Review of Species (1995) by James S — 01 Aug 2011

Ever wondered what happened to alien sex horror movies?

The answer is they were largely confined to late nights on the syfy and horror channel, but not before a marginally Hollywood friendly version got out there in the form of Species.

After Ben Kingsley intercepts alien transmissions telling us to fuse our DNA with some new codes, he creates a pre-Dawson's Creek Michelle Williams who escapes, metamorphoses into Natasha Henstridge and tries to have sex with many guys but usually ends up brutally murdering them and anyone else who gets in her way. Kingsley assembles Michael Madsen, Forest Whitaker, Alfred Molina and a woman to take down the alien hybrid christened Sil.

There is some good talent assembled for the film. Madsen, Whitaker, Molina and Kingsley are all fine actors, and Michelle Williams is great for the little time she does have in the movie. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Natasha Henstridge. She does not have the acting qualities necessary to convey the confusion of Sil in the human world but the film makers don;t even give her much chance to try. They're much more interested in getting her to take her bra off at every available opportunity which lends the film a bit of a porno feel, even if it is part of the plot. There's only a couple of decent kills to follow this.

Species is definitely a missed opportunity. HR Giger's creature designs don't look as flashy as they did for Alien but Sil is a nightmarish creation. The back story of why the alien wants to bond with the human race is never really explored, jettisoned in favour of more shots of Henstridge's boobs, which great as they may be, once you've seen them, you've seen them.

Given the talent in the film, it could be safe to assume that this looked like it was going to be a much deeper and credible movie and that maybe a lot of stuff ended up on the cutting room floor. What was put out was a disappointing blend of sex and gore with little else going on for it.