MINDWARP (1992) & BRAINSCAN SCI-FI DOUBLE FEATURE (Mill Creek Blu-ray Review)

MINDWARP (1992) & BRAINSCAN 

SCI-FI DOUBLE FEATURE 

MINDWARP (1992)
Label: Mill Creek Entertainment 
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 96 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Steve Barnett
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Angus Scrimm, Elizabeth Kent

In the year 2037 Earth is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, nuclear war has erased the ozone layer and the few surviving members of humanity are split into three distinct groups. In an area known as the Death Zone we have the cannibalistic mutants known as Crawlers, then we have the non-mutated humans survivors known as Outworlders who survive on a diet of small animals and evade the menace of the Crawlers. The third group are privileged non-mutated humans living in protected biosphere-styled cities known as the Dreamers who spend most of their life plugged into a virtual reality simulator known as Infinisynth. It's here we meet a young woman named Judy (Marta Martin) who is unsatisfied with her virtual plugged-in life. She craves a more meaningful connection to her mother who is only too happy to live out her opera-singer fantasies inside the Infinisynth system. This virtual reality aspect the film had a strong flavor of Total Recall (1990), it's fun stuff and predicted the family disconnect of the digital age where everyone is plugged into their mobile devices, gaming systems or blogging about obscure b-movies (wink wink). Infinisynth is a pleasant enough distraction from reality, everyone else seems content to drink their green-slime protein shakes and immerse themselves in the artificial reality of it, everyone that is except for Judy. 

When Judy's mom refuses to unplug from Infinisynth the young woman infiltrates her mother's virtual dream in an attempt to wake her up with disastrous consequences, her actions anger the mysterious System operator who operates Infinisynth, resulting in Judy being exiled from the safety of the city into the radioactive wastelands where she wakes up in a shallow grave. Digging herself out she discovers a macabre collection of crucified skeletons and is soon set upon by the cannibalistic Crawlers, only to be saved by an crossbow-wielding Outworlder named Stover (Bruce Campbell, Evil Dead) who gets the better of the puss-faced mutants. After being rescued Stover shows Judy the way of the wastelands, with the pair hooking-up before being captured by more Crawlers. They're taken to an underground lair where they meet the Crawler's cult leader, a human-skin mask wearing weirdo named The Seer (Angus Scrimm, Phantasm) who plans to breed a new race of Crawlers with Judy, yikes.

Mindwarp was the first of a trio of films Fangoria magazine funded in the early 1990's, it's no great shakes but I think any Evil Dead fans out there are certainly gonna wanna check this out if just for Campbell's participation. It's definitely a more subdued performance than were used to seeing from him, no fast-talking quips or one-liners, he plays it very straight-faced. Marta Martin as our heroine Judy is alright, am attractive presence but she sort of falls into the shadow of Bruce Campbell and Angus Scrimm. the latter of whom is a very creepy presence as the priest-like leader of the Crawlers, with his dead-skin mask. 

The film is certainly no lost horror classic but it's an entertaining post-apocalyptic watch with some good gore and bloodletting throughout from the KNB FX Group. For a low-budget slice of horror we also get some fun set pieces and ideas, inside the Crawler lair there's a gnarly human meat-grinder, victims go in one end a syrupy red liquid comes out the other, and the Crawler's just love to drink up this grue. There are also mind altering leeches which Stover falls victim to only to vomit them up later, sort of channeling Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The flick has some very fun moments of gore and bloodletting, while not a classic it's at least an interesting footnote of early 90's horror, and the participation of of Bruce Campbell and Angus Scrimm makes this well-worth seeking out.

BRAINSCAN (1994) 
Region Code: A 
Rating: R
Duration: 96 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: John Flynn
Cast: Edward Furlong, T. Ryder Smith, Frank Langella, Jamie Marsh, Amy Hargreaves 

Brainscan (1994) is not a film I liked all that much when I saw it in the 90's at a strange lodge that the airline put us up in after a flight was cancelled due to a severe snowstorm. The wood paneled lodge  sort of reminded be of The Great Northern Hotel from Twin Peaks, the walls lined with mounted heads of deer, but they're kitchen made a tasty burger, which I sat and ate while cruising the free premium cable channels available in my room, which is where I stumbled upon Brainscan. The sci-fi horror film is a bit of a creepy murder-mystery that incorporates horror gaming into it by way of a CD-ROM (a what?) video game called Brainscan. I'm of the opinion that these techno-thrillers from the nineties rarely hold up in my opinion, but they're usually fun on a cheese-factor level at least. The main guy here is a lonely horror-obsessed teen named Michael (Edward Furlong, Terminator 2) who when he was younger was involved in a horrific car accident that left him with a gimpy knee and took the life of his mother, which we see during a nightmare scene at the start of the film. He is left alone at his suburban home by a father who is completely absent from the film aside from a phone call, and at school he's a misfit with only one friend, the like-minded Kyle (Jamie Marsh) who shares his love of gore films and scary video games.

When Michael reads about the newest horror video game in the pages of Fangoria he orders the game and when the disc arrives in the mail he pops it in the virtual reality game. The game appears to connect straight to your synapse via a series of lights and sounds emitted from the video screen, it's a strange bit of sci-fi, though not as far-fetched as the gaming/stereo/TV/computer set-up this kid has in his room, it's incredibly elaborate and expensive looking set-up, and not something I think could have even existed in '95. The gaming experience however is awesome, Michael is overwhelmed by how realistic the game looks and feels, the voice of a devilish character named the Trickster instructs him to enter the home of a stranger and to stab him death, which he does, then telling him to take a souvenir from the crime scene, to which end he hacks off the victim's foot. He awakens from the simulation convinced this is the most realistic and violent video game he has ever played, but his elation is short-lived when the local news reports on a murder in his neighborhood, recognizing the crime scene as the very same place he committed the murder in the game! 

The previously unseen Trickster (T. Ryder Smith) then emerges from the TV into reality in a way that brought to mind an iconic scene from David Cronenberg's Videodrome, the villainous character resembling a vamped-up rock star, not unlike Sami Curr from Trick Or Treat (1986), who encourages the reluctant Michael to continue the game or face real-life consequences, which eventually results in Michael killing his best friend Kyle.

While all this weirdness is happening we discover that Michael has a crush on the girl next door, Kimberly (Amy Hargreaves, Blue Ruin), it's a bit of creepy, stalker-ish sort of crush as he videotapes her through her bedroom window. Meanwhile Det. Hayden (Frank Langella, Dracula) is the cop investigating the spate of murders, he starts to put the pieces together and Michael fast becomes the prime suspect. As the film plays out Michael is coerced into more deadly-gaming by the Trickster with the detective closing in on him. 

Brainscan clearly was pushing hard to create a franchise horror villain with the Trickster, trying to tap into the lucrative teen horror market, despite having a R-rating, by mixing in youth culture elements like gaming and horror, you know, for the kids. Despite this the character of Trickster is pretty cool, but Edward Furlong is his usual whiny self, he was just an annoying kid actor, and if you've read any of the interviews with the director of this flick he felt the same way about him. 

The special effects are a mix of practical and early digital, the practical stuff is good, but the digital stuff mostly doesn't hold-up. The Videodrome-esque introduction of the Trickster is pretty cool but other stuff shows the limitation of early digital FX, the same sort of stuff that has hamstring techno-horror like The Lawnmower Man from the same era. What does hold up is the make-up effects from Steve Johnston and crew did for Trickster, underneath that make-up T. Ryder Smith does a great job, wryly cracking a few jokes and generally being a fun villainous character, even if it feels like Freddy Kruger-lite, he's still a charming demonic figure.

Poor Frank Langella doesn't have a whole lot to do here, his cop character is largely underplayed, riffing with his partner at times, having some interaction with the gamer-kid, but it's a thankless role without much to chew on. I did like Amy Hargreaves as the girl-next-door, she seemed like a real sweetie, but Jamie Marsh is absolutely annoying as the stereotypically dippy horror/metal fan, which as a metal-fan from way back I found insulting.

While Brainscan (1994) is not some lost gem of 90's horror it is a movie that has grown on me a tiny little bit with time. Watching it now it's a bit of 976-EVIL by way of Trick Or Treat, better than the former and not as fun as the latter, replacing the satanic rocker and metal music with the Kruger-lite Trickster and a horror themed CD-ROM game. No, it's not essential 90's horror but I found it entertaining in a dated sort of way, I definitely took more of a shine to this time and think there's fun to be had here for others as well, but don't expect some great re-discovery, just a goofy good time.

Audio/Video: Both of these films have been issues previously on Blu-ray, Mindwarp received a limited edition Blu-ray in 2013 from Twilight Time and Brainscan got an extras-laden Blu-ray from Scream Factory just last year. Both films arrive on a single-disc Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. To my eyes both looked be sourced from the same HD masters provided to both SF and TT by rights holder Sony, but Brainscan looks to be cropped to 185:1 as where Scream Factory presented the film in 1.78:1, so it loses a sliver of information on the top and bottom. Otherwise grain levels, color saturation and density look identical.

Audio on both disc comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with optional English subtitles.  Brainscan has the more impressive audio of pair, highlighting the George S. Clinton (Cheech & Chong's Still Smokin') score sound good, plus we get good 90's tuneage from the Butthole Surfers, Primus, White Zombie and Tad among others. 

No extras on this release whatsoever, just the option to choose the movie and subtitles. If you're looking for bonus content I say go with the SF and TT Blu-ray releases, but know that they'll set you back $20-40 each. However, if you're fine with just picking up the films sans any extras this double-feature from MCE can be had for $12 right now and has comparable A/V presentations, making this a great way to check out these early 90's sci-fi horrors. 

MINDWARP SCREENSHOTS 

BRAINSCAN SCREENSHOTS 

Blu-ray Review: PHANTASM II (1988)

PHANTASM II (1988) 

Collector's Edition Blu-ray  

Label: Scream Factory

Region: A NTSC

Duration: 95 Minutes

Rating: R

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Director: Don Consacrelli

Cast: James Le Gros, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm, Paula Irvine, Kenneth Tigar, Samantha Philips
Tagline: The Ball is Back!

Phantasm 2 (1988) picks up pretty much right where the events of Phantasm (1979) left off, sort of. It's  six years later and we are introduced to Liz Reynolds, (Paula Irvine), a young woman with a psychic-link to Mike(Michael Baldwin) and the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), we see the events immediately following the first film through a series of visions as Liz reads through her illustrated dream journal. Turns out that after Mike was captured by the Tall Man he was freed from the Lurker's clutches by the ass-kicking-est ice cream man ever, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), who leaped from a second story window, clutching Mike's unconscious body, just a moment before the house goes up in an enormous fiery explosion. It's a great action-packed start to the film and puts you right in the proper Phantasm mindset with plenty of weird Jawa-looking Lurker action.

We learn that Mike, now played by James Le Gros (Zodiac), has been committed to the Morningside Psychiatric Center ever since, for years he's received dream communications from Liz asking for his help, she fears the Tall Man and what he will do to her dying grandfather once he dies. As if it were just that easy Mike decides to start acting sane, meaning denying any of the events of the first film, and just like that is released from the asylum. His first stop is the Morningside Cemetery were he sets about unearthing graves in an effort to convince himself of his own sanity, that the events years earlier were indeed supernatural and not the bi-product of a deranged mind brought on by the tragic death of his brother Jody, and sure 'nuff the graves are empty. Learning that Mike has been released Reggie tracks him down at the cemetery, and guess what, he doesn't believe any of the weird shit from the first film actually happened, which makes no sense if you've seen the first film, but there's a lot that doesn't make sense with these films, instead of your melting your brain trying to make sense of it all it's best to just let the movie wash over you like the surreal, disjointed nightmare that it is.

Mike attempts to convince Reggie that the Tall man is real en route to Mike's house when Mike experiences a premonition that the house is about to explode, which it does, tragically killing Reg's wife, daughter and visiting family members, I am also pretty sure this is the very same explosion from the opening of the film, reused, Now a believer Reggie joins Mike on his quest to find Liz and destroy the Tall Man. From here the movie becomes a bit of a road film as the duo leave Morningside in Reg's sweet '70 Black Plymouth Barracuda, briefly stopping off at the hardware store to stock-up on supplies. It's here we get a great montage as they acquire what will become the duo's signature weapons, a four barreled sawed-off shotgun, a propane fueled flame thrower and a chainsaw, natch.

Meanwhile, in the town of Perigord, where the Tall Man has set-up a new base of operation to harvest the corpses of the dead, our psychic dreamer Liz's fears are being realized. Father Meyers (Kenneth Tigar, Lethal Weapon 2,3) is presiding over the funeral services for her departed grandfather, the priest smells the stench of evil in his town, in an attempt to thwart the strange goings on, which he doesn't fully understand, he opens the casket and plunges a knife into the chest of Liz's departed grandfather  to the shock of his widow who walks in on the priest and faints at the sight of the desecration. Character actor Tigar is cast quite well as the nerve-wracked, whiskey flask sipping man of the cloth.

En route to Perigord Mike and Reggie stop off at small town where the Tall Man has wrought his peculiar brand of destruction, it's a ghost town, the cemetery has been plundered, it's graves unearthed and empty. During the brief stopover the guys encounter a woman with a grotesque slug growing from her spine, it's an unnerving sight and Reggie sends the suffering woman and the creature up in flames. On the road again Mike wakes up from his passenger seat nap to discover that Reggie's picked up a cute hitchhiker named Alchemy (Samantha Phillips, Cheerleader Massacre) who should look a bit familiar to Mike as he just dreamt of her. Mike warns against bringing her along but Reggie is pretty horny and insists. At one point later in the film Reggie and Alchemy hook up we get a quirky, high-energy sex scene with Alchemy riding him cowgirl and slapping his little bald head, wacky stuff.

Back in Perigord Liz returns to the mortuary and encounters the Tall Man, he sets the Lurkers on Liz who is horrified to discover dear old grandma has become one of the mini-zombie minions. She is also pursued by one of the eerie metallic spheres, she escapes when Father Meyers sacrifices himself as a sphere sprays his liquefied brains all over the marbled mausoleum floor. Liz escapes into the darkened cemetery where she runs into Mike and Reggie when she falls in an open grave, as you're prone to do. The united quartet join forces and set out to destroy the demonic mortician before he can enslave more undead souls.

This action-packed sequel ramps up the action quite a bit, there are numerous  explosions including one that sends that sweet '70 Cuda up in a ball o' fire, which was a damn shame. The special effects are quite a bit more fantastic than anything we saw in the first film, the Lurkers are creepier, the creature embedded in the woman's spine would not have seemed out of place in a latter entry of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, and we get not one but a trio of spheres. The spheres this time are even more intricate, not just the barbed brain-spewing variety, we get a gold variation that's laser enabled!

Leading up to the finale is a battle at a crematorium, pitting Liz, Mike and Reggie against suit-wearing Morticians and miner-esque Gravers. Liz turns the tables on a Mortician and incinerates him in a furnace, and another falls victim to errant sphere, it's a great scene as the serrated sphere churns through it's guts, the centrifugal force contorting it's body unnaturally, it's a smart effect. There's a sweet face off when Reggie goes up against a Graver, it's a crotch-shredding chainsaw vs. chainsaw duel, it's a sweet mash-up of My Bloody Valentine (1981) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986). When the quartet finally face-off against the Tall Man it's a gruesome sight, an acid-infused finale of yellow goo with  wonderful in-camera effects, after the splatter-riffic conclusion we get a typically surreal Phantasmic coda.

James Le Gros stepping in for Michael Baldwin as Mike goes over quite well, if it weren't for the other sequels featuring Baldwin it would be a seamless exchange, as it is I really enjoyed what he did with the character, after Scrimm he delivers the film's best performance. Bannister as the balding former ice cream vendor turned supernatural shit-stomper is pretty great, offering the film a bit of needed camp. Angus Scrimm is superb as the Tall Man, it'd be hard to imagine the franchise without his iconic mortician to drive it along. The series is ripe for a remake but when I think recasting the Tall Man and I immediately sour against it.

Phantasm 2 is the sequel with the biggest budget by a rather large margin and you definitely see it onscreen. The scope is broader, the sets are bigger, and the effects are gorier. The one things that noticeably missing is the weird dream-logic from the first film, it's a more linear experience, but pretty surreal just the same, this is a Phantasm film after all! Coscarelli's sequel holds up pretty damned well, Phantasm 2 remains a unique vision of surreal horror.

Blu-ray: Shout! Factory imprint Scream Factory bring Don Coscarelli's Phantasm 2 to 1080p Region 'A' locked Blu-ray with an AVC MPEG-4 encode and it's a pretty wonderful presentation, a definite upgrade from the previous Universal DVD (2007). The print the hi-def master is sourced from looks particularly nice,with only very minor instances of print damage that could be detected There's a nice later of fine grain and the close-ups do offer some fine detail. Not sure what is was with the late-80's film stock but there is a familiar softness to the image at times, colors are vivid, there's some moderate depth to the image and shadow detail is strong, this is a a very pleasing transfer, one that brings new life to a familiar favorite.

Scream Factory offer the original DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo and a more immersive 5.1 mix, with optional English subtitles. The 5.1 surround is quite good, there's not a ton of surround action happening but effects and score occasionally do  bleed into the surrounds to nice effect. The dynamic range is surprising, when the spheres do what they do it's brilliant. Both 2.0 and 5.1 offer a well-balanced audio experience, dialogue is crisp, effects and score are never overpowering and even occasionally elicit a nice low end bass response, a very pleasing and immersive audio presentation.

Scream Factory typically jam-pack their Collector's Edition titles with extras and Phantasm 2 is no different. The extras are sure please fans of the film whom previously only enjoyed a trailer for the film on anemic Universal DVD. The Audio Commentary is your typical Coscarelli commentary in that it's awesome, the director and actors Scrimm and Bannister keep it quite lively and entertaining, they're a fun bunch who obviously enjoy each others company, plenty of interesting tidbits about the film, shooting it, and the production.

“The Ball is Back!” (46:38) features new interviews with writer/director Don Coscarelli, actors Reggie Banister, Angus Scrimm, and Paula Irvine. It begins with Coscarelli speaking about not wanting to make another horror film right after the Phantasm (1979) which produced the sword n' sandal cable classic The Beastmaster (1982) before returning to he Phantasm series during Tom Pollack's horror-friendly reign as Universal's studio head.  Coscarelli also goes into the downside of working within the studio system, which were many, including making creative concessions, notably replacing the character of Mike, played in the first, third and fourth in the franchise by Michael Baldwin, with newcomer James Le Gros, even a young Brad Pitt auditioned for Mike and Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development, Hellboy) nearly replaced Bannister as Reggie, hard to imagine. It's a great mini doc with an abundance of neat behind-the-scenes video and stills and clips from the film.

“The Gory Days with Greg Nicotero” (22:01) features effects master Nicotero speaking about his beginnings working on George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (1985) and Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 (1987) plus of Phantasm (1979) and his disbelief that he would end up working with some of his favorite directors on sequels to films he loved. Hearing special effects guys talk about their craft definitely strikes a chord in my horror heart, we get more behind-the-scene clips, some really comedic stuff, too.

Reversible Artwork 

Sourced from Director Don Coscarelli's own personal 35mm film archives are Deleted Scenes (6:51) plus Additional Scenes – Alternate Takes, Deleted Gore Footage from the Workprint (18:58). That's nearly half an hour of extended, alternate and deleted footage from the film, sure to be treat for fans who just can't get enough of Phantasm 2.

Not related to the Phantasm series but a cool feature is a vintage Rare Short film starring Angus Scrimm (18:40). Can you imagine the Tall Man as Abraham Lincoln? Well, now you won't have to, this black and white educational film shows you, fun stuff.

Rounding out the Blu-ray features are a selection of TV Spots and Trailers for the film plus a collection of vintage featurettes. Separate from the Blu-ray extras there's a slipcover for the case featuring brand-new artwork plus a sleeve of reversible artwork featuring the original theatrical artwork, a typically fantastic Scream Factory release and one that will hopefully not just satisfy the existing fans but hopefully convert legions new followers.

Special Features: 

- Audio Commentary with director/writer Don Coscarelli and actors Angus Scrimm and Reggie Banister
- “The Ball is Back!” Documentary – featuring new interviews with writer/director Don Coscarelli, actors Reggie Banister, Angus Scrimm, Paula Irvine, Samantha Phillips and more!(46:38)
- Vintage Behind the Scenes Footage: Makeup Effects (3:12)
- Vintage Behind the Scenes footage: On the Set (4:17)
- “The Gory Days with Greg Nicotero” Featurette (22:01)
- Deleted Scenes from Archival Film Elements from Don Coscarelli’s Archive (6:51)
- Additional Scenes – Alternate Takes, Deleted Gore Footage from the Workprint (18:58)
- 3 Original TV Spots (1:25)
- Trailers for Phantasm (2:17), Phantasm II (1:27) and Phantasm III (1:27)
- Still Galleries: A Collection of 53 Images of Behind the Scenes, Make-up Effects, Poster and Stills (5:17)
- Rare short film starring Rory Guy (aka Angus Scrimm) as Abraham Lincoln (18:40)

Verdict: Scream Factory are making a quite name for themselves as the new home of classic horror, offering Criterion level bonus content and pristine audio/visual presentations, bringing new life to cult classics. Phantasm 2 is a great effects driven sequel, action-packed and oozing with that surreal weirdness inherent to the franchise, it'd be a real treat to see Phantasm (1979) get a definitive Blu-ray. 3.5 Outta 5 

Note: Screen captures are from the Universal DVD and not Scream Factory's Collector's Edition Blu-ray which is far superior   

Blu-ray Review: SUBSPECIES 20th Anniversary Edition (1991)

SUBSPECIES (1991)

20th  ANNIVERSARY EDITION Blu-ray

LABEL: Full Moon Entertainment
REGION CODE: A
RATING: Unrated
DURATION: 83 mins
VIDEO: 1080i MPEG-4 16x9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
AUDIO: Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0
DIRECTOR: Ted Nicolaou
CAST: Michael Watson, Laura Tate, Anders Hove, Angus Scrimm, Irina Movila, Michelle McBride
TAGLINE: The Night Has Fangs.

B-movie filmmaker Ted Nicolaou has directed what I would consider some of the better productions from Full Moon Entertainment and it's forerunner Empire Pictures which unleashed such wacky 80's classics as TERRORVISION, and BAD CHANNELS. My love of Full Moon is part and parcel of growing up a teen in the late-80's VHS era and I think SUBSPECIES and it's sequels are probably his strongest films to date.

SUBSPECIES is an early 90's vampire flick set in the small Romanian village of Prejnar that's nestled deep in the fabled Carpathian Mountains, it's thick with Gothic atmosphere and stands as one of my top five vamp films in the past 20 years. In a pre-credit sequence vampire King Vladislav (Angus Scrimm, PHANTASM) is murdered by his outcast son Radu (Anders Hove, CRITTERS 4) so that he may obtain the Bloodstone, the Bloodstone being a mythical stone that drips blood and apparently empowers it's possessor with great strength, before his father can bequeath it to Radu's younger and more favored sibling Stefan (Michael Watson, TV's GENERAL HOSPITAL). Radu as played by Hove is a very cool visual mash-up of NOSFERATU's Count Orlock and Eric Draven, the avenging spirit from THE CROW, he's a beastly white faced ghoul with 10" clawed fingers and a gnarly set of teeth that ceaselessly drool an unsavory mixture of viscous saliva and blood. It was fun to see PHANTASM's Angus Scrimm in a very brief cameo looking mighty frightful in white face and a powdered wig as King Vladislav, has this guy ever looked to be in good health? I definitely had an Abe Vigoda "he's still alive?" moment when I saw Scrimm in Don Coscarelli's MASTERS OF HORROR episode "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road". For the record both Scrimm and Vigoda are still among the living.

Entering into the fray are two American college girls Michelle (Lara Tate) and Lillian (Michelle McBride) who along with their Romanian peer Mara (Irina Movila) set out to explore the area's rich vampire folklore with the help of a local vampire lore expert Stefan, whom as it so happens is a vampire himself, no less than Radu's younger, better looking brother. Stefan and Michelle develop a relationship but when Radu becomes aware of his brother's affinity for Michelle he kidnaps the girls in an attempt to lure the hated Stefan to his death.

The films plays a bit with the vampire mythology, for instance they are daywalkers and able to walk unharmed in indirect sunlight and the film's name is derived from Radu's minions known as subspecies for some crazy reason. In an early scene he severs several of his own fingers which fall to the ground and transform into red fleshy looking mini-demons who do his bidding throughout the film. Let me just say that the CGI creations are not the most impressive digital effects you've ever seen but are only slightly worse that THE MUMMY and in 1080i they've never looked better (or worse) than they do here.

Realistically this is a Charle's Band production so you just know it's low-budget shoot but the film shot on location in the Romanian countryside has some decent production values taking advantage of a creepy centuries old castle that has atmosphere to spare with some great locations, creepy interiors and gorgeous Romanian scenery. The acting is pretty flat from the trio of ladies and Michael Watson as Stefan is alright but the guy lacks personality and charm, he's an attractive man but it really ends there which may just be enough for the lady viewers. The main attraction is Anders Hove as Radu, a purely vile vampire creation, he's loathsome but a charismatic villain and his performance carries the film, without him this film wouldn't be talked about today, it's really that simple. If you haven't at least checked out the first SUBSPECIES film and you enjoy vamps of the non-glittery variety there's a lot to love here and I think if you give it a chance you'll soon be seeking out the sequels SUBSPECIES II: BLOODSTONE and BLOODLUST: SUBSPECIES III.

Blu-ray: SUBSPECIES makes is widescreen Blu-ray debut not so much in stunning, eye-popping fashion but with an adequate and marginally improved 16x9 enhanced widescreen (1.78:1) presentation with a 1080i MPEG-4 AVC encode without the benefit of an lossless audio option, in it's place is a pretty standard English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. The transfer comes from a relatively clean print with instances of specks, scratches and minor print damage. The increased resolution of the HD format clearly offers a significant bump in quality from the previous 4x3 DVD's but it's soft, smeary and lacks depth. Flesh tones appear tinged with a pinkish hue and a lack of film grain is indicative of some level of DNR scrubbing thereby removing some fine detail and giving facial features a slight plasticine appearance. The skimpy special features include the original Videozone featurette with some behind-the-scenes footage and six 16x9 trailers for a few of Full Moon's more recent releases.The Blu-ray's a definite improvement over the DVD editions but one can't help but wonder what it could have been with a better transfer, a lossless audio option, a trailer and perhaps even a commentary track from Nicolaou or Hove.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- First SUBSPECIES Videozone (9:55)
- Full Moon Trailers: EVIL BONG 3 (1:06), GINGERDEAD MAN 3 (1:02), KILLJOY 3 (1:38), DEMONIC TOYS 2 (1:15), PUPPET MASTER: AXIS OF EVIL (2:06), SKULLHEADS (1:32)

VERDICT: Anders Hove's Radu is a fantastically vile and memorable vampire creation and SUBSPECIES get a high recommend from me, it's definitely one of the better and sorely underrated 90's vampire films. While the Blu-ray isn't all that it should have been it is presented in 16x9 widescreen for the first time and is by far the best the film has ever looked on any home video format.