Semilla Negra

Seedpeople (1992) is a Full Moon Entertainment film that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a small town known for comet activity where a meteorite crashes and a mutation forms in the woods. An alien infestation breaks out and people start dying all over the city. Can the local sheriff stop the aliens and save mankind?

This movie is directed by Peter Manoogian (The Dungeonmaster) and stars Sam Hennings (Four Good Days), Andrea Roth (The Collector), Holly Fields (Spider-man 2) and Anne Betancourt (To Live and Die in LA).

The concept for this picture felt like a cross between Invasion of the Bodysnatchers and Critters, but not executed as well as either of those franchises. The creatures were more fun than good as most of the scenes felt like they were executed by puppets and stuffed animals. The flying sequences by the monster are really bad. It's unfortunate because some of the horror elements and kills are well done and some are atrociously bad. This is a fun watch if you're looking for something lighthearted and campy.

Overall, if you're looking for a bad, campy horror film that doesn't take itself too seriously, this is for you. I would score this a 4/10 and recommend seeing it once.

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.

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.

Full Moon's 'Seedpeople' is a little composed late-night b-grade feature in the blatant frame of 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers', which does a lukewarm job with its by-the-numbers matter. It's beyond silly nonsense, but it has a likable charm and some spirit to it. Its starts off with a well-worn narrative of a survivor, geologist Tom Bains retelling the circumstances that led him to where he is now. In a small town known as Comet Valley, Bains comes in to investigate a possible meteorite from the past which had landed somewhere in the area. As soon as he gets there, people begin to act strangely and the town is soon under threat from outer space plants that arrived in the form of seeds. Their plans to pollinate humans can only be stopped by Bains and the town's crazy doc resident.

Harmless entertainment that doesn't waste much time, despite some stop and go passages involving minor side-dramas and stupid actions. Simple staples make their way into this slight premise (penned by Charles Band and Jackson Barr), as it's going for the light-weight paranoid creature features that filled the 1950s'. Sure the paranoia, suspense and attempts in cementing a gloomy air kind of falls flat with one of those endings, but it milks out a zippy attitude (due to Peter Manoogian's loose direction) and in the scheme of things uses the rural locations rather well. The goofy rubber special effects are a fair achievement, which are thrown around without a care to the world and the performances are nothing more than decent with the likes of Sam Hennnings, Bernard Kates, Andrea Roth and Dane Witherspoon. And hey there's no denying it contains some very convincing seed people acting… gee were they acting?

If you have an interest in Full Moon go ahead and if not, it won't make any difference. Acceptable low-scale fun by Full Moon.

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.