SPECIES THE AWAKENING REVIEW by Arkadiusz Grzegorzak

Found this article on the directors website.

SPECIES IV

Sometimes the task of creating straight to dvd sequel gets into the hands of
people who, against the DTV formula, and the system that rules it, are able
to make a good strong movie; a movie which worth the time of a viewer. This
is a case of SPECIES IV. Wait a second....a fourth? Yes, ladies and gentlemen,
a few years ago Hollywood spit out the third movie, which finished it's
collision course to the hard to find shelves of our videostores. Take my
word for it: it's a worse nightmare than the one from Elm Street!
Despite that, the producers decided to make another movie.

The realization of the project went to a young director Nick Lyon,
previously connected with independent movies. The main role was given to a
beautiful Swede, Helena Matsson. It's her first main role in the USA. That
pair - a clever director and an actress who wants to make a career on the
other side of the Ocean, brought us a cool, nice to watch movie, which,
although not aimed at some Awards, is really worth being seen.

Here's a little miracle for you: SPECIES IV is not any worse than the original movie!
The film is a sort of restart to the series, which tells the story of a young genius
girl Miranda, who finds out that she is the product of experimental human and
alien DNA blending. Great performances, energetic narration and fascinating
alien designs are the ingredients of an interesting low budget film.

This pearl in the poisoned ocean of dvd sequels, was so fascinating to me,
that I've contacted the director and the actress. Interviews with them put a
light on the anatomy of DTV movie and also gave the answer how, in the case
of SPECIES IV, they did manage to create something valuable. Here's the
basic statistics: budget - 4 million dollars, preproduction time - 1 month,
shooting time - 26 days, location - Mexico City. Nick Lyon commented
"You just have to be passionate and make the right decisions, and anything is possible.
If you want to do something that's too big for the budget, then you find a way to do it differently,
and that often turns into something better than if you did the more expensive route".

The key thing was to find the right passionate people for the job. Lyon says "In
selecting the cast, makeup effects and visual effects crew, and sound crew
we went for younger and more ambitious people to head the departments. By
doing this, we had a crew that really cared about the project and wanted to
try to do impossible things and get as much bang for the buck as possible.".

This kind of approach to the technical side of the movie created an
attractive package and look on screen. But as always, the most important part
is a screenplay. The creators decided not to repeat the cliché of previous
entrances in the series. Lyon goes on; "The story is completely different than any
of the other three Species. It's much more character driven and we really
get to know the main protagonist: Miranda is different from any of
the other Species. She is really who we are rooting for in this film, and
instead of being the hunted, she is the main sympathy bearer".

SPECIES IV is the first movie of the series which has interesting dramatic
scenes; actor's scenes. It refers especially to the main heroine. The search
for her identity, her concerns about who she really is are notably portrayed
by Helena Mattsson. With all due respect to her predecessors in the
franchise, in SPECIES I-III we had an alien in a form of often nude babe
acting like a mannequin in the move. Only in the first film, when Sil is
still a child (and played by Michelle Williams), we can see a piece of a
good acting craft - you can believe in her fascination with the world, its
mechanisms, the scheme of things outside the prison laboratory.
Unfortunately when the adult form of Sil (Natasha Henstridge) appears, she
isnt't being astonished with a world anymore, just staring with the blank
face and waiting to take her bra off. Luckily it's a whole different cup of
tea with the new movie! In the fourth SPECIES we've got beautiful nomen omen
Helena [translation side note: an untranslatable play word; In Poland the
mythological Helen of Troi is called "Piękna Helana"= "Beutiful Helena"],
who in tradition of the series shows off her beautiful body, but MORE
THAN ANYTHING ELSE, she acts extremely well. Mattsson's performance is simply
brilliant. Her character is split with opposite emotions, conflicted,
frightened and fascinated. You can feel her
growing emotions. I've asked Helena how she sees the character. Her answer:
"It is a complex character. Miranda has two faces - the human one and the
alien one. It's like the two opposite souls inside one body. Almost like dr
Jeckyll and Mr Hyde".

One of the most cool new concepts in SPECIES IV is so-called
"half-transformation". "This is a state where they are aliens, but
half transformed. We could use this phase to actually have them talk, but
still be creatures. Then when they go for the kill, they transform fully
into an alien. It's a completely new element in the franchise and took a
long time to apply", says Lyon. In 99 per cent of cases such heavy prosthetics would
be a reason for complaints by the main actress (let me remind you about Jeri
Ryan's grumbles about her make-up for "Star Trek: Voyager"). Helena Mattsson
sees it differently: "Special effects makeup took 4 to 5 hours. For me it
was very interesting to see how they build it up. Being a witness of this
methamopsis was fascinating".

Another dangerous issue for the production are the issues with nudity,
especially in cases when the actress is required to go nude, but has never done
such scenes before. This time it was different. The director recalls: "The
hardest part about shooting nude scenes with Helena was the usual lawyer
and agent hysteria that comes in the pre-production and when signing a deal
with the lead actress. I promised her that she could trust me. She wasn't
worried." Helena adds: "As long as nudity serves the character and the plot it's ok.
with me. The way I see it, it is Miranda that is naked. I'm just telling her
story. Nudity is one of her outfits".

The lack of conflicts on the set, eagerness, and devotion despite 13 hours
workdays took a positive impact on overall movie quality. Nick Lyon sums it: "The
directing on a lower budget is like driving down a freeway at 200km with no
brakes and wearing a blindfold at times. You just have to follow your
instincts and memorize the roadmap before hand. " It seems the director is a
splendid stunt driver. Helena Mattsson adds: "I wasn't a science fiction
fan before, but now I am. And I would love to play in more movies like this.
Yeah I would agree to do another Species sequel"

The artistic success of SPECIES IV came thanks to a truely paradoxical situation
especially in a pit of dvd sequels. The project gathered people who REALLY
did care about their movie and were ready to sacrifice a lot for the final
effect. It is significant that after screen tests SPECIES IV was renamed from
generic SPECIES: QUATTRO to more promising & prestigious SPECIES: THE
AWAKENING.

Arkadiusz Grzegorzak