31 MORE Days, 31 MORE Screams: Day 5 (Species)

Whaddya at, humanity?

Every so often I come across a thing that I intend to write about, and its impressions on me are only "what in the fuck am I going to say about THAT?". Species, from 1995, is one of those. I guess there are some angles I can poke at. I don't need to be here for a 5000 word screed, after all. I'll just get in, get out, and see what I can make of whatever the hell I experienced. I suppose beginning at the beginning works well enough. Any doubts I had about slotting Species right here faded once I saw the credit "Sil Created By H.R. Giger" at the opening. So, somebody clearly had Alien on mind. Species is a very different take, though. We have horror in sexuality, but... well, our slasher from beyond the stars is a lady this time. Part of what's kept Species in my mind for over 20 years has been that lady. Not so much in her performance as I hadn't seen the movie until now, but in her name. Natasha Hendstridge, making her film debut. A local girl from my island of Newfoundland! THE SEX ALIEN IS A NEWFIE GIRL, EVERYBODY RUN. Hell, she's not even in the opening. The alien/human hybrid Sil is a little girl at first, a little girl who escapes gassing and rushes to freedom. It's hard not to root for her, even as we learn what her objective is through the rest of the movie... but then the horror begins. Tentacles burst forth from this ordinary girl in a bad situation, and she cocoons. Bursting forth some time later, naked and covered in space ichor, is Natasha Hendstridge. Hell, the first we see of her are her boobs. Get used to that. She's topless quite a bit. Something awakens within her once she reaches Los Angeles and gets nice clothes and adapts. Sil needs a man, and she'll kill to get one.

Species is this really weird reversal of Alien, wherein the titular alien is explicitly female this time around (no Queens in Alien, remember) and her... I guess instinctive goal is not to impregnate others, like the facehuggers, but to impregnate herself. This is stated as a bad thing because these hybrids lack empathy and have accelerated aging and regeneration and whatnot. Furthermore, the backstory of the movie suggests the DNA sequence used to create the hybrids was beamed from space by... something. We never find out what, and I like that ambiguity. Who can guess as to the motives of the aliens? We know Sil just wants babies, but the creators of the alien DNA, what did they want and why? I'm sure one of the many sequels goes into this and lays it out all explicit like, but the hell with that. We don't know here and I like that. We have a crack team dedicated to hunt down Sil, including... Budd from Kill Bill? That one lady from CSI? DOCTOR FUCKING OCTOPUS? BEN KINGSLEY? The team hunting Sil all work quite well together, but they're far from the most interesting thing in it. Nah, that's all Sil. This is a strange movie because both Sil and the team hunting her can be seen as heroic and villainous at the same time, and you root for each one in different contexts. Sure, Sil's reproducing will lead to the end of humanity or something, but it's real hard not to be invested in her as she evolves and gets craftier. The elaborate plot to fake her own death is fucking masterful and I can only applaud it.


...But then the other shoe has to drop. This movie's just sort of... weird. Its climax is a bit damp in places too. Oh, we get some great stuff with Sil in her alien form hunting down the team in the sewers below their hotel. Much like Alien before it, H.R. Giger's alien design works really well with quick cuts and glimpses. Then we get a final showdown in an oil-filled cavern and they go to full CGI for her. In 1995. You can guess how well this holds up today. Oh, and she's given birth too so that's bad. Oh, and she tries to strangle Budd from Kill Bill with a tentacle that comes out of her nipple. A titty tentacle. Not even kidding. Holy shit. Day is saved, Sil dies, but then... a twist. Here's where I come in again. I remember in 1995, going out with family on a trip to the movies. I, being 10, went nowhere near Species and was instead taken to Free Willy 2. We met up with the older people who DID go see Species afterwards, and I vividly remember them describing a giant rat. Folks, for 20 odd years I have been convinced that the giant rat was fucking kaiju sized or something. It was in the back of my mind as I watched the movie, and then... it's just a slightly bigger rat! What the fuck? That sums up Species pretty well, I think. It's far from the worst movie I've seen and it has a lot of good going for it, but... I'd hesitate to call it a horror classic. Still, I paid about $3 for it in this Species DVD 4-Pack I bought because I knew I'd be doing this. Not a bad price and not really a bad movie. I'm sure there are a lot of themes glistening within and fun readings to be had, but on a first watch I didn't catch much beyond the surface stuff so... It's okay.


Now how about we talk about something a little more... gothic?