Subspecies is a great vampire story, giving little twists on some of the common legends of Transylvanian vampire lore. It is filmed entirely in Romania, in some of the old castles where some of the legends may have actually started.

Anders Hove plays Radu, the offspring of an evil sorceress and King Vladislav, king of the vampires, played by Angus Scrimm. The king also had another son, Stefan, played by Michael Watson, who was born to a human woman, making Radu and Stefan half-brothers. King Vladislav is at the end of his years, and summons Stefan to take control of the bloodstone. The bloodstone is an ancient relic said to drip the blood of saints, given to the vampires in exhange for letting the villagers live in peace. Radu finds out and shows up, killing his father and taking the stone for himself. Our three heroines, Michele, Mara and Lillian are history students staying in a local castle, studying the local legends. Stefan becomes enamored with Michele. Radu uses this as a tool against Stefan. In the end, Radu captures all of them, and kills Mara and Lillian, converting them to vampires. And he bites Michele, cursing her to the same fate. But Stefan breaks free and battles Radu. Stefan impales Radu on a wooden pole, then beheads him. Michele begs Stefan to make her like him, instead of Radu. He does, and they lie down to sleep for the night. As it turns out, Radu was not really dead...

I liked this movie. It had a really good feel to it. Anders Hove gives one of the best portrayals of an evil vampire I have ever seen. His screen presence is incredible. The storyline was really interesting. It gives a nice spin on a familiar tale. And even though the movie had limited resources at its disposal, they pulled of a very appealing picture. The elongated fingers of Radu was a nice tribute to the original vampire movie, Nosferatu.