Reception
Culture Cartel critic Mike Bracken believed the story was "largely clichéd", coupled with "bad acting" on the part of Watson and the female cast, but commended the realism Nicolaou created by shooting on location in Romania—using Romanian residents for smaller roles in the film—as well as the fact that the film does not "take itself too seriously", making it "more fun" than Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. Cold Fusion Video's Nathan Shumate echoed Bracken's opinion on the "authenticity" created from the Romanian landscaping and actors that gave "the feel of verisimilitude", but criticized the stop-motion subspecies as being "irrelevant to the main action", and the story as a "general lack of urgency". Richard Scheib, a critic for science fiction, horror, and fantasy review website Moria, felt the original film "showed promise" when it attempted to go "back to the folklore roots of vampirism"; he also liked the authentic feeling from shooting in Romania, but felt the limited budget restricted the film from being convincing, with David Allen's stop-motion subspecies creatures being a disappointment. When he had a chance to review Bloodstone, Scheib felt the sequel delivered "vampire clichés", but again "showed promise" with its imaginative make-up effects—specifically the staking of Stefan, the reattachment of Radu's head by the subspecies creatures, the look of Mummy—as well as the visual effects of Radu's shadow stalking Michelle through town, which gave Scheib a sense of Nosferatu. Another criticism from Scheib was with the replacement of Laura Tate with Denice Duff; Scheib characterizes Duff as "internalized and afraid", as opposed to the addition of Melanie Shatner's character, Rebecca Morgan, whom he classifies as "alert and intelligent".
DVD schlock wrote that the film series "manage to give an edge of bad-assitude to its vampires", and that "each entertains in its own right and furthers the Subspecies tale one more step beyond the last one... until finally being beaten over the head by a shovel with the stinky Vampire Journals". In a review by LaserDisc, it was felt that one consistency through the series was Radu, whose villainy is "effectively embodied" by Anders Hove. LaserDisc also believed that the sequels sustained the entertainment value through their intelligent use of eroticism, gore and on-location setting.
Read more about this topic: Subspecies (film Series)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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