This is the Sci Fi network’s take on Species.
As with any big generalization, that statement isn’t entirely true.
But it works as a quick summary.
And yes, it did come out not too long after the second Species film.
Luke and Roger are students at a small college in Canada who are both hard at work at the most important part of any modern college education:
Trying to get laid.
Unfortunately, what Luke and his friends don’t realize is that the new girls on campus came from somewhere a lot farther away than any of them would ever have guessed.
You see, they aren’t actually sexy young blondes as they appear, but hideous creatures from a very, very cold planet who are desperately in need of…
You almost hate to say it. It’s such a cliche.
“Fertile males.”
Although this wouldn’t be so bad if the guys they mated with didn’t freeze from the inside out.
Decoys starts out as a fairly standard sort of guys-in-college sex comedy — until, that is, Luke sees that one of the new girls has a set of weird tentacles which pop out of her chest.
You don’t normally find that in beautiful young blondes.
Not even if they’re sorority girls.
Meanwhile, Luke is getting more and more paranoid as he tried to convince Roger of the threat. However, the Police have decided that Luke is responsible for all the murders even though there’s no proof.
In a rather sudden swerve later on in the story, we get a surprisingly sympathetic look at the aliens even if it doesn’t work out all that well in the end.
And then the film changes without the slightest warning, and explodes into a startling burst of violent action.
Along the way, Decoys manages to explore a lot of classic Sci Fi and horror tropes, although there’s a lot of sex and nudity as well (mostly shot from the rear as this was made for the Sci Fi Network and you can only get away with so much on TV. Which means they shot a bit of naughtier stuff for the DVD version, but made sure they could edit out any of the big, bare boobs ).
Mind you, there’s a lot more violence and gore than you’d have got in anything made in the Fifties — not to mention those weird visions or daydreams Luke keeps having.
We do need to note that any alien species which enjoys an occasional spritz of liquid nitrogen is not going to be comfortable in a Canadian Winter no matter how cold it gets. Heck, they wouldn’t even be happy in Antarctica, where the difference in temperature would still be roughly the same as sticking your head in an oven.
You do really have to give them credit, though, for finding a way to work a flamethrower into a college campus setting. Yeah, you know the minute you see it that it will get used somehow or other.
But with a film like this, that is just part of the fun.
Decoys works best in little spurts. There are a few clever or well-written bits along the way, but the whole is not as impressive. To be fair, however, it is never dull — and there are even a few pretty good bits along the way.
You never really forget that this is a Sci Fi network original (except, perhaps, in that moment when we get that flash of bare boobies for the home edition). Although Decoys is, at least, one of the better originals Sci Fi churned out, and it has a certain amount of charm to it.
Whether it is a copy of Species or not.
But I will give you one big warning:
Decoys was popular enough to spawn a sequel.
So beware. We all know what that means on Sci Fi (or SyFy, if you insist):
You never know when it will be back again…
rivets on the poster 