Species — The Awakening

In 1995, an evil alien creature in the guise of a beautiful woman visited Earth. This terror from beyond the stars’ only desire was to kill-fuck as many men as possible, collecting their man seed for intergalactic breeding purposes. Now, 12 years and three films later, the oversexed alien hotties are back and looking to entertain the world with a little more semi-terrestrial boobage. After three previous instalments the premise of the Species series is specious, to say the least. This time around, the genetically engineered sex invader, Miranda (Helena Mattsson), has been raised to adulthood by her "Uncle Tom” (Ben Cross). When, in her mid-20s, Miranda begins to show signs of her half space monster heritage, Uncle Tom takes her to Mexico (the home of illegal aliens) and tracks down his ex-partner and co-designer of the hot hybrid alien species. Soon, in a town seemingly packed with quasi-ETs, all hell breaks loose, including the series’ patented sex-death sequences. This straight to DVD sci-fi/horror sequel (fourquel?) doesn’t live up to the original Species, which was a passable piece of eye-candy for its time. Species — The Awakening has none of the slick, violent sexiness of its namesake, instead focusing on "story” and saving the hallmark H.R Giger designed naked aliens for a few dimly lit scenes. Helena Mattsson, the requisite alien-cum-human, does her best with the material, which is bad even for straight-to-DVD sci-fi. Admirably, Dominic Keating (Star Trek: Enterprise) rises above the lacklustre script, playing a "mad scientist” who belongs in a movie several notches above this low-budget stinker. Let’s be honest, the only reason people watch the Species series is for the violence and nudity, and seeing that both these attributes are downplayed in this instalment, I don’t see why anyone would willingly sit through this film. If you’re really in the mood for some hot alien action, save your money and wait for the Collectors Edition re-release of the original Species next month.