Species (1995)

Elevator Pitch: A scientist gets a group of specialists together whose job will be to track down and kill an alien, who has escaped from a special facility and was developed when the scientific community received a message from space containing a DNA sequence which when spliced with a human ovun produced the alien. But out in the world the alien morphs into a well formed young woman who is intent on seducing a suitable male to propagate her species. The trail of dead bodies she leaves in her wake allows the team, led by a black ops man to track her, but will they be in time to save the world?

Content:  The alien’s attempts to seduce a suitable male involve a lot of nudity, and, in the end, coitus. We see the young girl escape from the glass facility, and later the situation is explained by the scientist to the team (quite clever, I thought). Later we see the adult alien appear from a cocoon, very slimy, and then how she progresses in a new environment, alternating with scenes of the team on her trail, always not quite getting to her. There are visits to nightclubs, prowling about in hotels and finally a descent into the sewers.

A View: This film was liked by a few critics, but for some reason got a general  thumbs down. I thought everybody, including Natasha Henstridge, did pretty well, the supermodel doing exactly what the script wanted her to do, which was not always very pleasant.  It is an interesting but unexplored suggestion that since Sil (the alien) has no idea what she is doing, she has been planted to start the elimination of the human race. It is us who are the unwanted inhabitants of the galaxy. Not, apparenty, the first “naked space chick” movie  but those who liked it thought it was “fun”. Worth your time if you like B grade SF.

Additional Info: From this fairly low bar, since it made money, a further three Species films have been made