Ever since our previous Full Moon February series of articles, I have not known peace. I keep getting ominous calls from David DeCouteau. Demonic toys have been manifesting in my bathroom at random times of the night. And Charles Band keeps denying my requests for a Puppet Wars revival. (If you’re reading this Charles, come on man, it’s time.) But worst of all? I became a true-blue Subspecies fan, falling face first into its cult-like following. My exposure to the franchise was limited prior to my review of Subspecies, but afterward, I decided to sit down and watch all of them. Yes, even the side-story/Angel rip-off Vampire Journals, which is…something else!

Subspecies is a campy horror dynasty that I will never get tired of, so when I heard we were finally getting another entry in the series, I’ve just been waiting with bated breath while I practice my Romanian vampire accent. And the recently released trailer for prequel Bloodrise: Subspecies V (which you can watch below) is a doozy that has gotten us at Horror Press (i.e., me and editor James-Michael, resident Radu fans) thinking about what we want to see in future Subspecies films.

So…what do we want?

Don’t Laugh– A More Emotionally Complex Radu

We all know the only thing that’s kept Radu from being as flat on screen as an empty box of Count Chocula IS Anders Hove’s portrayal of him. I think it’s high time the actor got some respect and was allowed to branch out into fleshing out Radu’s past, beyond how his father got ahold of that sweet blood-flavored ring-pop we call the Bloodstone.

Bloodrise’s trailer has given us romance and intrigue with his sire, as a fledgling Radu tries to situate himself amongst his more experienced betters. I’m excited to see him stretch those acting muscles beyond his Radu skulking. Letting a classically trained actor with more dramatic roles than you can shake a stick at, cut loose and bring some gravitas to a character as silly as Radu feels like a no-brainer for switching things up.

Not to mention it would be hilarious if we saw that Radu was, deep down, a complex, nuanced character, and sucking on a cherry-flavored rock made him evil.

We Need Stranger Vampire Powers

One of the most appealing things about Radu’s nonsense is that he kind of just has a bevy of unspecified monster powers:

• Teleporting in shadow
• Ripping his fingers off to make little guys out of them
• Unspecified psychic abilities
• And being immune to pretty much every way you could kill a vampire. Somehow.

So why don’t we throw everything at the wall and see what sticks? Let’s get weird with it, go full Vampire: The Masquerade and give us some clans with really out-there abilities and origins.

The Bloodrise trailer does give us a glimpse at the new power that will be highlighted, Twilight-style super speed, so this one is probably the most likely going forward.

For A Series Called Subspecies…We Could Use More Subspecies

While we’re at it, the titular subspecies has always been roughly relegated to mostly bringing Radu back from the grave. It wouldn’t be so terrible to give them a new spotlight or start showing some variant subspecies created by more of Radu’s gory sacrifices. If that’s what a finger makes, how about a whole hand?

Let this also be a call to keep things as practical effects oriented as possible, returning to the heyday of that wonderful stop-motion animation we used to get. If there’s one thing I can never say, Full Moon never leans into bad practicals. These films may not be classy, but the people making them have some class.

A Lead into Different Stories from The Subspecies Universe

One of the unfortunate truths about the Subspecies series is that we can’t focus on Radu forever. The sun will have to set on this character eventually, and I hope that the creatives at Full Moon wouldn’t try to replace an inimitable character actor like Anders Hove who makes the series what it is.

As much as I clown on Vampire Journals, it was the one I was most excited to start because I want to see more vampire fiction that plays around with the bizarre lore of the Subspecies universe. Even if it’s just seeing the Bloodstone changing hands in various eras, I would watch it in a heartbeat, the same as I will Bloodrise.

Because at the end of the day…

The Subspecies franchise, like many other horror series, is comfort food. Like much of the Full Moon Pictures repertoire, these films have always been a revival of Corman camp and b-grade midnight movies for another generation, and it’s the home of a lot of fans, new and old, who are still here and still enjoying everything it has to offer.

So, here’s to Bloodrise: Subspecies V, and many more sequels.