Whilst working on a video store project (for the future) I have been visiting (and revisiting) films that I haven’t seen for Inseminoid, or in some cases that I hadn’t seen at all. I remember in the early 80s, seeing the VHS cover for Inseminoid, a creepy looking Alien ‘knock off’ that was released in 1981 and likely arrived on VHS in the rental stores the following year. I wasn’t old enough to see it but the cover freaked me out, and also had me curious.  It wasnt until September 2023 that I finally got around to watching the film. Directed by Norman J Warren ( Satans Slave) and featuring in its cast Robin Clarke (The Border),Jennifer Ashley (Chained Heat), Steven Grives (The Wizard) , Victoria Tennant (Flowers in the Attic) , Rosalind Lloyd (The Wild Geese), Judy Geeson (Poldark) , and Stephanie Beacham (Dynasty)

Within the first few minutes of Inseminoid, I knew that the filmmakers clearly wanted to cash in on the success of Ridley Scott’s Alien and had crafted a film featuring a team of interplanetary archaeologists who encounter an Alien species and are then picked off one by one by this mystery lifeform. However very quickly Inseminoid began to charm me and by the end of the film, I realised that I had watched a fun (and yet horrific) film that had entertained me for an hour and a half.   For a low budget (reportedly $2m) scifi horror film, this was never going to have the class of Alien, or anything close to it, but for what it was, a low budget slasher movie about people running (and screaming) for their lives, It was entertaining and after the film had finished, I went down a rabbit hold online to learn a bit more about the movie and its creation.

I learned that The Shaw Brothers agreed to supply half of the proposed £1 million budget and they became partners in the production, with elder brother Run Run Shaw credited as ‘presenter’ in the opening credits.

I learned that Stephanie Beacham who plays Kate in the film accepted the role to support her family, recalling in a 2003 interview: “I had to choose between a play that I really, really wanted to do, which would have paid me £65 a week, and this script for a film called Inseminoid. Hey! No choice. Two pink babies asleep upstairs! No choice!“

And I learned that the film does have a fan base out there, and I agree with them. Inseminoid may not be the sort of film that people nowadays would watch for the first time and think ‘I’m going to rewatch this a lot’ but it is a film that if you watch through 1980’s nostalgia glasses then you will hopefully, as I did, fall in love with it a little.  So if you want some 80s space cheese, then I do recommend checking out Inseminoid.  Watch out for your ears though, I dont think I have seen a film that features this much screaming. Shout out (or Scream out to Judy Geeson as Sandy)