Semilla Negra

Full Moon's "Seedpeople" (1992) dates back to the time producer Charles Band still had comfortable little budgets to play with. The largely derivative story takes place in the small town of Comet Valley, where the citizens are being taken over by the seeds of an alien plant-like lifeform. Special effects designer John Carl Buechler and his team amp up the material with enjoyable creature designs and director Peter Manoogian maintains a decent pace to the events. Young Canadian actress Andrea Roth ("The Club", 1994) manages to stand out between the cast. Needles to say things get more than a little silly, but at least this is a Full Moon quickie that remains a fun watch for not too demanding sci-fi/horror lovers.

SEEDPEOPLE concerns the tiny town of Comet Valley, its citizenry, and those who start acting strangely. Tom Baines (Sam Hennings) is in town looking for meteorites, and to possibly rekindle an old flame with local innkeeper, Heidi Tucker (Andrea Roth). Baines has no idea that something is happening in the nearby apple orchard, involving a gigantic, alien plant, its nocturnal secretions, and the bizarre effects thereof. In short order, an invasion is underway!

Sort of a crackpot combination of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and CRITTERS, this Charles Band / FULL MOON production is far better than it should be. Made entirely of cheeeze-corn, it still manages to be watchable, all the way to the "twist" ending...

I'm going to confess, I didn't have much hope for Seedpeople when I stuck it on. It's one of those movies I've been loosely aware of for several years, but never really appealed to me, despite my love of B-Movies. Alien plant people sounded a little too on the nose 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' for me. Sticking this on was the result of a very bored Friday before payday. When the Full Moon logo greeted me, my heart sank.

The film is narrated, from his hospital bed, by Tom Baines (Sam Hennings) a meteorologist who had returned to his home town of Comet Valley to investigate a meteor that has crashed.

Here he has to link up with his former flame Heidi (Andrea Roth) and her teenage niece Kim (Holly Fields) whom she is now guardian of. The town has all of the classic small town tropes here, from Heidi's suspicious new boyfriend, the Sheriff Brad (Dane Witherspoon) and town nutjob Doc (Bernard Kates).

Kim has been raising eyebrows and causing Heidi stress by stating townspeople aren't who they say they are, something that also rings true of Doc. The more Tom investigates the 'meteorite' he realises it, and certain people, are not what it seems. With the town isolated due to bridge repairs, Tom realises the Doc might be right, and the pair might have to join forces to take on this alien threat.

I'm gonna come right out and say it, I was pleasantly surprised by this. It's silly, but in the most wonderful of ways. Despite being made in 1992, this looks, and feels, very much like it was made in 1985, and that's more a compliment than a criticism. It reminds me a bit of Critters, and while nowhere near as good, that's a good thing.

While this doesn't have an original bone in its body, it moves at a brisk pace, offers some fun characters, creative effects and entertaining set pieces. If Charles Band was capable of stuff like this, why did he persist with so many rubbish killer doll films?

The creatures themselves are fun. There are different types, with no real explanation, and while not exactly a masterclass in realism, the practical effects used to bring them to life are fun. The designs remind me of the little sidekick monster characters you'd get with some 80s action figures. The Ghostlings from Supernaturals meet Real Ghostbusters Companion Ghosts.

Acting is, well not great, but better than your average Full Moon feature. I mean all of the principle cast have acted to a decent standard since then.

When all is said and done, you can't honestly call this a good movie, but at the same time...it's largely some good, mostly clean, B-Movie Sci-Fi horror fun. It's not really scary or gruesome, so I can imagine I'd have enjoyed this as a kid.

If you like 80s B-Movies, there's a solid chance you'll get a kick out of this. It's not worth going out of your way to track down, but it'll pass a night in a fairly good fun manner.

Have you ever seen that old black and white 'Invasion of the Bodysnatchers' film? That was a classic. Or did you watch the seventies remake? That was cool, too. Or, perhaps you've seen one of the numerous clones where aliens start replacing humans with identical copies? Well... if you've only seen one of those, I'm going to hazard a guess that any of them was better than 1992's 'Seed People.'

I've kind of already summed up what little plot there is. Aliens, in pod form, come to Earth and start replacing the humans in a small backwater American town with emotionless clones.

The story is kind of told in retrospect as the protagonist is hospitalised right at the beginning and recounting the events of the film to a Government official. Besides kind of giving away much of the ending right at the start, it kind of breaks the tension when it keeps returning to the 'present' at various times during the story.

There's really not much else to say. It has a real 'made for TV' feel - if you like this kind of science fiction then watch either the original 'Bodysnatchers' film or the seventies remake. In fact... even that one with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig is more worth your time than this.

I have to confess in actually quite liking the 'monster design,' but then I grew up with seventies and eighties 'Dr Who' so I have a soft spot for silly rubbery monsters that you can practically see the seams in the costume! Although it's hard to believe that 'special' effects can look this decidedly UNspecial a year after 'Terminator 2' with its genre-changing effects came out.

Have seen the trailer for this low budget horror I thought that it could deliver some goodies but sadly it doesn't. If you want to watch this boring flick just watch the trailer and you will have seen the best.

The people from Comet Valley, what's in a name, are under attack of some seeds growing in the forest. The first attack of the eggs looked promising, it was slimy and looked good. the second attack was also rather good with things flying out of the eggs and were sticking on faces. But from there the story becomes rather cheesy and annoying. There's not that much going on from then except some creatures being shown. They didn't look that good and were a bit laughable when rolling around in the forest but after 50 minutes into Seedpeople there was a bell ringing. This is a pure rip-off of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956).

If you are into science-fictions from the fifties, sixties then this is your thing but people by know knew that that particular era is for me a not done. There's almost no blood to spot, and just have a look at a close-up of some teeth, pure rubber.

And for the geeks John Carl Buechler famous for his special effects did the second unit but under the name Doris Carloff and was also responsible for the creatures.

The further it goes the more it looks like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. And yes, it got an open ending...

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5