Trancers II (1991)

For anyone interested, my review of the first movie is on Flickfeast here.

Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) returns to take on more Trancers in this hugely enjoyable sequel. Helen Hunt is also back, as Lena, and the film continues on from the events of the first movie, albeit six years later. Yes, Jack has been settled in the past now for six years and he's quite happy but he can sense something in the air, some vibe that somehow lets him know that Trancers are in the vicinity. What are Trancers, you might ask? Well, you have to watch the first movie to make sure that you're fully informed.

This sequel starts off a bit uncertainly but quickly hits its stride and then never pauses long enough for all of the nonsense to spoil the sense of fun. After an opening sequence that introduces the situation and characters and briefly tries to make the science stuff believable it's all about fun with the Deths and the people who end up having their lives saved by Jack.

With Charles Band directing once again, and Jackson Barr returning for the writing duties, there's certainly no big gap between the tone of this movie and the tone of the original. Deth is still a gruff guy, happier shooting a gun than trying to verbalise any emotions, and he's still a great central character.

Thomerson excels yet again in the lead role, and Hunt is also just as enjoyable as she was in the first movie. Art LaFleur and Telma Hopkins return, albeit briefly, and Biff Manard and Megan Ward have fun with their roles. Richard Lynch puts in a decent performance as the main villain while horror fans will love seeing supporting roles for Martine Beswick, Jeffrey Combs and the lovely Barbara Crampton.

There are a number of moments when the low budget becomes a bit obvious but that can't detract from the sheer sense of fun that fills every frame once Jack Deth sets his sights on baddies that he can happily blast away. Some additional emotional complication (Megan Ward's character is the future wife of Jack Deth, which displeases Helen Hunt, his wife in the present) is largely played for comedy value but adds a satisfying heart to all of the gunfights, gadgetry (the long-second watch returns) and paradoxes. If you liked the first movie then I see absolutely no reason why you wouldn't enjoy this sequel just as much.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trancers-2-DVD/dp/B00006LSGS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341596821&sr=8-1

Subspecies (1991)

Yet another fantasy horror movie formulated in the fevered mind of Charles Band, this low budget vampire film may have a lot going against it but it also has a surprising number of good points.

Radu (Anders Hove) is an evil vampire who can snap off his fingers to make little creatures that help do his bidding. We find this out at the very beginning of the movie when he returns to his village and angrily confronts his father (Angus Scrimm, wearing a wig that I can only describe as making him look like an 80 year old Leo Sayer).

"You make me feel like dancing, I want to dance the night away!"

Anyway, it's not long before we get to the main plot of the movie. Namely, three young girls end up having their lives endangered as they try to learn more about the history of the area and the tales of vampires that many of the locals choose to believe in. Silly, ignorant locals. One or two bitey moments later and it's the girls who feel silly. And scared.

Directed by Ted Nicolaou, Subspecies is surprisingly enjoyable for the type of b-movie fodder it so obviously is. The script by Jackson Barr and David Pabian may not be up to much but the pace never drags and there are some very good practical effects here and there. The stop motion work, showing the creatures created by Radu, is a hell of a lot better than I was expecting and shows that every penny in the budget was well used.

The acting isn't great, to be honest, but nobody really stinks either. Irina Movila, Michelle McBride and Laura Tate are the three girls about to learn more than they ever wanted to know while Michael Watson is the dull Stefan (a slightly mysterious man who might be able to help out), Ivan J. Rado plays an older man who knows more than he's letting on and Anders Hove is excellent as the evil Radu.

A bit of bloodletting, some decent special effects, a small helping of gratuitous nudity, some terrible decisions made by the main characters and a list of characters that includes "old crone" all mix together to make this one of the better movies from Full Moon Studios that you could choose to watch.


6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Subspecies--Epic-Collection-Subspecies-Journals/dp/B000F6ZIJM/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1337544741&sr=1-1