'Bloodstone: 'Subspecies II'  (1993) - Ted Nicolaou.

Ted Nicoloau's immortal vampire saga takes a majestically morbid turn in the macabre, melancholic sequel. Subspecies II' finds our recently undead heroine, Michelle (Denice Duff) hopelessly lost on the unfamiliar backstreets of Bratislava. The malevolent, Radu (Anders Hove) desperate to reclaim his beloved life-extending Bloodstone, as poor, Michelle is condemned to a cruel fate far beyond her worst imaginings. The perplexed, amusingly inept Lt. Marin (Ion Haiduc), her distressed sister, Rebecca Morgan (Melanie Shatner) and diminutive, lionhearted museum archivist, erstwhile vampire slayer, and proud distiller of Palinka, the world's strongest liqueur, Popescu (Michael Denish) earnestly attempt to discover the fearful truth about Count Vladisas's ominous castle!

Even as the incorrigible, Radu's invidious actions becoming ever more despicable, it is his entirely wretched-looking mother that provides the truly blackened, wormy heart of the diabolically doom-laden second instalment. Her sinister scheming, fantastically foul, stomach-churning sorcery brought to disgustingly lurid life by, Pamela Gordon along with some astonishingly grisly practical effects by Wayne Toth, Michael Deak and Daniela Busoiu. The historical splendour of beautiful Bratislava adding an additionally dreamlike lustre to, Ted Nicolaou's Grisly-Gothic milieu of the fabled Bloodstone, Radu's Machiavellian vampire, and the travails of his reluctant fledgling vampire, Michelle.

Subspecies signature dark romance being somewhat tempered in the grisly sequel merely increases the innately Gothic atmosphere that transports the vampire-loving viewer deep into its hellishly twisted subterranean realm!  The cadaverous-looking, Michelle descends ever deeper into a crepuscular miasma of unspeakable blood rites, vile necromantic practices, gruesome gorings and endless night! The bloodlust borne of her terrible transformation from beautiful young collegiate scholar to pallid, street-stalking, throat-ripping succubus proves too much for her to bear. Poor Michelle forced to endure the sickening depredations of her despicable master, Radu. 'Bloodstone: 'Subspecies II' deservedly remains a firm fan favourite since it is stylishly steeped in doomy Gothic melancholia, boundless creativity, and a genuine pathos, which is pointedly absent in most of the identikill horror cinema of today.