voice is hilarious.

The second movie seems substantially less hilarious than the first. No awesome old Eyebrow-man, a main character who, as you quite correctly state has turned into a whining ninnie, a far less epic final battle... there's really not a lot to go on here besides Radu, and I'm still not sure if I find him genuinely entertaining or if it's all your voice-overs that make him so hilarious. Because really Rad, pining after this one chick for no apparent reason, moving into your moms old basement... you're not making a respectable showing of any bad-ass credentials here.

Re: Crunchy_Frog
"Connecting Aconitum lycoctonum to werewolves, though, is new. It's taken straight from "The Wolf Man", the 1941 American Werewolf Horror movie by Universal Pictures, the screenplay written by Curt Siodmak. "

True, but the leap isn't a long one since the name "wolfsbane" existed even in Roman times when it was used on arrows to hunt down wolves, which due to it being so poisonous, worked quite well. Heck, legends of shape changers were more common then, so even one arrow misses a wolf and hits some wandering drunk and you obviously have a werewolf.

I had to register for an account just to say this:
Lupa, I've never seen a Subspecies movie and now I'll never be able to because I'm pretty sure the only thing I like about Radu is your voice for him.

I totally love how you pronounce Radu's name! Totally off, but so much funnier!

I love Lupa

Radu looks like he's a part of the Norwegian Black Metal scene.

I wonder what band he's in...

LOL
Am I the only one that thinks that Radu's mom looks more like the Crypt Keeper's (Tales from the Crypt) mother????

Lupa, I'm with the fans here. When you are finished with reviewing Subspecies, I'm really going to miss that Radu voice.
I don't think that joke will ever get old. If you ever had to do something with Surbian Knights again, you should dress up as Radu with the accent. LOL

Oh Subspecies 2 ugh. Boy this is case of movies that don't hold up well over years. As I said about first one I saw the first two as a kid. I don't think I ever saw three or at least I don't remember it.

"NOOO! NOT PASSIONS! THEY CANCELED PASSIONS?!".. probably a more reasonable plot for all the chaos.

Wow, you looked real pretty this week

Your Radu voice is amazing. I could watch an entire show of you doing voices.

You call that "running like a penguin"? I waddle-run with MUCH more rigid arms!

...forget I said that. >_>