With a seductive alien horror setup that fueled tons of box office buzz at the time of its release, the original Species (playing this month on SYFY — click here to check the schedule!) arrived looking a whole lot like a fresh 1990s heir to the same sci-fi horror themes that already had elevated Alien and its sequels into such a well-established fright franchise.
In a way, that’s hardly an accident. None other than legendary Alien creature artist H.R. Giger was also responsible for designing the alien half of Species’ shapeshifting alien-human hybrid — a coldly calculating killer named Sil, played by Natasha Henstridge in her big-budget movie debut.
With her species’ survival baked into her very DNA, Sil spawned on Earth on a laser-focused mission to propagate. And in R-rated movie terms, that meant tons of on-screen opportunities for Henstridge’s alien interloper to play a black widow’s femme fatale role when it came time to mate with her hapless human victims. But on top of its sexy and mature-themed allure, the original Species also boasted a headlining cast that featured some pretty big celebrity names, leaving audiences eager, at the end of the first film, to see where the franchise might lead.
As things turned out, Species did blossom into a full-fledged sci-fi horror franchise, though its popularity faded with the arrival of each new installment. Fans today have no trouble recognizing the first Species film, but — believe it or not — there are actually four feature-length Species movies in all. From first film to last, let’s take a quick peek at each one!
A deep-dive into all four Species films
Species (1995)
Scientists scanning the skies for alien life take the bait when they get an interstellar signal in the original Species — a signal that seems to frame a newly-discovered extraterrestrial life form as friendly. Acting on the DNA info that their alien pals transmit, they endeavor, perhaps dubiously, to lab-create a young human-alien hybrid named Sil (Henstridge). In no time at all, she’s grown from birth into a full-grown woman (or, at least, a half-woman), and she’s on a mission to reproduce at all costs.
The Earthlings get wise to Sil’s single-minded (and sinister) goal of procreating, but she escapes and begins prowling around Los Angeles to find a mate before her remorseful lab creators can enact a plan to kill her. Leaving a trail of bodies in her wake, she eventually does find a male suitor — who, in a fun and fateful twist, turns out to be Dr. Stephen Arden (Alfred Molina), one of the project’s original science masterminds.
Though Species ends with Sil’s apparent death, the movie leaves juuust enough of a closing breadcrumb to hint that the bigger alien threat hasn’t been completely dealt with. Oddly, Species II doesn’t directly pick up on the first film’s dangling story threads, though it does return three of the original movie’s stars (the late, great Michael Madsen, Marg Helgenberger, and Henstridge herself in a same-but-different alien role as a recreated clone named Eve). Looking back 30 years after its arrival, Species packed a lot of star power for its time: In addition to the above names, it also featured Forest Whitaker, Ben Kingsley, renowned voice actor Frank Welker, and a young Michelle Williams (who portrayed Sil in her still-developing adolescent form).
Species II (1998)
Species II ditched the first film’s ominous ending tease that Sil’s dismembered remnants might still be unleashing alien DNA here on Planet Earth. Instead, it spins an underrated sci-fi horror story that starts far away on Mars, where a team of researchers has recovered some Martian soil that turns out to be laced with — you guessed it — alien genetic material.
In Species II, only two years have passed in the overall timeline since the spicy events of the first film, so it’s probably not the wisest idea for the movie’s humans to try to lab-create yet another spliced alien life form. But after one of the Martian astronauts (Justin Lazard) becomes infected by the recovered soil sample and unleashes havoc back on Earth (by breaking a no-sex quarantine and reproducing, of course!), they’re forced to come clean about “Eve” (played by Henstridge), the secret Sil-cloning project they’ve been working on in stealth mode. As a new-and-improved, less-dangerous version of Sil, Eve helps the team keep track of the chaos as alien-tainted humans begin turning out fresh offspring at an alarming (and extremely deadly) rate.
Species III (2004)
Premiering on the Sci-Fi Channel (precursor to today’s SYFY) as the lead-in to a direct DVD release, Species III skipped theaters altogether and leapt straight into a sequel that sort of, kind of gives the Species franchise its own Jurassic World Dominion moment: Now too numerous to control, Sil’s alien brethren have broken containment and it looks like they’re here on Earth to stay. That means we humans are gonna have to learn to live with them… or else die trying.
Henstridge’s starring role as Sil/Eve recedes early in Species III, making way for a new alien interloper named Sara (Sunny Mabrey), the secret offspring of Eve from Species II. Thanks to an early ambush and some good old-fashioned espionage, the humans come off as the real villains in Species III, as Sara tries to help thwart a power struggle between us petty Earthlings while attempting to blend in as one of the planet’s growing population of alien “half-breeds.” Deftly straddling a fine line between helping the good guys and (mostly) suppressing her species’ most violent instincts, she helps avert a planet-wide disaster at an experimental power plant, while stealing away at the end with a lab-grown mate whom the humans (supposedly) have designed not to reproduce. Hey, haven’t we heard that line in a Jurassic movie before?
Species – The Awakening (2007)
As the fourth and final installment in the Species franchise, Species — The Awakening returns no stars from any of the previous films. Instead, it centers its new standalone story on a human-alien hybrid named Miranda (Helena Mattsson), who despite possessing some pretty extraordinary abilities doesn’t realize — at least at first — that she’s not altogether human.
Miranda “awakens” to the truth about her hidden E.T. traits after a freaky medical emergency on her birthday. Her body transforms and she goes on an alien rampage, prompting Tom (Ben Cross), her lifelong caretaker, to flee with her to Mexico while trying to salvage her human side. There they meet another half-breed named Azura (Marlene Favela), who together with her human partner informs her that the only way to revive her humanity is by killing another human and injecting the unfortunate victim’s “fresh” DNA. It’s a setup that affords both Miranda and Azura different choices and paths as each creature’s instincts threaten to spiral out of control — and it comes with an ending that rates as the series’ most definitive in answering the question of whether there’s room in the Species story-verse for another connected sequel.
Check out the original film that started it all, Species, airing this month on SYFY. Check the schedule here!
