Seedpeople

I remember when I was a youth, entering a local movie rental(..back in the good old days when my town had four of these and the VHS boom was in full swing)I saw a huge display sign inside for a movie called Seedpeople. That was a memory that returned when I come across it while pursuing the title of another science fiction / horror flick. Like the cover of the poster one often sees circulating the internet for the film, it had the three official monsters you see when watching Seedpeople.

If you are familiar with the little alien monster creature feature series Critters, you might recognize the traveling capability of one of the seed-beasties in Seedpeople for it "tumbles", rolling in a quick speed towards potential victims, before springing open to reveal it's hideous face. One of these creatures actually takes flight while the third crawls across the ground using it's arms(..this was actually protrayed by a performer, in the monster suit, who doesn't have legs). The trio of creatures look like either puppets or heavily designed monster suits, so I'm sure many will giggle when they make their first(..and later)appearances.

The plot uses the oft-filmed Invasion of the Body Snatchers formula. Alien seeds, which look like meteorites, are discovered by an alcoholic botanist, Doc Roller(Bernard Kates)who cultivates them, unknowingly unleashing the creatures on his sleepy town of Comet Valley(..appropriate name, isn't it?). At full growth, the creatures can actually "morph"(..or, maybe transform is a more accurate term)into the human hosts they invade, with the designs of digging up a "cone"..this cone is actually the organism which houses an army of seeds which would mean a devastating take-over of Planet Earth.

Visiting geologist, Tom Baines(Sam Hennings), a former resident, plans to study the uncovered "meteorites", while taking a look at the engravings within a cave actually drawn by a past civilization who perhaps watched the cone land on the earth. Tom re-awakens an old fling with former girlfriend, Heidi(Andrea Roth), who operates a bed-and-breakfast, where he holds a room for a temporary period. Soon Tom is joining forces with "loony" Doc Roller, who is running around with ultra-violent lights as costumes to protect himself along with a loaded gun. Heidi is looking after her niece, Kim(Holly Fields), who claims that her housekeeper, Mrs Santiago(Anne Betancourt)isn't who they think she is. Soon Kim's father, Frank(John Mooney)becomes "infected" with the seed, and eventually the entire town is prey to alien seeds. It'll be up to Tom, Doc, Heidi, and Kim to either escape or attack the evil forces at work to take over the world. Dane Witherspoon is Deputy Brad Yates, who carries a torch for Heidi, providing the plot with a little love triangle.

A major plot development is Doc's discovery that ultra-violet light actually "removes" the mind control power of the seed-creatures, a most important weapon used against the invaders late into the film.

The film is obviously shot mostly on sets and the monsters / effects were designed / created by John Carl Buechler's workshop. The plot affords the filmmakers a chance at a smaller scale story-line within the confines of this California area(..the perfect place to start an invasion) and uses a narrative device(..it's told in flashback by Hennings, who is strapped to a gurney in some operating room as this agent probes his testimony regarding the "seed people")to reflect upon what has caused Tom to be in such a frenetic emotional state, panic-striken and worried for human-kind.

It was also cool that Charles Band is re-viving the Full Moon releases for dvd, and Seedpeople actually featured an old "Video Zone" showing some behind the scenes footage of the film's making. Video Zones were located at the end of Full Moon features so that you get a first hand look at the behind the scenes interworkings of a movie being made..way before this technique was utilized by the dvd market.

It's obvious that the film's reputation will be ultimately judged on the monsters within the film, which are more akin to what you might see in a low budget Roger Corman creature feature..that means, many will laugh their asses off at how unconvincing they seem compared to the Computer Generated Graphics age we are now in.