Subspecies: The Awakening
NOTE: Sequel to Subspecies III: Bloodlust (1994).Picking up where Subspecies III left off, Radu is a flaming corpse
impaled on a tree branch. He falls to the ground and lands in a pool of
water near the bloodstone which he picks up and then runs into his castle
before the morning sun can destroy him. After restoring himself, Radu goes
to Bucharest to find Michelle. He contacts his other chylde, the vampire
Ash [Jonathon Morris] [NOTE: reference is to Vampire Journals (1997)],
and moves into Ash's casino/brothel.Meanwhile, the car in which Michelle (who was placed in a bodybag by
her sister and taken away) is riding meets with an accident. Everyone is
killed. Fortunately, Dr Anna Lazar [Ioana Abur] arrives at the accident scene and takes
Michelle to the nearest hospital, the Vitalis Institute, where Dr
Nicolescu [Mihai Dinvale] immediately diagnoses Michelle as a vampire.
Nicolescu offers to help her, as he has designed a process whereby
vampires can be made to tolerate the sunlight and live without the craving
for blood. He knows that it works because it is that process which is
sustaining him. Michelle argues that Radu will find her anyway. Nicolescu
insures Michelle that Radu cannot enter because this institute was once a
monastery. He asks Michelle if Radu has the bloodstone, and she says yes.
Once Nicolescu learns that Radu has the bloodstone, however, his efforts
to cure Michelle turn into an effort to obtain the bloodstone. He begins
to plot a way to lure Radu to the hospital.When Ash's protegee Serena [Floriela Grappini] asks Radu to help her kill Ash, Radu
refuses ("It is forbidden to kill one's kin"). So, Serena goes to Ash and
requests that he kill Radu. Ash also refuses but suggests that they find a
human to do it. Serena is to follow Radu to see if she can discover where
he goes and who might be willing to kill him.Nicolescu begins Michelle's treatment, which requires that all the
blood be withdrawn from her, filtered, and replaced. As the treatment
begins, Michelle starts to convulse and Radu senses where she is. He flies
to the hospital but is barred at the gate. Nicolescu admits Radu only
after Radu has allowed the doctor to taste from the bloodstone. Once
inside the gates, however, bright sunlamps are turned on Radu, his body is
sprinkled with holy water, and a spear is driven through his chest.
Feeling her master's pain, Michelle escapes from the lab and goes to save
Radu.Serena, who has been watching all along, sees in Dr Lazar a human
with the necessary strength to kill Radu. The next day, the three doctors
go looking for the tomb which is the entrance to the vampire underground.
Lazar finds it, and she and Nicolescu go underground while Dr Lupu [Dan Astileanu] waits
outside. (Unbeknown to them, Serena has given them a key that only works
from the outside. Her plan is for Lazar to kill Radu and then be unable to
escape.) The two doctors make their way to Radu's resting place but, as they
are about to cut off his head, Radu wakes up and cuts off Nicolescu's head
instead. Radu holds Lazar captive and summons Michelle to drink from her.
Michelle refuses and slices Radu's neck instead. Lazar finishes the job.
They secure the bloodstone, burn Radu's body, take Radu's head out into
the sunlight, and try to escape the tomb. But Ash and Serena follow. As
they attempt to drink from Lazar, her screams bring an old lady who opens
the tomb. They get a coffin and retrieve Michelle and the bloodstone.
[Original Synopsis by BJ Kuehl.]
cult, violence