- Directed by Ted Nicolaou
- Written by Ted Nicolaou
- Stars Anders Hove, Denice Duff, Kevin Spirtas, Stasa Nikolic
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55p8w1t0I1M
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a prequel and origin story. We can ignore that Anders Hove looks older now instead of younger like he should because it’s so well made. If you liked the first four in the series, you’ll probably like this too. We did.
Synopsis
We open in a dark cave as a really ugly woman gives birth. He was the offspring of the vampire Vladislas and the sorceress Circe. She’s about to kill the baby since the prophecy says he will one day kill his father. Suddenly, Crusaders break in and stab the witch, who laughs. The Crusaders steal the cursed child and drop him off at church, where they make it look more human. He eventually grows up, is trained in the arts of war, and becomes a hero of the Crusades.
Eventually, he made his way to the castle of his father. He and the other Crusaders walk through the tunnels before they come to Price Vladislas, who’s a Nosferatu-style vampire. The Crusader says his name is Radu the Fearless. Vladislas vanishes but leaves Circe there, who tells Radu about the prophecy. She also admits that she’s his mother. Then she vanishes as well.
Radu and Marius continue to explore the castle and find a woman and her child. Marius wants to kill Helena and Stefan right there. She says that Vladislas raped her, and Stefan is the child, but that she’s never tasted anyone’s blood.
Morning comes, and Stefan screams about his eyes; he’s never seen the light of day before. Marius doesn’t approve of letting them go, so he leaves Radu’s service. Helena, however, is obviously a vampire, afraid of the daylight. That night, Helena “rewards” Radu with sex– almost. She’s only been lightly bitten. Radu has the Bloodstone, which he was given by the Crusaders. She drinks from it.
Helena tempts Radu to try the Bloodstone, which he does. Then she bites him and feeds him some of her blood. Just then, Vladislas shows up, wanting his Bloodstone back. He takes Helena and Stefan, leaving Radu to die without any vampire training.
Radu, alone, tracks down Marius in the wilderness. “I’m defiled,” he laments. “Stake me to the ground; let the sun destroy me.” Marius stakes Radu with his big cross, but then he’s stabbed in the back by Circe. She rescues Radu, teaching him the black arts for the next hundred years. He learns to summon demons, move with the shadows, and hunt. Eventually, he leaves Circe to find Helena and the Bloodstone.
He eventually met Ash and Ariel, two musicians who played music that Radu liked. He bites them both that night and turns them. The next night, they both wake up as vampires and feed.
Years pass. He still never got over Helena, and he still wants to find her. Ariel had gone mad with bloodlust, and Ash was only an empty shell of himself. Radu wants them to play more music, but they can’t. “With no soul, there is no music.”
One night, the vampire’s lair was defiled. Diana says she has been appointed to slay Radu; she’s a monster hunter. All three vampires drain her dry, but then Radu turns her as well. Ash and Ariel decide this is a good time to abandon Radu, who spends the next 300 years searching for them. By this time, Radu is looking more like the vampire we know from the other films.
He finds them, wanting his vampire–slayer dagger back, but they say their queen has it. They take him to see their queen, who turns out to be Helena. She doesn’t remember Radu, who looks so much different now, but she looks the same. Helena fills Radu in on what’s been going on with Vladislas and Stephan. She still has the bloodstone, which she shares with him.
Helena offers him everything she has if she can have Ash. There’s a political argument as everyone bickers about who owns who and who the masters are. Helena dismisses Radu and Ariel, who decide to go deeper into the catacombs, looking for something. They find Prince Vladislas down there with a sword through his heart. Radu pulls the sword out, resurrecting him. He then stabs the old vampire repeatedly, fulfilling his destiny.
Helena says Radu is revolting and repulsive, and he doesn’t take it well. He rips her head off. She says she’ll be reborn and haunt Radu until the end of time. She stabs Radu with her vampire-killer blade, which he pulls right out again. Meanwhile, Ash steals the Bloodstone and runs off.
Diana chooses that point to resurface and kills Ariel. Radu tells us that in time, the shadow of Helena would come back to haunt him into madness…
Commentary
Anders Hove has aged significantly since the previous film; he now looks a lot like Angus Scrimm in the first film of the series. He spends most of the film without his iconic “Radu” makeup, but he’s still plenty creepy.
It’s the origin story we didn’t know we needed, but it’s as good as any other film in the series. If you like the previous four films, this is still good. Since Radu is one of my favorite vampires, I liked this one a lot!