SPECIES – beware the horny alien woman!

After 20 years, I finally took the time to sit and truly watch the Species films—which never much impressed me—looking to find something worthy of my horror obsession.

SPECIES (1995)

Species is more a sci-fi creature feature than a scary film. It has a surprisingly cheesy b-movie feel despite having big names like Ben Kingsley and Forest Whitaker, plus an alien designed by Giger.

The plot is simple—a scientist creates an alien/human hybrid named Sil then has to kill her because she’s a danger to humanity. But things don’t work out and she escapes, desperate to procreate. Now a team is on the hunt for her, including sexy Michael Madsen and Marg Helgenberger of CSI.

That’s pretty much it; they just chase the bitch around for the whole movie. When Sil escapes, she’s a young girl—played by Michelle Williams of Dawson’s Creek! She quickly morphs into a beautiful young woman while hiding on a train, which is where all the icky, slimy special effects come in.

Beautiful Natasha Henstridge is mesmerizing as the adult Sil. She’s also horny as hell. Most of her victims are the men she tries to bang then tears apart with alien appendages that pop out of her body.

Eventually she ends up in the sewers, where she morphs into a Giger creation. Michael Madsen gets the final one-liner before taking the bitch down! But does he really…?

SPECIES II (1998)

The plot is irrelevant in this sequel. I like it better because it’s an all-out alien orgy filled with blood and guts and tons of hot man flesh.

There’s some mission to Mars bullshit (I hate sci-fi), and they’ve cloned Sil but keep her as far away from men as possible. Unfortunately, life finds a way (as Jeff Goldblum once said), and soon a hot guy is getting naked and ripping women open with his appendage.

So Madsen and Marg are called back in to save the day.

Species II celebrates sexual fluidity as everyone is pretty much getting raped and ripped by alien/human members of both genders. Fun, fun, fun! Gore, sex, and special effects are delightfully exploited to make this one a blast for horror fans. And the result…is an army of offspring!

SPECIES III (2004)

Sil’s offspring goes to college!

This is when you know a series needs to go away. Species III is not as compelling or even cheesy enough as the first two films. There’s been some more spawning, and now there are two aliens—a blonde and a brunette—wreaking havoc on the sex lives of dumb men. And she has a built-in strap-on (actually, a bunch of them).

This time, a couple of guys at a college and their well-meaning professor with really bad judgement are heavily involved. There’s way too much scientific mumbo jumbo for my tastes, and the sex, gore, and violence are highly lacking as well. The whole movie is just going through the motions of the original premise.

SPECIES: THE AWAKENING

Director Nick Lyon (They Found Hell, Isle of the Dead, Rise of the Zombies, Zombie Apocalypse), kind of the king of SyFy originals, brings us another one. Luckily, I didn’t watch the heavily edited TV version, so this mess of a movie is oodles of fun.

I don’t even think I can explain the plot anymore. I guess this doctor did some experiment to make his niece from human and alien DNA, and has been injecting her all along to suppress her alien side. But during a hospital visit, the truth comes out…as her alien side takes over and goes on a killing spree.

Now, the doctor is racing his niece to Mexico before Trump can build the wall, since she’s an illegitimate alien. The film turns into a mess of awesome alien action, from a flying nun alien (no joke) to a long-winded club scene filled with sex and aliens.

There are actually numerous alien hybrids wreaking havoc (mostly on each other) as they battle to the death in between having hot, steamy sex with humans, and totally tonguing them to death. The series really goes out with a bang.