Species II (1998) – Science Fiction Film Review

“It’s awful; it’s just awful,” gasps Marg Helgenberger in one scene of this absolutely abysmal follow-up to the entertaining 1995 hit, and viewers are likely to find their heads nodding in agreement, because truer words were never spoken. It is as if the filmmakers suddenly realized the quality of their own work. This self-awareness is admirable, but it would have been truly honorable if they had included this line in the trailer, as a warning to audiences.
SPECIES had a certain integrity to its plot: having conceived an alien on the loose, scripter Dennis Feldman treated the scenario like a piece of science-fiction, at least to the extent of maintaining some logic about how Sil behaved and how her human pursuers could capture her. SPECIES II, on the other hand, is an out-and-out dumb gore horror movie, in which the behavior of the alien genetic material varies from scene to scene, depending on what is good for the best shock effect. Filled with repeated scenes of sexual couplings leading to grisly death, the result is about as loathsome as producer Frank Mancuso’s late and unlamented FRIDAY THE 13TH sequels. Continue reading “Species II (1998) – Science Fiction Film Review”