New Fangoria Feature Article
It's a nice read.
SPECIES’ Hybrid: This Year’s Model
By KIRAN ADITHAM
It has been over a decade since the original SPECIES invaded theaters and tweaked the sci-fi/horror blueprint a bit with its femme fatale-oriented plot, tantalizing audiences (especially male) and subsequently making a name for actress Natasha Henstridge. Employing a storyline that melded DNA experimentation with sexual connotations, the saga of deadly extraterrestrial half-breeds seeking to fertilize has continued to thrive beyond its A-list, big-screen beginnings, spawning enough success to merit another theatrical and two DVD and cable installments—the latest of which is SPECIES—THE AWAKENING, debuting this Saturday, September 29 on the Sci Fi Channel before hitting DVD from MGM Home Entertainment and Fox Home Entertainment October 2.
Perhaps seeking a fresh start for its franchise, this fourth entry features a slightly altered plot from its predecessors, offering a somewhat more humanistic touch. Scripted by SPECIES III writer Ben Ripley, the Nick (GRENDEL) Lyon-directed film essentially focuses on the bond between brainy college professor Miranda Hollander (Helena Mattsson) and her doting scientist uncle Ted, played by veteran actor Ben (DARK SHADOWS) Cross. After she leaves one evening for a date, the scene quickly fades out and then back in to find Miranda mysteriously naked, unconscious and splayed in a park the next morning. Now pale and scarred with blue veins showing, Miranda soon wakes up and, once in the hospital mutates into an extraterrestrial form, leaving bloodsoaked, eye-gouging carnage in her wake. When Uncle Ted finds out, he quickly rushes to her aid, injects her with an antidote and whisks her off to Mexico, revealing to her en route that she’s actually a hybrid clone bred in a lab. This revelation soon leads the pair on a south-of-the-border odyssey that includes a search for Ted’s old accomplice, a cure for Miranda’s illness and, of course, a few spear-tongued, insatiable half-breeds that stand in their way.
While SPECIES—THE AWAKENING steers in a dramatic direction focused on Ben’s desperate quest to cure Miranda, a number of familiar franchise elements remain in this latest entry—particularly the stunning, cunning (and often nude) blonde protagonist, played with surprising gravitas this time around by the 22-year-old Mattsson. For the Stockholm native/Hollywood transplant, it was something of a stretch to take on the role of Miranda. “I read the script in December of last year, and I thought it was interesting,” Mattsson says. ”I like the character of Miranda. It’s always interesting to play a role that’s very far from yourself and, in this case, very surreal. So I felt it was an interesting and challenging part.”
Having made her way to Hollywood at 19, the Swedish-born, London-trained actress was initially cast in the defunct Fox show KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, and later appeared in shows like CSI: NY and COLD CASE before becoming Miranda. It was arguably her most physically demanding assignment to date, and the actress recalls that THE AWAKENING’s six-week Mexico City shoot wasn’t a cakewalk. “It was very intense,” she says. “I was filming almost every day, and it was mostly night shoots. I’d get up in the afternoon, work all night and go back to the hotel in the morning. So it was a tough one.”
Schedule issues aside, it was the hours of prosthetic work supervised by David Monzingo for Miranda and the other aliens—now sporting more of a PAN’S LABYRINTH-style fantastical look, as opposed to the previous H.R. Giger-inspired visages—that undoubtedly took up a sizeable portion of Mattsson’s time on the production. Still, she seems to have taken it all in stride and shares general enthusiasm about the experience. “It was very interesting to see the transformation with all the special effects makeup,” she says. “That was something totally new, too. I sat for hours and just watched the whole process of the appliances they put on. It was amazing what they could do, transforming me into this half-alien. It was fascinating. It was a pain to get the prosthetics [done], but I was fascinated to see it all build up.”
The plot of this new SPECIES installment develops its own complexity once Ted and Miranda make their way down to Mexico. After checking into a hotel and being led on a wild goose chase trying to find Ted’s old scientific partner Forbes Maguire (Nicholas Keating)—which includes near-fatal encounters with those menacing half-breeds—Ted and Miranda eventually find Forbes, who must use his lab, know-how and technologies to save the sick Miranda from imminent death. Along the way, Maguire’s lover/creation Azura (Marlene Favela) interferes in the process, the experiment backfires and things go terribly wrong, turning Miranda into a lascivious hellion bent on spawning, and leaving Uncle Ted to save her from herself.
With such an intense, action-packed scenario, not to mention an unfamiliar shooting location, it seems only natural that Mattsson formed a closeness with her director and co-star Cross, with whom she shares plenty of screen time. “The nice thing about shooting at a faraway location like that,” she notes, “is you really become like family with the other cast and crew, because you spend so much time together. That’s a very positive thing going on location. Ben Cross is definitely a genius when it comes to acting. He’s been in the business for so long. Nick, the director, is amazing and full of ideas, very creative and just fun to be around.”
While the loud, explosive and messy ending of SPECIES—THE AWAKENING doesn’t exactly leave things wide open for a fifth foray, Mattsson—who had never seen a single installment of this series until just prior to filming—says she’d be up for another. “Absolutely. This was the first sci-fi thing I did, but I liked it a lot. I was excited about it. Lately, I’ve been doing more drama. I just got back from Russia shooting FINDING T.A.T.U. with Roland Joffé. [SPECIES] has been my only sci-fi work so far, but I’d love to be in another one.”
http://www.fangoria.com/fearful_feature.php?id=5032