Forgotten Sequels: Species IV- The Awakening

This one has been a long time coming.  Today's film is Species IV: The Awakening.  Let me get the first thing out of the way- yes, there is a Species IV.  Yes, it is also weird that Species IV shares the same sub-title as The Omen IV (yeah, that piece of shit).  In case you missed the previous films, here's what you need to know.  There are lady aliens that seek one thing: to mate!  After two films, the original alien (and her clone) were dead...for reals yo.  They roped Natasha Henstridge into one more appearance in the intro to bride the series into Part 3.  It's been about 30 months since the last review, so feel free to see that review to know what happened.  Good?  Now forget all of that because it doesn't matter in the least!  Yeah, it's true.  So is this a Reboot or a Sequel?  That's a good question.  The story involves Ben 'I should really be able to do better' Cross as a Scientist harboring some sort of experiment that is going unstable.  They go to Mexico, the land of cheap hookers, cheap abortions and Cast Members from Enterprise.  To find out how this all gets super-silly, read on...

Ben Cross is some sort of Scientist who is the 'Uncle' of this blond genius girl.  What could go wrong?

To be fair, who hasn't woken up naked in a field?  Show of hands.

Oh, just me then.  Moving on...

Now in the Hospital, the girl transforms into the alien monster and kills the Staff.  You'll see more of this in a future Poor Bastards of Cinema update.

On the way to Mexico, Cross stops to explain to the girl that she's not really his Niece.  She's actually a human-alien hybrid that him and a fellow Scientist made.

She takes it about as well as you might think.

In the village (not to be confused with the shitty movie of the same name), he runs across this alien-The Devil Inside hybrid.

In all seriousness, it is never explained why the lady dresses up as a Nun (and why nobody suspects a thing).  It just...happens.

His comrade- Enterprise's Dominic Keating (and villain in Sherlock Holmes)- has been making a whole bunch of alien-human hybrids all 'willy-nilly.'  He's the guy who you can trust.

His idea: kidnap a lady for her stem cells.  Naturally.

The transfusion...or something works and our heroine's DNA is stabilized.  She's also much more alien than she was before, leading to her suddenly acting like, well, a whore.

This is just part of the bi-polar nature of the film.  Scary, sad, scary, weird, super sad, erotic, scary, etc.

The whole film builds up to the one other alien-human lady being all 'evil' and trying to kill Cross.  As weird as this is, Species IV is now the SECOND film I've seen with Ben Cross fighting a monster in a Church!

What are the odds?!?

The climax involves our heroine turning into her alien form and fighting the lady in her alien form.  I love that they used suits and practical effects, but they lighted it for shit!

Ultimately both alien-human hotties die and Cross leaves, seemingly-putting an end to this whole thing.  So much for that Reboot, I guess.  The End.

This was not worth the wait.  The film has some good points, but not that many.  I like that the aliens were still suits and not CG sprites (for the most part).  It's a nice little touch for people like me.  Other than that, the film drags and drags.  They give you the early 'alien attacks the Hospital Staff' bit since that's all you get for a while!  The whole thing feels like a weird, tangential story too.  They aren't the aliens, nor are they the off-spring of the original alien (or her clone).  Instead, this is about alien-human hybrids made by people that have nothing to do with the original three films.  Could you imagine if there was a Howling film about someone making Werewolves in a lab?  It wouldn't be *completely* against the concept, but it wouldn't feel right either.  It would be like setting a Jason Voorhees film in space.  Um...I mean, it would be like setting a Hellraiser film in space.  Hold on...it would be like setting a Leprechaun film in...oh right- I own that movie.  What was I saying?  Oh yeah, Species IV.  It's got cheesy CG effects, a fairly-random plot and it doesn't really 'pop' until the Climax.  It's...what you expect from a DTV Sequel/Reboot.  Take us away, Ben Cross breaking the one rule of explosions...

Next up, I cover my third Project Terrible film.  With Uwe Boll behind it, this Zombie opus has...well, nothing going for it.  Stay tuned...