Seedpeople - SeedPeople(Blu Ray) [Full Moon Features - 2023]Seedpeople is a 90’s take on when aliens invade small-town America. The film mixes sci-fi & horror tropes- with some neat enough creature effects, a little bit of bloody/ spurting gore, and a fairly bland/ bad soap-like cast. Here from Full Moon Features, we have a recent Blu-Ray release of the film. Seedpeople (aka Dark Forest, Devil Seed, Sway) is from 1992 and is helmed by English director Peter Manoogian. He has a total of ten features to his name with a few Empire and Full Moon Films under his belt like The Dungeonmaster (1984), Arena (1989), Demonic Toys (1992), and comedy fantasy The Midas Touch (1997).
Seedpeople opens with the film's lead man/ hero Tom (Sam Hennings) bandaged up & in a hospital bed- he tells the film's story in flashback. Basically, he goes back to the rural woodland set town of his childhood Comet Valley- to do a talk about meteorites. He goes and stays in the B&B of his blonde childhood sweetheart Heidi (Andrea Roth)- who is more than over him- she lives with her pre-teen daughter Kim (Holly Fields)- and fairly early on she points out how to strangle their housekeeper Mrs Santiago (Ann Betancourt) is acting.
As things unfold, we see characters coming across large growths on trees at night- said characters poke them with sticks, to get soaked with either gallons of white stuff or yellow eggs. We meet the ‘aliens’ who are either two-legged & short with red gapping/ snapping mouths, flying teeth lizards, or with ragged back-haired things that roll around looking like larger critters- though they often fully shift into humans. These were done by the respected John Carl Buechler (Troll, From Beyond, Friday the 13th- New Blood). We get a fair few rather 90’s soap interactions, we have a town old crazy guy who figures out the aliens hate neon, and a trying been tough town sheriff who has a thing for Heidi. There are a few moments of bloody gore/ attacks, and the mentioned spurting growth moments- which to me had very sexual undertones.
The film takes in one hour and twenty-one minutes, and I guess it’s just ok for what it is. The acting throughout is pretty low grade, and really when the town folks do get copied/ taken over it is so obvious- as their acting suddenly gets even more wooden. We get a few moments of tension & action, though there really is no suspense on whether they are human or not. And the resolve I saw coming a mile away. As I say Seedpeople is passable for 90’s sci-fi/Horror
Moving onto this recently released region-free Blu Ray. We get an HD scan of the film- which is fine, with a good balanced/ even picture throughout. The only extra we get, aside from a trailer reel, is an old edition of Full Moon Video Zone (9.54) which is a behind-the-scenes/ making of- this takes in how the creature effects were done, and a few short onset interviews.
Seedpeople is an acceptable example of when aliens invade a small town sci-fi/ horror. It's nothing really to write home about, but if you're in the mood for some schlocky creature feature meets could they alien action this will do. Roger Batty
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