One Angry Preggy: Inseminoid (1981)

Insemonoid (1981) (AKA "Horror Planet")
Rating: ***1/2
Starring: Robin Clarke, Jennifer Ashley, Stephanie Beacham

For me, I will and forever consider Alien (1979) as a fine example of a proto-slasher, favoring on the point that most of that movie's later scenes resemble a stalk-and-slash movie with a big, mean and lean alien in place of a human killer. Of course, this favorable review puts me into dwelling the movie pile in search for other similarly themed titles and among those I found was the Video Nasty Inseminoid, one of the few closest (if not direct) resemblance of a slasher in space and perhaps the trashiest with its B-movie exploitative notion of alien rape, unnatural pregnancy and gruesome gore sequences.

Some time into the future, a crew of Xeno Project scientists have been assigned to explore a newly discovered planet that may once housed intelligent life. What they find in that planet back up their theory of alien life as ancient descriptions riddled on the walls of a cave system leads to a collection of dangerous crystals with enough power to send one of the crewmen into a homicidal rage, forcing the rest to put him down for good.

Hoping to find some answers, two of the the team return to the cave to gather samples of the crystals but things go for the worse when they are attacked by a bug-eyed alien and the female co-scientists gets taken to a chamber and undergoes a surreal insemination. She is soon found by her crew and brought back to the station, but as a sudden bloodlust takes over her, triggering another series of murderous attacks.

Catching fire from the success of Ridley Scott's Alien (which was released a year prior to Inseminoid), much of the marketing and notoriety of this film have focused on the horrors of alien rape, only here it is done literally (Hence the not-so-subtle title) and the monster is none other than one angry pregnant woman. More or less, the real pointer that brought this movie down into the Video Nasty list is the nasty (albeit cheap) gore pieces from the later attacks and murders, all of it pretty methodic and often involves maniacal usage of powertools. This being said, I'm confident to say this ravenous space-age terror is bodycount friendly enough to satisfy a humble gore baby.

Then again, the low-cut budget may induce 80s VHS nostalgia for many, but for some this is pure garbage. And who could blame them? As if having a murderous mother-to-be cook people alive with a blowtorch isn't disturbing enough, but to have this as a reason to beat up a pregnant woman is downright upsetting. Thrills are honestly cheap, aiming more on shocking the viewers with enough gruesome moments to keep them interested but with the lack of strong compelling characters and plot development, Inseminoid will always be a cheese-induced popcorn-horror.

Not that this will always be a bad thing; like what I always say to most of the movies I review here in StickyRed, they will have an audience even if it's going to be a small one. As far as I can see, Inseminoid has a favorable cult following thanks to it's unintentional funnies and so-horrible-its-good nature. It's not a good movie, not with it's shitty editing, overacted casts and questionable special effects, but it is pretty entertaining for the right audience. Alien may have the star power and performance, but that doesn't mean we can't learn to appreciate, if not give a chance little cash-ins like Inseminoid!

Bodycount:
1 female froze to death under low temperature
1 male shot with a speargun
1 male mauled apart
1 female stabbed to death with scissors
1 male had his back burnt with a heat-sealer, brained with a wrench
1 female burnt to death with heat-sealer
1 male shot on the chest with a speargun, disemboweled
1 female hit on the leg with explosives, killed
1 female strangled to death with cables
1 female found with her neck bitten open
1 male disemboweled offcamera
Total: 11