MY CALL: This is basically Species (1995) on cocaine and steroids—which is the movie’s greatest strength as long as you’re in the mood for something senselessly wild. It’s another super entertaining, high-budget Sci-Horror done right! Just don’t come into this expecting much in the way of plot. MORE MOVIES LIKE Species II: Other than the first Species (1995), I might consider Decoys (2004) a good double feature. Splice (2009) also follows a similar vein.
The 90s enjoyed a wave of movies (e.g., Arrival, Sphere, Contact) producing some ideas of what would happen if aliens were to respond to our messages sent out into deep space from the project SETI: Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. This trend included Species (1995). Then the late 90s and 2000s began to focus of Mission to Mars movies (e.g., Mission to Mars, Red Planet, The Last Days on Mars)… and what would go wrong. Species II capitalizes on this trend in fine form, while preserving everything Species fans loved about the first movie.
Like the original, some of the then-ambitious CGI doesn’t look quite so stellar today as we open with a visuals-rich Mars mission landing. The first man to set foot on Mars, Patrick (Justin Lazard) takes core soil samples of red silt that entomb an oozy, alien, slime-mold-like lifeform which escapes its containment unit and infects the entire crew.
Upon returning to Earth, our Mars astronauts are on sexual quarantine for 10 days. If only they followed this rule… smh. Director Peter Medak’s (The Changeling) sequel is more sultry and sexualized than its predecessor. The sex scenes are more frequent, with more people, and more nudity. But there’s also more effects and gore earlier in the film. Within the first 30 minutes a threesome results in a grotesque emergence of slimy tentacles and a very graphic, horrifyingly painful birth scene as a monstrous infant head erupts from a woman’s distended abdomen only minutes post-coitus. With the crime scene splattered with some all-too familiar alien DNA, the authorities knew exactly whom to call.
Overseeing a genetic clone of Sil, Dr. Baker (Marg Helgenberger; After Midnight, Species) has genetically engineered Eve (Natasha Henstridge; Species I-III, Maximum Risk, Ghosts of Mars) in order to study the alien threat introduced in part 1—should that threat ever return. Well, as luck would have it… that day has come. The Pentagon assigns Preston (Michael Madsen; House) and Dr. Baker to hunt down this new threat, since they’ve hunted one down before.
As Baker, Preston and uninfected astronaut Gamble (Mykelti Williamson; The Final Destination) try to hunt down Patrick, he leaves hollowed out human mothers in his wake as he mows through strip clubs and prostitutes, amassing a farmhouse of his alien offspring. But he wasn’t the only one infected.
Additional gore and effects scenes do not disappoint. Immediately after conception, an astronaut’s (Myriam Cyr; Gothic) stomach expands and ruptures a chaotic bloom of tentacles. As she shrieks in pain and terror, a long worm-like monster emerges and harpoons her husband’s face across the room against the wall. The scene is incredibly gross and wildly unnerving. There are also scenes with monstrously gross autopsy, graphic suicide and regeneration, more women with hollowed out bodies from traumatic insta-birth, and Patrick’s kids metamorphosing into slimy gooey pulsating cocoons.
When Patrick and Eve learn of each other, they are powerfully drawn to each other. Their union is a sight that would make H. R. Giger proud. Their mating is like a cyborg-xenomorph hentai tentacle scene that turns into a sexualized monster battle between monsters akin to a hybrid between a gangly predalien and a xenomorph fembot. The finale is insane, a bit perverse, and loaded with cool effects. And thankfully, not so much in the way of CGI nonsense.
The closing scene screams at us to expect another sequel. And with how this one turned out, I’m 1000% on board. Unfortunately, that might be when these movies shift to direct-to-video releases. Oh well.