10 Best Indie Vampire Movies You've Probably Never Seen

Ted Nicolaou's film is the first entry in the direct-to-video franchise of the same name. It follows college students Mara, Michelle, and Lillian as they travel to Romania on a study trip. There they end up in the middle of a feud between vampire brothers Stefan and Radu.

By shooting on location in Romania, even using Romanian residents as extras, Subspecies somehow feels ridiculous yet grounded at the same time. While certain elements inevitably feel old-school or ham-fisted, this forms almost all of the film's unavoidable appeal. Nicolaou further enchants the film with a trad-goth style and as spooky an atmosphere as you could hope for.

Subspecies feels perfectly at home on a cheesy, goofy Halloween night in. Elaborate make-up and set dressings ride a fine line between stupid and beautiful, immediately marking the film out as different from any other comparable vampire flick of the time.

Anders Hove is also fantastic as Radu, an unrelenting yet endlessly fun embodiment of evil that prove a constant throughout this film and its sequels.

While the franchise finished in 1998, a fifth film is currently in development. Filming for the new film, called Blood Rise, began in July last year.