I was a little confused on my hunt for Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm because it was under its alternate name of Subspecies: The Awakening, which is a much less dynamic name, let alone not fitting in with the series use of blood in the title. I only remembered bits and pieces of Bloodstorm going in because I had only seen it once shortly after it came out originally. I remembered some of the opening and a tiny bit of the ending, mainly the final shot.
There’s a drop in quality in multiple ways throughout Bloodstorm. I felt like the story was just kind of thrown together because two characters from Vampire Journals are in the movie even though they had seemingly been killed in that movie. That goes along with there being some retcons for the previous movies that I might have only noticed because I’ve been watching the franchise so close together. Ted Nicolaou is listed as the writer and director of this movie, but it feels like it was written by someone else. It did partially carry over the narration from Vampire Journals only with Michelle narrating instead of Zachery.
The performances are really a highlight of Bloodstorm. Anders Hove continues to be a highlight of the series. Denice Duff does the best she can with how Michelle is written in the movie. Ion Haiduc also returns but is barely used. Both Jonathon Morris and Floriela Grappini from Vampire Journals enter the main franchise even though their characters had been seemingly killed off. Mihai Dinvale was also in Vampire Journals but is a completely new character. Ioana Abur and Dan Astileanu are wholly new people in the franchise. The new characters make sense in the story and are played in interesting ways.
The effects are another part where it feels like there was a step down from the previous entries. Radu looks different and its pretty jarring. In the story it could be from the rather traumatic injuries he received at the end of Bloodlust. The effects for that Radu look amazing. The costume and set design look great. The makeup does a lot of work with the other vampires to give them distinct looks. The score is just as amazing as it has been throughout the franchise.
Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm feels disconnected from the rest of the franchise and it’s a detriment to the movie. This is safely my least favorite entry in the franchise. There’s another movie coming out in the next year, and it looks to be a prequel. From the trailer it looks pretty interesting. It sticks with the convention of the franchise with the name being Subspecies V: Bloodrise. I was able to watch Bloodstorm thanks to the Full Moon channel on Tubi. I give Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm 5 bloodstones out of 10.