Inseminoid

Inseminoid
In the foreground, a woman in labour screams as the head of an alien child emerges from between her legs. In the background, two men in spacesuits shine flashlights onto the newborn, aghast. Text at the top of the image reads "Somewhere in the Depths of Space ... A Horrific Nightmare is About to Become a Reality". Lower down, the title of the film, "Inseminoid", is rendered in large, bold text. The bottom of the image contains additional text that reads "... A Far from Human Birth!", plus the main production credits.
US theatrical release poster
Directed byNorman J. Warren
Written byNick & Gloria Maley
Produced byRichard Gordon
David Speechley
Run Run Shaw[1]
StarringRobin Clarke
Jennifer Ashley
Stephanie Beacham
Steven Grives
Barrie Houghton
Rosalind Lloyd
Victoria Tennant
Trevor Thomas
Heather Wright
David Baxt
Judy Geeson
CinematographyJohn Metcalfe
Edited byPeter Boyle
Music byJohn Scott
Production
company
Jupiter Film Productions[2]
Distributed byButcher's Film Service
Release date
  • May 1981 (1981-05) (UK)[1]
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom[2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget£1 million

Inseminoid (titled Horror Planet in the United States) is a 1981 British science fiction horror film directed by Norman J. Warren and starring Judy Geeson, Robin Clarke and Stephanie Beacham, along with Victoria Tennant in one of her early film roles. The plot concerns a team of archaeologists and scientists who are excavating the ruins of an ancient civilisation on a distant planet. One of the women in the team (Geeson) is impregnated by an alien creature and taken over by a mysterious intelligence, driving her to murder her colleagues one by one and feed on them.

Inseminoid was written by Nick and Gloria Maley, a married couple who had been part of the special effects team on Warren's earlier film Satan's Slave. It was filmed between May and June 1980 on a budget of £1 million (£5 million in 2023), half of which was supplied by the Shaw Brothers. The film was shot mostly on location at Chislehurst Caves in Kent as well as on the island of Gozo in Malta, combined with a week's filming at Lee International Studios in London. Composer John Scott completed the film's electronic musical score over recording sessions that lasted many hours.

Despite a good box office response in the UK and abroad, Inseminoid failed to impress most commentators, who criticised the effects and production design. The overall quality of the acting was also poorly received, although Geeson's performance was praised. Criticism was also directed at the premise involving an alien insemination, which some commentators saw as a weak imitation of Alien (1979). Both Warren and 20th Century Fox, distributor of Alien, rejected claims that Inseminoid was influenced by that film.

  1. ^ a b Locks, Adam; Smith, Adrian (2021). Norman J. Warren: Gentleman of Terror. Creepy*Images. pp. 105–106, 117, 120–123. ISBN 978-3-00-070720-9.
  2. ^ a b Pulleine, Tim. "Inseminoid". Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 48, no. 568. London, UK: British Film Institute. p. 93.