SEED PEOPLE

(A.k.a. SEEDPEOPLE; DARK FOREST)

"Daddy wants to talk to you ..."

Tom (Sam Hennings) screams as doctors strap him down to a bed and administer a sedative. Once calmed, the medics close in and ask him to elaborate on that wild story of his. He does - and, for the benefit of viewers, his yarn is shown in flashback:

Geologist Tom returns to his old town, the remote Comet Valley, at the request of pal Thurman (Charles Bouvier) to advise on the status of a meteorite that previously landed there. But not everyone is welcoming: orchard owner Ed (David Dunard) is sick of meteor hunters trespassing on his land in search of moon rocks; inn owner Heidi (Andrea Roth) is reticent to give Tom a room, as their relationship clearly ended acrimoniously. Her brother Frank (John Mooney) isn't overjoyed by the arrival of her ex either; nor, for some reason, is her beau and local sheriff Brad (Dane Witherspoon).

Even Tom has reservations as he drives into town and notices workmen erecting a sign informing locals that the bridge which serves as the only entrance/exit to Comet Valley is going to be closed for the next three days.

Tom's qualms are soon heightened when people in the town start acting odd, beginning with irritating teen Kim (Holly Fields). She reckons a couple of locals have been "possessed". No-one takes her claims seriously - but they haven't seen what Kim's seen ... namely, a huge rubber monster!

Before long though, more and more townsfolk (who are absurdly given to deviating into the orchard in the dead of night) are happening upon a cluster of strange plant-like pods hanging from a tree there. The pods spit gunk and seeds at anyone who ventures too close to them, thus mutating them into creatures and pollinating them in a bid to make them serve as a host for further spreading of their alien invasion.

Or something like that.

Can Tom and Brad set aside their differences and work together to halt this bizarre extra-terrestrial invasion? Maybe, just maybe, they can, with the help of kooky old Doc Roller (Bernard Kates) ...

Clearly designed around the paranoid histrionics and small-town alien takeover terror of the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, SEED PEOPLE rips along at a fair old pace and doesn't outstay its 78-minute running time.

The production values are low, the performances range between the serviceable and the insanely bad, and the script is one that the writers of SHARK ATTACK might have thought twice about bringing to the screen.

But, despite some ill-advised meandering over the 'tension' between Tom and Heidi, director Peter Manoogian - who earns extra points just for having a surname that's such fun to say out loud - SEED PEOPLE is generally good fun. It's not art, and it's certainly not clever ... but you get the impression the filmmakers know this and they're playing their game with tongues firmly in cheek.

I mean, we know that John Carl Buechler - who worked on the film's FX team - was capable of greatness prior to 1992, so his rubbery efforts here are an intentional nod to crappy 50s cold war creature features ... I assume!

Another title in 88 Films' nicely priced "Grindhouse" line, SEED PEOPLE comes to UK DVD uncut and presented window-boxed in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

The picture quality is pretty good considering the film's minute budget look. The print is clean aside from minor damage here and there, while colours and blacks are both solid. Images are reasonably sharp and detailed.

English 2.0 mono audio is as good as the lo-fi limitations of the original on-location sound recordings allow. Actually, they're quite clear and consistent apart from the odd bit of muffling.

The disc opens to an animated main menu page. From there, a static scene-selection menu allows access to the film via 8 chapters.

Extra features begin with a 10-minute segment looking at the making of the film. This is taken from Full Moon's early 90s cable TV show "Videozone", and as such is a slickly edited, professionally narrated vanity piece complete with cast and crew interviews. It's a fun ride though, revealing the shoot to have been a merry one while still taking time out to provide some interesting reveals on the production's rudimentary FX work.

SEED PEOPLE's original trailer clocks in at 94 seconds in length and does a great job of presenting the film as a breathless, melodramatic throwback to 50s monster flicks.

Finally we get a trailer reel of other Full Moon titles available from 88 Films: PUPPET MASTER, PUPPET MASTER 2, PUPPET MASTER 3: TOULON'S REVENGE, PUPPET MASTER 10: AXIS RISING, DR ALIEN, TOURIST TRAP, ZOMBIES VERSUS STRIPPERS, REEL EVIL, CASTLE FREAK and MERIDIAN.

SEED PEOPLE (the onscreen title is SEEDPEOPLE) is an homage to trashy B-movie monster pictures from a bygone era. It's a poverty row effort and at times is so clumsily made it hurts. But there's something endearing about its cheery crappiness that is drawing me towards giving it another viewing soon.

The disc from 88 Films is a solid one.

Review by Stuart Willis