Monster Movie of the Week: Species (1995)

SPECIES (1996)

Director: Roger Donaldson

Genre: Alien-on-the-loose/Body Horror/Sci-Fi/Exploitation

THE MOVIE:

Ah, Species. You should have been made in the ‘70’s. Can you imagine the trailer? I can.

CUE GRINDHOUSE MUSIC over SEXY STRIPPERS.

RASPY-VOICED ANNOUNCER

Meet SIL. She’s HOT. She’s FUNKY. She’s READY TO GET IT ON. She’s an extra-terrestrial vixen who’s on Earth for ONLY ONE REASON: to propagate her SPECIES.

Or something like that. Species tries really hard not to be the shlocky, gynophobic exploitation movie that it is at its core. It wants to be a smart and classy sci-fi thriller that makes some ironic commentary about singles life in the 1990’s. It even has a monster designed by H. R. Giger who designed Ridley Scott’s Alien. It has a cast of fine and distinguished actors like Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina, Forrest Whittaker and Michael Madsen. But, sadly, a bad script and poor direction doom it to mediocrity. It’s not a terrible movie (that would be Species 2, which is deliciously, mind-bogglingly bad) but not exactly a good movie either.

Ah, the proud MGM logo. And some space titties.

The idea behind Species is that an extra-terrestrial entity sends us instructions via SETI on how to make an alien/human hybrid (For Some Reason), apparently they were too busy to invade in person and want us to do all the shlep work. Okay. So we create this creature but then change our mind and decide to gas this little alien/girl (a young Michelle Williams) to death because she has some “rapid eye movement.” Only she escapes and grows up quickly and decides she wants to mate with various douchebags that she meets in LA.

So the government puts together a crack team to track her down and destroy her. There’s Fitch, the scientist who helped create her. Okay, he should go but he has a lot of explaining to do. There’s Press Lennox (on loan from the Institute of Fake Names,) an assassin for various shady government agencies. Good. He’ll come in handy. There’s Laura, a molecular biologist. She’ll be good because she can do all the CSI-type stuff. There’s Arden, a Cross Cultural Anthropologist. Um, I guess he can come. He can help with the driving. And then there’s Dan, an empath. Dan “feels things.” Dan walks into a murder scene where Sil has killed someone and says stuff like “She wasn’t happy.” Dan makes Diana Troi seem useful. Poor Forrest Whittaker. A note to all screenwriters: if you get to the point in your script where you need to include an empath just stop right there.

The cast of Species, watching Species 2.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:

In her alien form, Sil looks like a perfect cross between Giger’s Alien and a tranny prostitute.

"Heeeaaayyy! You in the space shuttle! You wanna have some fun?"

In fact, Sil looks so much like an Alien that one could say that Species is a de facto Alien prequel. She’s certainly a better Alien/human hybrid than that silly looking monster at the end of Alien Resurrection.

MONSTERS FEATURED:

Sil and her baby. As well as an alien tentacle blob.

DVD AVAILABILITY:

Widely available either individually or in a three pack with its sequels.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:

There are some nicely shot dream sequences in which Sil mates with another of her species. These scenes are weird and erotic but strange because the actual mechanics are not clear.

SEQUELS:

Species 2 Species 3 Species Quattro

SEE ALSO:

Alien 1979, Alien Resurrection 1997

THE TRAILER