By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I'm quite surprised at myself for having not watching this Charles Band Full Moon Features production before and have quickly become a fan of the Subspecies series of films. I think what I like most about the series is that the vampires here are neither the Bela Lugosi elegant gentlemen type, nor are they the emo Anne Rice/Sookie Stackhouse type of vampires. The vampire Radu is a nasty scary looking monster. In many ways, he reminds me of the Steve Niles vampires in "30 Days of Night." In this third installment, Radu is still controlling one of the sisters from the previous film and her other sister is trying to free her from Radu's thrall. As with the previous films, this was competently directed by Ted Nicolaou, who makes the most of the European locations and the real-life castle that was owed by Band's production company at the time (and which appeared in just about every Full Moon film of this era, even one misguided Trancers film). Anders Hove continues to be creepy as Count Radu, the practical special effects are solid (and bloody), and the production values are better than most Full Moon productions. Overall, this one is a must see for fans of Charles Band films, but honestly this film is probably not one for non-fan of Full Moon Features.

Bloodlust: Subspecies III starts where the previous film Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1994) finished with Rebecca (Melanie Shatner) running off to find help while her poor sister Michelle (Denice Duff) is kidnapped by Radu (Anders Hove) & his zombie Witch Mother (Pamela Gordon) who whisks them back to Radu's castle. The police are called & Popescu's (Michael Denish) body is found in the crypt but no Michelle, Witches or Vampires. Together with Mel (Kevin Spirtas) Rebecca sets out to find her sister Michelle (again) while Radu tries to convince her to love him (again)...Written & directed by Ted Nicolaou who ended up directing all the Subspecies films thus far I have to say that out of the first three Bloodlust: Subspecies III is the worst. By low budget horror film standards it's not too bad I suppose but after a fairly decent original & a surprisingly good second Subspecies film this definitely felt like one Subspecies film too many. The story is slow & Radu the evil Vampire is getting less & less to do with each film, here he spends almost the whole running time in his castle trying to convince Michelle to love him for reasons never explained, I mean why he is so infatuated with her anyway? Then there's Rebecca's attempts to find her sister which wastes more minutes until the inevitable showdown at the end. This is fairly forgettable stuff to be honest, the romance tinged plot is standard fare in Vampire films & nothing else really happens besides. It's alright & it's watchable enough but I am glad I saw it on TV for free rather than spend any money on it. Not one I will be adding to my collection anytime soon.Bloodlust: Subspecies III was actually shot back-to-back with Bloodstone: Subspecies II, I would imagine that the same thing that happened with Puppet Master 4 (1993) & Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter (1994) made around the same time as this also befell this in that Full Moon Entertainment had a deal with Paramount going to theatrically release some of their films but when that fell through the planned films (both a Puppet Master & Subspecies one) were split into two films each & made at the same time with the same cast's & crew. Certainly Bloodstone: Subspecies II & Bloodlust: Subspecies III feel like they could have been edited down into one film & as it is both feel a little incomplete & empty, especially this one. The film looks alright but no different than the previous film & there's a distinct lack of gore too. The little stop-motion animated monsters from the original make a brief appearance at the end to set up yet another sequel.Shot in Bucharest in Romania the location work is the best thing about Bloodlust: Subspecies III to be honest, the production values are OK & it looks nice enough but it's just all a bit dull really. Most of the cast from Bloodstone: Subspecies II feature here & are alright.Bloodlust: Subspecies III is definitely my least favourite Subspecies film so far although I still haven't seen the final one to date Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm (1998) although I will have within the next week or so. This is an OK Vampire film but forgettable & not as good as the previous two, difficult to recommend to anyone other than die hard Subspecies fans.

Conclusion to the planned trilogy directed by Ted Nicolaou this third film ends rather openly suggesting that Full Moon Productions were already sizing up future instalments. This time Radu kidnaps Michelle and takes her to the castle that he shares with his mother, a Sorceress. He teaches her to master her vampire powers, willing to sacrifice everything to empower his true love when Michelle's sister Rebecca attacks his stronghold.The trilogy is weakening here with little original storyline and little excitement. However the series still - at this point - remains highly unique and still fantastically riveting. Once again the acting is of a high standard, the Romanian locations breathtaking and the script, score and direction, even in this 'weaker hour' surpass many larger budget films. Stable stuff.

Now I know that most of the Subspecies fans prefer the second movie over Bloodlust: Subspecies III, but I think this was actually my favorite of the series. This is where we see a little bit of Radu's weakness and that he can have mortal feelings for another, even love. Weither or not he's in love with Michelle, I think he admires her innocence and beauty, the power she holds over him, she knows it and definitely takes advantage of it, who can blame her, right? But I love how the story goes into Radu, he fears this emotion, understandably, and it blinds him. This is strangely a tragic love story that really intrigues me, it goes from teacher/student to love/hate. Radu though I promise still delivers the good scares like the other Subspecies movies.Radu and his student, Michelle, are up to a lot, while he teaches her what it means to be a vampire, Radu's mother thinks it's a bad idea to keep her. Michelle's sister, Morgan, will not give up and she will do anything to save her sister's should. Michelle tells Radu that she can never love him, that she hates him and would rather just die instead of being a vampire but Radu wishes for her to stay with him forever.Bloodlust: Subspecies III is just continuing where the second Subspecies left off. My favorite scene was where Michelle is outside and Radu comes from behind her and she asks what can kill them, the dialog he delivers as well as his expressions, for a low budget film, Anders Hove is a good actor and makes Radu very believable. The scene was beautifully done between him and Denise. This was a fun series to get into, I really have enjoyed it, these are the horror films I've been looking for and would highly recommend them for a good scare.7/10