Matthew Turner | On 14, Aug 2023

Director: Brad Turner
Cast: Robin Dunne, Robert Knepper, Amelia Cooke, J.P. Pitoc, Michael Warren, Christopher Neame, Natasha Henstridge, Sunny Mabrey
Certificate: 15

In the mood for a creature feature? Amazon Prime has a veritable menagerie of monster movies, so we’re working our way through them, one killer beastie at a time. Welcome to Monster Movie Mondays.

Directed by Brad Turner, the third film in the Species series never received a theatrical release, premiering on the SyFy channel in 2004, before going straight to DVD. A direct continuation of the alien species story, following the events of Species (1995) and Species II (1998), it suffers from an obviously low budget and a miscast female lead, but is otherwise passably entertaining, in a low-budget trash kind of way.

The plot picks up moments after the climax of Species II, with Dr Bruce Abbot (a pre-Prison Break Robert Knepper) abducting the still-alive body of Eve (a brief appearance from Natasha Henstridge, contracted to a third film), who gives birth to an alien creature and is then immediately killed by a half-breed alien. Returning to his university campus day-job, Abbot raises the rapidly growing alien child, naming her Sara (Sunny Mabrey) when she quickly reaches maturity, and secretly harvesting her eggs, intending to create the perfect version of her species.

However, they soon realise that Sara has become a target for the remaining sick and dying half-breeds, putting both their lives in danger. With the help of genius student Dean (top-billed Robin Dunne), Abbot attempts to help Sara and ensure the survival of her species. Meanwhile, a new threat emerges in the shape of yet another female half-breed (Amelia Cooke as Amelia), who poses as a biochemistry student and tracks them down via Dean’s horny roommate, Hastings (Jean Paul Pitoc).

The budgetary restrictions are immediately apparent in the third film, which had the previous HR Giger version of the creature redesigned by Rob Hinterstien, in order to cater for a less complicated and therefore less expensive actor-in-rubber-suit version. Consequently, the creatures are seen much less frequently than in the previous movies, although the gore effects in key sequences (notably a particularly gruesome halfbreed death) are still impressive.

The Species series is essentially predicated on gratuitous nudity and memorable gore moments. The third movie delivers comfortably on the former, with both Sunny Mabrey and Amelia Cooke spending several minutes walking around naked (in a two-for-the-price-of-one kind of way), although the gore moments lack invention compared to the previous movies, and the only notable new addition is a bit where one of the creatures effectively whips a security guard in half.

Unfortunately, the script has multiple problems and frequently seems confused – for example, Abbot announces at one point that Sara is already the perfect version of her species (which is why she is no longer searching for a human mate), but then the rest of the plot still has him trying to make the species… even more perfect? Similarly, there are a couple of bonkers plot moments (Sara almost shape-shifting into a bird, and Sara somehow learning chess just by picking up a book) that seem promising, but are immediately dropped and never mentioned again.

Turner manages some decent special effect sequences and fight scenes, but the script lets him down where the sexy stuff is concerned, because Sara keeps rejecting her potential partners halfway through (or vice versa, when it comes to Dean). In addition, the film’s climax is disappointing and the film misses some obvious opportunities, particularly when it comes to the relationship between Sara and Amelia – it certainly seems like scenes were cut in that regard.

Perhaps the film’s biggest problem is the performance of Sunny Mabrey as Sara, who seems entirely cold and emotionless throughout, lacking chemistry with any of her co-stars and failing to create sympathy for the character, the way Henstridge did before her. By contrast, Cooke gives Amelia a degree of personality and energy and you end up wondering if the film might have been better if they had swapped roles.

Ultimately, Species III conforms to the law of diminishing returns when it comes to sequels (and threequels), but it’s just about worth seeing if you’re a Species completist. On that note, it’s a shame that the next film in the series is a standalone story, because there was potential in the ending here for an interesting continuation.

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