Miranda is a young, beautiful and intelligent woman. Since the death of her parents she has been raised and mentored by her uncle and has become a very successful young lady. But, after a night on the town, Miranda wakes up not knowing where she is or what has happened, the only thing she is sure of is that something bad has happened and she may have been the cause of it. Deep inside of her something else is trying to get free, something that she cannot control, something that she didn’t know about and something that is awakening.

Species IV: The Awakening is the newest chapter in the Species series that began way back in 1995 and it’s the second of the series to be released directly to video, so what does all that mean? Well, quite simply, it means more hot ass naked chicks and alien blood shed to be had. Only this time the series heads across the border and down to old Mexico for a round of trouble.

Aside from a few new abilities for the aliens, Species IV: The Awakening follows the same standard story line the others in the series have. Really hot chick somehow finds out she is an alien hybrid of some kind, tries to fight it, gets really horny, gets really naked a lot and has to be hunted down by people that like her in the end before she can breed a new race of her species to take over the earth. Sound familiar?

Instead of the sleek Natasha Henstridge or the curvy Sunny Mabrey, this time our alien hottie is played by a young Heather Graham-ish Helena Mattsson. Mattsson does a decent job as the hybrid Miranda and she also isn’t afraid to show a lot of flesh during the film, even though at times you can blatantly see those thin little panties female stars wear when they don’t want to show the whole hole so to say. There is also a little more alien T&A to be had in the form of Marlene Favela who plays a rival to Mattsson’s Miranda known as Azura, and together these two can really steam up the screen.

Now aside from the T&A this chapter also has the best gore. There are a lot of kills, mostly through the use of very nasty tongues, and the blood seems to spurt pretty freely, but none of the kills are really jaw dropping. There is just enough mix of blood and ass to keep you watching this one until the end, not that it’s a horrible movie, but maybe the weakest of the series, maybe.

I liked the way this one showed more of the alien’s life and abilities, but I didn’t like the way it kind of disregards the other films in the series. I’m not saying it needed to have flash backs or anything and I know you can’t always live in the past, but just a line or something dealing with the other films would have been nice.

In the end, if you liked the other Species films, you’re going to like this one as well. It has decent effects, a decent cast and a decent end showdown/climax that comes off pretty well and it’s a lot better than it could have been. Awakening isn’t the best or freshest in the series, but it’s a nice fit and it’s pros easily out weigh it’s cons, I say give it a look if you liked the others, and if you don’t, you’re not missing much.

5.5 of 10.