Specimen (film): Difference between revisions

{{Infobox filmtelevision

| name image = SpecimenSpecimenFilm.jpg

| image caption = File:SpecimenFilm.jpgPoster

| starring = [[Mark-Paul Gosselaar|Mark Paul Gosselaar]]

| editingeditor = Paul G. Day

| studio company = Combustion Film Productions

| distributornetwork = CFP Distribution =

| released = {{FilmStart date|df=y|1996}}

'''''Specimen''''' is a 1996 Canadian [[science-fiction film|science -fiction]] [[thriller film|thriller]] [[television film]] directed by John Bradshaw, based on a story by Bradshaw and producer [[Damian Lee]]. It stars [[Mark-Paul Gosselaar]] as a young man with [[superpower (ability)|superpowers]], whose enigmatic past catches up with him just as he begins to investigate it.<ref name="WorldCat" /><ref name="Trimuse" /><ref name="TVG">{{cite web |title=Specimen |url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/specimen/review/132045/ |website=[[TV Guide]] |access-date=6 December 2019}}</ref>

Eight-year-old Mike Hillary ([[Marc Donato]]) dreams of fire and a fire breaks out in his room. His mother (Carmelina Lamanna) perishes trying to save him. At the home of his grandparents (Dennis O'Connor and Jennifer Higgin), when his [[duvet]] begins to smoulder, he gets into a drawn bath to sleep in.

Now 24, unemployed [[minor -league baseball]] player Mike Hillary ([[Mark-Paul Gosselaar]]) still sleeps in a drawn bath. After reading a short note from an old friend of his mother's, which says, "I believe you", he drives to her hometown to meet town sheriff Jimmy Masterson (David Nerman), who suggests considering the [[coach (sport)|athletic counsellor]] job at the community centre. Mike asks why his mother left. Masterson says she was pregnant and unmarried, but says no more. Frustrated and angered, Mike leaves just as a fire starts in Masterson's trash can.

Mike starts working at the community centre. He notices children painting the number 11 surrounded by flames. Some "troubled" children respond to swimming, except James (Jared Durand), who fears the water. Mike seems to give the boy an emotional boost, to the delight of instructor Jessica Randall ([[Ingrid Kavelaars]]). Later, she catches up with him while jogging. They are accosted by her bully of an ex-boyfriend Blaine ([[Mark Lutz (actor)|Mark Lutz]]) and a fight ensues, Mike manifesting [[super strength]] and an unfocussed power of remote or tactile [[spontaneous combustion]]:; objects ignite and Blaine suffers burns to his chest from Mike's [[pyrokinetic]] touch.

Meanwhile, on two successive nights, two powerful-looking men emerge from a lake — [[extraterrestrial being|aliens]] in human camouflage biobiosuits -suits: the [[bounty hunter]] Eleven ({{Interlanguage link multi|Douglas O'Keeffe|de|lt=Doug O'Keeffe}}), and Sixty-Sixsix (Andrew Jackson).

Masterson pays a visit to Mike and reveals what he knows about Mike's mother:; she believed that she had been [[Narrative of the abduction phenomenon#Reproductive, gynecological and urological procedures|impregnated by an alien]] and that she left town before Mike was born. Mike is appalled and angered, a lamp bursts into flames, and he orders Masterson to leave. That night, Blaine sneaks into Mike's vacated motel room and is apprehended by Eleven, who kills him once he learns of Mike's connection to Jessica.

The next day, Eleven goes to interrogate Jessica at the community centre, where James is intoning "Eleven" repeatedly, which Mike hears and then sees through [[extrasensory perception]] and [[precognitive]] visions. Jessica runs from Eleven when his interrogation of her turns aggressive. He corners her with a wall of fire. Mike arrives, calling for her, and sees her helpless in the pool and jumps in, only to be ambushed by Eleven, who tries to drown him. Suddenly, Sixty-Sixsix intervenes to save Mike. He tells Eleven he is in charge and subdues him with a burst of flames.

Mike awakens in a car being driven by Sixty-Sixsix, who explains that experiments on humans and other [[terrestrial life]] have gone on for thousands of years, his mother was one, and that to them Mike is a mere "viable specimen", but he refuses to allow anything to happen to Mike — his son. Mike becomes upset and the car ignites. He runs into the woods. Eleven catches up to Sixty-Sixsix and they fight a fiery [[duel]] to the death. Eleven wins, but Mike returns and challenges him. Holding nothing back, Mike's powers prove greater than Eleven's, destroying him utterly. Sixty-Sixsix, wounded and dying from exposure to Earth's atmosphere, leaves Mike's questions about himself or others like him unanswered. Mike [[ship burial|sets his body adrift]] and ignites it.

*{{Interlanguage link multi|Douglas O'Keeffe|de|lt=Doug O'Keeffe}} • Eleven

John Stoneham, Jr., was also the stunt coordinator on the film, and performed stunts along with Thomas and Racki.

Both a critic at ''[[TV Guide]]'' and reviewer Felix Vasquez Jr. assert that ''Specimen'' borrows heavily from the first two ''[[Terminator franchise|Terminator]]'' films (1984 and 1991),<ref name="TVG" /><ref name="Vasquez">{{cite web |last1=Vasquez |first1=Felix, Jr. |title=Specimen (1996) |url=http://cinema-crazed.com/blog/2011/11/27/specimen-1996/ |website=Cinema Crazed |date= November 27, 2011 |access-date=7 December 2019}}</ref> with Vasquez adding ''[[Firestarter (1984 film)|Firestarter]]'' (1984) and ''[[Fire in the Sky]]'' (1993).<ref name="Vasquez" />

Vasquez characterizes the television moviefilm as a [[science fiction film|science -fiction]] [[melodrama]].<ref name="Vasquez" />

Director John Bradshaw is known for having made a number of [[low-budget]] [[thriller films|thrillers]] [[made for television|for television]], including ''Specimen''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Jerry |title=Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors. Volume 1 |date=2009 |publisher=Scarecrow |location=Lanham, Md. |isbn=9780810861381 |page=58 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kW8j6sHvrewC&q=%22specimen%22+%221996%22+%22bradshaw%22&pg=PA58 |access-date=6 December 2019 |chapter=John Bradshaw}}</ref>

Though the story's action is mostly set in the fictional American town of Eastfield, [[principal photography]] took place in [[Toronto]], 2-232–23 October 1995.<ref name="IMDb">{{cite web |title=Specimen (1996) Filming & Production |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117710/locations?ref_=ttco_sa_4|website=[[IMDb]] |access-date=8 December 2019}}</ref> Shooting locations include Centre 55 (corner of Main and Swanwick), a former [[East Toronto]] police station built in the 1900s, which served as the Eastfield police station.

Besides the [[incidental music]] provided by the Electronic Dream Factory, the song whichthat plays during the [[opening credits|opening]] and [[end credits]] is [[Lawrence Gowan]]'s "Holding This Rage,", the final track on his 1990 studio album ''[[Lost Brotherhood]]''. Other songs from the same album on the film soundtrack include "Lost Brotherhood" and "Love Makes You Believe,", the second song whichthat plays during the end credits.<ref>{{cite web |title=Specimen (1996) Full Cast & Crew |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117710/fullcredits?ref_=ttco_sa_1 |website=IMDb |access-date=8 December 2019}}</ref>

''Specimen'' was released on VHS in 1997 by A-PIX Entertainment,<ref name="WorldCat" /><ref name="TVG" /> and on DVD (Ardustry Home Entertainment) in 1999 by thea newly formed Canadian film production and distribution company, Trimuse Entertainment, and again in 2003.<ref>{{cite web |title=Specimen |url=https://www.amazon.com/Specimen-Mark-Paul-Gosselaar/dp/B00008HCCA |website=[[Amazon.com]] |date=5 August 2003 |access-date=6 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Trimuse Entertainment film library |url=https://www.trimuseentertainment.com/project-v3/ |website=Trimuse Entertainment |access-date=6 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Specimen |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/specimen/oclc/52730680 |websitevia=WorldCat |publisher=OCLC |oclc=52730680 |access-date=9 December 2019}}</ref>

''Specimen'' is available from the Canadian [[Hollywood Suite]] [[video -on -demand]] service<ref>{{cite web |title=Specimen |url=https://hollywoodsuite.ca/movies/specimen/ |website=[[Hollywood Suite]] |access-date=6 December 2019}}</ref> and [[Amazon Prime]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Specimen |url=https://www.amazon.com/Specimen/dp/B000Y1S4C6 |website=[[Amazon Prime]] |access-date=6 December 2019}}</ref>

Felix Vasquez agrees that the film's premise "has potential to be something bigger than its low -budget trappings allowsallow,"<ref name="Vasquez" /><ref name="RT" /> and that the film is "ridiculous and rather goofy." However, he also finds the television movie "charming and entertaining" with "some decent performances,"<ref name="Vasquez" /> adding that in spite of its flaws, ''Specimen'' is a "fine form of guilty pleasure that works around the low budget and hammy acting and taps in to the epic angle that it projects on to the audience."<ref name="Vasquez" />

[[Category:Canadian1996 films]]