Reviewed by James Whittington
Stars Helena Mattsson, Ben Cross, Marco Bacuzzi, Adam Wylie,
Meagen Fay, Kristian Ferrer, Alizair Gomez, Roger Cudney | Written by Ben Ripley
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £12.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 94 minutes | Directed by Nick Lyon
Well, who would have thought it? After the travesty that was Species III, I for one was quite surprised to learn that a fourth instalment of this alien franchise was due to hit DVD. Will the law of diminishing returns affect this entry?
A beautiful young college professor named Miranda suffers a blackout and wakes in the middle of a mass slaughter. Frightened and confused she turns to her Uncle, Tom Hollander, for answers only to discover that she’s half human, a clone from a hybrid of human and alien DNA. That’s not the end of their problems as Miranda begins to find it difficult to control the killer instinct inside her body.
OK, so this doesn’t sound too exciting but actually it’s far better than I was expecting. With a decent script and some wonderfully gory set pieces the film succeeds where the other sequels failed, and that is because it focuses on the characters and their guilty pasts rather than the next piece of eye-popping, H.R Giger inspired, CGI-heavy piece of gory SFX. By adding a human dimension to an alien story the film really works. Miranda, played by the incredibly beautiful Helena Mattsson, is a lost soul searching for a place in the universe, a purpose to exist. She’s neither human nor alien and just doesn’t “fit”. When she discovers her situation early on in the movie it’s actually very moving, a nice surprise after the other Species movies totally lacked such emotional fare. Ben Cross does a solid job as haunted Uncle Tom, a man whose guilt is internally suffocating him. Looking under the science fiction tone the movie also has something to say about human cloning and the morality of it.
Where Species IV does decline is the introduction of Forbes McGuire, the creator of Miranda, played by Dominic Keating. We’re supposed to loathe this wide-boy who treats his female hybrid creations with contempt. But he’s badly underwritten and just comes across as a total tosser. So a good movie, a refreshing attempt to continue the life of this franchise. Personally though I’d suggest they go out on a high and leave these hybrids alone.
EXTRAS None. The lack of any extras is a bit of a shame as I’d like to know how some of the SFX shots were created.