Two scientists, Holly Capers (Barbara Fierentino) and Max Poindexter (Aaron Jettleson) are at an illegal research facility investigating outer space with high-tech computers. Holly notices an abnormality. A giant spaceship is making its way to Earth. Since the pictures they are seeing are time delayed by four days, it tells the scientists that the ship and anyone aboard is already here. The mother ship parks itself outside of Earth’s orbit and releases dozens of smaller single pilot fighter ships. The combat ships descend on Earth and begin destroying everything they come in contact with.
In the meantime, Sheriff Nate Culver (Charles Napier) sends Deputies Harlan Banks (Kurt Paul) and Ty Larsen (Robert Thompson) on an errand transporting two men, Aaron Doyle (David Homb and Paul Towers (Marc Robinson) to county jail. The prison van comes upon a car that skidded off the road during a rainstorm. In the car are Professor Edgar Chambers (Hoke Howell), his granddaughter, Stacey (Ashley Semrick), and an associate, Carol Nelson (Jodi Seronick). The professor is the only one with any injuries and they are minor.
The deputies call Sheriff Culver for instructions. Culver says he will send a deputy out but at that moment, the town is being attacked by the alien fighter ships. Now that he has his hands full and no deputies to send out to the accident, Culver tells Harlan and Ty to take the civilians to the next town and drop them off before heading out to the jail. Not far down the road the police van is attacked. Everyone in the van manages to get out in time before it is blown up. With the closest town seven miles away, the group decides to find shelter in a local cave and wait until morning.
While exploring the cave they find themselves in the middle of the alien nest. Also in the nest are egg-like sacs containing humans. The group discovers that the aliens are harvesting humans for experiments, labor and food.
“Alien Species” was released in 1998 and was directed by Peter Maris. It is an American low-budget science fiction film. The film was produced by American Interactive Pictures. It was the studio’s only film.
It was released two years after “Independence Day”. Is it a rip-off, perhaps. Still, there are only so many scenarios that you can invent that haven’t already been invented when it comes to alien invasion movies. The 1954 science fiction film “Killers from Space” could also be looked at as being ripped-off since it also has aliens in caves.
The movie starts out at night during a rainstorm. It then moves to an underground cave system. Needless to say, it’s a little dark. It also makes it difficult to see the aliens. This could be a good thing since what you do see is really creepy and therefore it kicks your imagination into high gear trying to figure out what these things actually look like. I do know they have teeth.
The special effects are, considering the low budget, not too bad. It’s obvious that they are not high quality, but they did what they could with what they had. The movie is OK for your basic low budget alien movie. Unfortunately, the ambiguous ending left me a little disappointed.