These three friends have travelled out into the middle of nowhere on a holiday break, but not because they are going camping, it is because one of the trio, Heather (Sophie Vavasseur), has rich parents and they have a swanky mansion house there, complete with pool and a well-stocked bar. The excuse they have for spending time there is for a meteor shower that is due that evening, which has every indication of being an absolute spectacle, and Dierdre (Lucy Martin) is keen to get the display in her latest influencer video, as it's a sure way of getting visitors to her channel. Charlotte (Chelsea Edge), meanwhile, has no wealth, has known these women since school, and simply wants a break from her job for a while...
Time was when a space alien's arrival meant only one thing: it wanted our women. Alien changed that to an extent, in that the creature wanted the men as well, it wasn't fussy, but ironically refreshed the concept of the impregnation from the stars with a rash of copies. Even Britain, its film industry kept afloat by big Hollywood productions using its talent and soundstages, saw its independents turn out a cult movie or two with this premise, derivative as it was since basically, once Ridley Scott had taken the idea as far as it would go in one movie, what else was there to do with it but imitate him? Which brings us to writer and director Sam Walker, who thought he could have yet another stab at the material on a lower budget, but ambitious with it.
Perhaps feeling a pang of nostalgia, while there was CGI used for the meteor storms and the occasional trippy visual (one of which serves as a handy guide for the alien's plan), the creature here was reassuringly rubbery, a cheerful puppet of the sort Charles Band would have been happy to claim as his own. This critter crashlands in the swimming pool and has to be fished out as Heather has conniptions about what her dad will say if the pool is ruined, but it seems to be fine, though Charlotte observes it has an oddly animal look about it for what was presumed to be space debris. So it is, this "armadillo" uncurls itself and starts exerting a strange hold over the three women, all played by actresses from the British Isles putting on American accents for an international appeal, though as Malta was clearly credited upfront as a location, was anyone fooled by this anymore?
Mind you, they did a sterling job and proved very game for getting their hands dirty, and everything else for that matter as the plot took a turn for the messy. Before that there was a tendency to pad out what was a rather slender narrative, including such business as buttering up the teenage gardener who demands a kiss from Charlotte to get anything done to do with their visitor, but in a weird gag proves to be an unexpectedly good kisser all the same. However, once we had established the central rapport - we can tell when they were actually attending school, they would have been trouble – the rest flowed easily, including tar-like fluids and a degree of blood. Whether it was a comedy or not was a different story, it was billed as such but while amusing was unlikely to have you laugh out loud, in fact you could watch it from beginning to end and be none the wiser about its humorous intentions. But as a throwback to the early eighties with modern social media barbs, this was a very good-looking effort put across with commendable confidence. Music by Lucrecia Dalt.
[The Seed - A Shudder Original
New Film Premieres 10th March 2022.]
