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A SKIN-depth Look at the Sex and Nudity of the Species Franchise

Welcome back to A SKIN-depth Look, and as you can see, we're now alternating ourlonger, more in-depth directors series with slightly less comprehensive topics. This week, we're looking at a quartet of films from the same franchise, tied together by more or less all having the exact same plot. You guessed it, it's Species!

Species (1995)

In the summer of '95, my mom and I decided to go see Species, for no discernible reason, just seemed like it might be a decent sci-fi flick. And it was. My memories of Species were mostly fond, it's only in retrospect that I realizewhat a strange movie it was to see with my mom. Canadian beauty Natasha Henstridge made a film and nude debut for the ages as Sil, an alien invader tasked with getting impregnated by a human. Along the way she seduces a number of goofy dudes, including a poor ponytailed sap that falls for her seduction routine...

Later in the film, when the team thinks they have succeeded in killing Sil—spoiler alert, she faked her death—a major league sexfest breaks out among the heroes with CSI's Marg Helgenberger hooking up with Michael Madsen, briefly flashing her left breast as she gets up off the floor to blow him...

The more improbable hookup occurs when nebbishy scientist Alfred Molina is approached by Sil—having changed her hair, thus making her unrecognizable apparently—and shocks the poor dude with news he's gonna be a father immediately after he apparently blows his load inside some random woman he just met...

It's not a good science fiction movie or anything, but for a mid-90s proto-feminist horror revenge sex thriller, it's fairly above average. Director Roger Donaldson never returned to the genre either, returning to the softcore thriller world that made him famous.

One of my favorite things about this series is the IMDb keyword section, so I'll put a screen shot of each film's main page for you to enjoy...

A SKIN-depth Look at the Sex and Nudity of the Species Franchise

"sexual attraction" cracks me up. How is that an IMDb keyword?

Species II (1998)

Three years later, Natasha Henstridge was back, this time as Eve, a clone of Sil whose alien DNA is suppressed in an attempt totame her. The film's other plot involves a mission to Mars where a team of astronauts unwittinglycontracts an alien virus. Unphased by this development, the lead astronaut gets home, skips decontamination, and has tag team sex with on-screen sisters Raquel Gardner and Nancy La Scala...

The dude sports some tentacles during sex with the second sister, and both ladies become pregnant with his half-alien children who violently explode out of their mothers' wombs. Later he hooks up with his fiancée Sarah Wynter, who reveals her rack before meeting a similar fate as the other women...

This, of course, puts him on a collision course with the one woman who could successfully brings his child to term, Eve. The two finally meet up—with Helgenberger and Madsen, reprising their roles, in hot pursuit—and at the hour and nineteen minute mark, we finally get Henstridge's first nude scene of the flick—and last nude scene of the series for her...

The franchise switched directors as well, which it would throughout its life, this time bringing in Peter Medak, the man behind the classic horror flick The Changeling, and one of my personal favorite movies of all time, Zorro The Gay Blade. There's some relatively tame keywords for this sequel despite it featuring more "sex with an alien woman" and less "impregnation" than the first flick...

A SKIN-depth Look at the Sex and Nudity of the Species Franchise

Species III (2004)

The series languished for six years before getting a direct to video revival in the mid-aughts starting with this flick. Henstridge returns for a cameo in the opening scene, passing the torch to Sunny Mabreywho plays Eve's daughter Sara, hidden from the world by a scientist who knows she would be destroyed were she discovered. Of course, this is a Species movie, so she's gonna eventually become irrepressibly DTF.

35 minutes in, the scientist's superior discovers a nude Sara in the house...

Like every other crusty old white dude in this franchise, he soon ends up toast when he falls for her seduction, though to be honest, who wouldn't fall for Sunny Mabrey nude offering herself to you?

The film also introduces another half-alien in the form of Amelia Cooke, who dispatches a hillbilly gas station attendant at the 81 minute mark by seducing and destroying him...

Several minutes later we get another look at Amelia nude, this time as she exits the bathroom...

Species III has the tamest of all the IMDb keyword sections. Seriously, this is almost a movie you could watch with your mom when you're 16 in a movie theater...

A SKIN-depth Look at the Sex and Nudity of the Species Franchise

Oddly enough, another leg up Species III has on 1990's Pretty Woman is that it apparently prominently features "kissing while having sex."

Species: The Awakening (2007)

And our franchise is officially out of money and ideas. Debuting on home video and the then grammatically correct Sci-Fi Channel in 2007, Species: The Awakeningwas the final nail in the coffin for the franchise. The filmmakers cut corners in almost every area andthe film is honestly onlymemorable for introducing us to Swedish siren Helena Mattsson! As Miranda, another young woman rescued from a car crash by a doctor who keeps her true identity safe, the blonde beauty became an instant sex symbol thanks to her incredible nude body...

She also does the famous emerging nude from a cocoon shot that all the other franchise stars did, only hers manages to be the best as she appears to be covered in lube rather than bloody, bigger budget effects...

Like Species III, this one introduces a second female alien in the form of Marlene Favela's Azura. She is introduced banging a dude and showing off her amazing nude body...

As you might have noticed, another marginally famous Ben, this time Ben Cross, also gets to sully his reputation by appearing here. I suppose the one thing Kingsley's got over on him is that his Species movie played theatrically. He is also, quite literally, the only name in the cast, provided you don't count reliable character actor and noted "that guy" Roger Cudney, which I don't.

If you're a completist, I guess you have to see this one, but honestly you're better sticking to Mr. Skin for this one. We close out our look the IMDb keyword section with the absolute most bananas of the bunch...

A SKIN-depth Look at the Sex and Nudity of the Species Franchise

I'm sorry, but a film cannot feature both "partial nudity" and "female frontal nudity," the two are not compatible.

Check Out the Other Franchises in Our SKIN-depth Look Series

A SKIN-depth Look at the Sex and Nudity of the Death Wish Franchise

A SKIN-depth Look at the Sex and Nudity of the National Lampoon's Theatrical Features

A SKIN-depth Look at the Sex and Nudity of the Porky's Trilogy

A SKIN-depth Look at the Sex and Nudity of the Terminator Franchise

A SKIN-depth Look at the Sex and Nudity of the James Bond Franchise

A SKIN-depth Look at 25 Years of the NC-17 Rating

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Species non-nude image via IMDb

Species II non-nude image via IMDb

Species III non-nude image via IMDb

Species: The Awakening non-nude image via IMDb