The long — very long — wait is over with the news
this week from Full Moon Features.
Director Ted Nicolaou’s Subspecies
V: Bloodrise will be making its debut on July
11 as both DVD and Blu-ray product offering.
MVD Entertainment Group will be providing the sales and distribution
expertise to make this happen.
Our story begins back in 1991 when Nicolaou (with TerrorVision and Savage
Island … and the “Desert Pursuit” segment of The
Dungeonmaster under his belt) teamed up with
the legendary Charles Band to deliver the first Subspecies.
The story of the vampire Radu (played by Anders
Hove) picks up two years later (1993) with Nicolaou once again joining forces
with Band to serve-up Bloodstone: Subspecies II.
The pivot point comes in 1994. Can the series have the genre fan base to
become a film franchise? Is the story
of Radu and his pursuit of Michelle (Denice Duff) compelling enough? The answer was a resounding yes with the
release of Bloodlust: Subspecies III,
which picks up the action where Bloodstone: Subspecies II left
off.
Radu is dead, Michelle free … the trilogy brings it
all to a close. End of the line for the
Subspecies film
series, right? Not by a long shot, the
fourth installment, written and directed by Ted Nicolauo, arrives in 1998 with
the release of Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm.
Finally, Michelle is able to destroy Radu once and
for all with the ending having his decapitated head roasting in the sun!!!
Twenty years slipped by and rumors began circulating
in 2019 that Nicolauo was in talks with both Anders Hove and Denice Duff to
reprise their roles for another installment in the Subspecies
saga. It was all set for production in
mid-2020 when the Covid pandemic hit and everything was put on hold.
The film was able to be resurrected, shot and
finished last year. Subspecies V: Bloodrise was previewed on March 25 of
this year at the HorrorHound Weekend film festival in Indianapolis and the
reaction from the audience in attendance was off the charts.
Without giving too much away, we can report that
this is a prequel to the original series with the focus on Radu and how he becomes
the monster that is well documented in the four films in the series. Duff is back, but she is not Michelle in the
prequel … we will let it go at that.
Subspecies V: Bloodrise, the
long-awaited return to the series will be available on July 11 from Full Moon
Features as both DVD and Blu-ray viewing options.
Bonus goodies include commentary from filmmaker Ted
Nicolaou and the featurette titled “Bloodrise: Behind the Scenes.”
