Horror Movie Review: Seedpeople (1992)

Dumb and fun, with more of an 80s vibe than a 90s, Seedpeople (all one word) is a sci-fi horror that borrows elements of body-snatching horror and mixes it with elements of 1986’s Critters and 1988’s Critters 2: The Main Course.

Written by Jackson Barr (from an original idea by Charles Band), directed by Peter Manoogian, and starring Sam Hennings, Dane Witherspoon, Anne Betancourt, and Andrea Roth. Seedpeople takes place in the rural community of Comet Valley, a place with only one way in and one way out via a single bridge.

An inevitable problem at the best of times, but one that spells disaster when the bridge is taken out of temporary commission for routine maintenance work. It spells disaster because something strange is going on in Comet Valley and it seems to be related to a recent spate of meteorites that have landed.

Naturally this is fascinating, particularly for Tom Baines, a scientist who arrives in Comet Valley to give a talk on meteorites as a favour to an old friend. His timing is impeccable, not just arriving as all these strange events are beginning to ramp up, but right when the valley is sealed off!

Of course, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the meteorites were carrying some kind of alien lifeform and that Comet Valley is under attack. An alien lifeform that follows the Invasion of the Body Snatcher’s route to takeover, except much worse at covering its tracks. Tom has to put a stop to it, save the town, and hopefully reunite with his ex, Heidi.

If all of this sounds extremely familiar, it’s because Seedpeople doesn’t have an inch of originality in it. Following the B-movie formula to a tee, delivering cliché after cliché, hitting some serious lows with some bland acting, and showcasing a monster that isn’t exactly frightening. Yet, it is still a fun flick because it never really tries to be anything but a clone of much better films.

It’s highly inoffensive, doing the best it can with an average script, and trying to get by on a very low budget. All of which ends up helping its charm, which exists because it is a cheap monster b-movie through and through. It is an easy film to detach your brain from, sit back, and just enjoy the overall silliness of what it offers.