I had never seen Vampire Journals before. I had seen the VHS cover but always found something else to rent growing up. I didn’t even know that it was a spin-off from Subspecies until the last five or so years. I thought that it would fit in with my rewatch of the series to finally watch the spin-off. I was pleasantly by the movie because it has the same quality that all Full Moon movies had during the 90s.
Ted Nicolaou continued his stewardship of the franchise by writing and directing Vampire Journals. He was able to expand the established mythology for vampires, even including a line about how different vampires can look human while others don’t. The story also connects to the rest of the Subspecies franchise with a mention of Radu by the antagonist of the movie. Some of the characters are written to be kind of dumb, but no dumber than real people.
Jonathon Morris, David Gunn, Kirsten Cerre, Dan Condurache, Starr Andreeff, Rodica Lupu, and Mihai Dinvale star. Both Morris and Gunn have intriguing performances. Morris’s performance as Ash is a more subtle villainous performance than with Radu. Gunn’s performance is interesting since we get both narration and physical performance throughout the movie. He even plays Zachery before he becomes a vampire. Lupu’s performance hints at Rebecca’s desire for blood being almost homicidal, which is interesting since we only get a scene of her on the hunt.
Vampire Journals has the most subtle effects in the entire franchise. Zachery probably has the most extensive effects used for a character. The props look great, especially the sword of Laertes. The costume and set design are fantastic in the movie. The hair and makeup give each of the characters distinctive look as much as the costumes did. The music for the movie is fantastic.
Vampire Journals is an interesting spin-off in a franchise that successfully expands the mythology of the franchise. I’ve only got one more movie left in the franchise for right now. I’ve learned through my reviews of the franchise that there’s a fifth movie in the mainline Subspecies movies set to come out next year. I was once again able to watch the movie thanks to Tubi. I give Vampire Journals 7.5 swords out of 10.