Subspecies 3 Disc DVD Box Set

The vampires of Romania
Ah, vampire B-movie schlock. Not big blockbusters starring Anne Rice vamps or Stephenie Meyer sparklepires, but lower-budget affairs splattered with blood. One of the best examples of the genre is "Subspecies," a movie series with a genuinely creepy villain and lots of atmosphere. "Subspecies/Subspecies II/Subspecies III" brings together the first three volumes of the series, following the vampire Radu's pursuit of a pretty but utterly useless American girl.

"Subspecies: The Awakening" (I don't know why it's called that instead of just "Subspecies") involves three grad students writing their theses in a Romanian village. Their investigations bring them to a ruined castle where vampires were once said to dwell, as well as an encounter with the broodingly handsome Stefan (Michael Watson). Guess what Stefan is!

But it turns out there is still vampiric stuff afoot: the evil, ghoulish Radu (Anders Hove) has returned to the castle, and has murdered his own dad to steal...





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Pit And The Pendulum [Blu-ray]

Not your mama's Pit and the Pendulum...
**Minor Spoiler Alert**
I bought this movie because Lance Henriksen has a starring role in it. I am a huge fan of his and there are definitely scenes in this flick where Henriksen shines. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast, including the great Oliver Reed, appearing in a cameo, don't have much of a script with which to work. Indeed some of the lines are so anachronistic, that they are laughable. Set during the Spanish Inquisition, there is a scene where the male lead, a baker, is strapped to a chair and a fire is lit beneath him. He laughs hysterically and says "If you want to toast my buns, you'll have do a lot better than that!" And so on and so forth.
Picture quality averages under 24Mbps; not great, but a definite step up from SD. There are NO subtitle options. That's cheap. Amazon incorrectly lists this film as having an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 FALSE. It's 1.66:1, widescreen. That's good.
Bottom line: The movie is kinda fun; the female lead is smokin' hot and you...

Heresy begins in the heart
I can't believe I've not watched this before! Lance Henrikson is always fun to watch in action and this is the dark and twisted role he excels in. He plays the infamous Torquemada, the bane of heretics and head of the Spanish Inquisition. He is bewitched by a young bakers wife and accuses her of witchcraft, this is a regime that only accepts confession if it is given under torture, which sets the tone of the film.

Torquemada becomes obsessed with the woman and blames her for his feelings and tortures her and her husband who attempts to rescue her. The story is loosely based on Poe's story of the same name, it's fairly predictable, but well told. For the most part everyone does a good job with their roles, Oliver Reed even makes a quick appearance to have a few drinks.

In fairness Henrikson carries the film, his portrayal of Torquemada is great fun to watch (I might have to watch Millennium again),l he plays the zealot very well and it's worth watching for that...

Some restoration work done but a lot more work to go
One of the better Full Moon titles, in my opinion, this takes place during the Spanish Inquesition. You have your nudity, violence, dark humor and decent sets.

As for the blu-ray itself, I was really disappointed with the restoration work that was done to it. From start to finish, it really didn't look any better than a low end DVD. On the plus side, it's now widescreen as opposed to the fullscreen video of the DVD. While this review may not seem to be glowing, the DVD version looked like a washed out VHS tape, so we're moving in the right direction.

What would be nice is a restoration job similar to Puppet Master and Subspecies but it looks like this is the best we'll get. If you see it for a good price, I'd pick it up.

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