From the unlikely team of producer Frank Mancuso, Jr., one of the key players in the long-running Friday the 13th slasher franchise, and director Roger Donaldson, the man behind the recent remake of The Getaway, comes this gory creature feature that, despite a very promising first 15 minutes, proves to be nothing more than another tired rip-off of Alien, with a touch of Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce thrown in for good measure. The story concerns a desperate manhunt for a young, but rapidly growing, little girl who has taken part in a genetic experiment that has combined alien and human DNA, resulting in a creature (code-named “Sil” and designed by H.R. Giger, the Swiss surrealist artist who is also responsible for the award-winning titular creature in Alien) that often looks sweet and harmless, but can mutate into a pus-dripping beast and tear your spine out. In an attempt to keep this kind of activity at a minimum, Kingsley assembles a group of diverse talents — lethal bounty hunter Madsen, sensitive telepathist Whitaker, and two other tag-along scientists — to track down the monster who, in the meantime, has grown into a pretty, desirable blonde who has gone to L.A. to shop, get credit cards, and cruise clubs looking for a man to father her a mutant baby so she can multiply and (presumably) take over the world. It all leads to a predictable climax in which the heroes venture into the catacombs below a posh California hotel to battle the monster with flame-throwers. Victory is declared and we suffer yet another insulting “shock” epilogue that seems to threaten Species 2. Species is one of those movies in which our hero is always one stupid step behind the villain who, in this picture, doesn’t really seem all that smart to begin with. Sil’s puzzled, bored reactions to the crazy, puny Earthlings might have been parlayed by the filmmakers into some kind of societal resonance or perhaps even a little playful satire, but these concepts have no place in this movie. Instead, the film lapses into embarrassingly heavy-handed dialogue like “She was half-human, half something else… I wonder which was the predatory half?” worthy of Edward D. Wood, Jr. The only thing worth a damn in Species is the talented cast, with Madsen’s deadpan cool and quiet charm providing most of the film’s memorable moments, while the rest of the cast all deliver solid, appealing performances. Horror movie fans are a loyal, supportive audience, and in a dry spell like this, many will be inclined to give Species a chance. Do yourself a favor… don’t. It’s the same old, recycled garbage the studios love to shove down our throats, and trust me, you’ve seen it all before. What else can I say about a movie in which even a brilliant artist like H.R. Giger repeats himself… except that besides a few random moments, Species just doesn’t make the grade and also manages to waste a fine cast along the way.
This article appears in July 7 • 1995 (Cover).