There has been an expedition into the farthest reaches of space to a distant planet where evidence of a long-dead civilisation has been uncovered. The team investigating have found a large complex which may have been a tomb, and want to find out more, but when two of their number are out of the base camp and doing some digging, one finds a mysterious object behind a block of ice. When he gets closer, there is an explosion and he is injured, so has to be rushed to the camp's sick bay, but this is merely the beginning of an onslaught of unimaginable terror...
Well, that's what director Norman J. Warren was hoping for, at any rate, although your experience with Inseminoid may differ. When Alien was released it unleashed a brand new genre, the science fiction horror slasher movie. Essentially this meant that for a while in the early eighties there was a rash of shockers featuring astronauts and spacefarers being picked off one by one by a terrible monster, or something similarly otherwordly. Few of these were any good, and this one was more notoriously bad than most, perhaps because it eschewed the usual man-in-a-suit creature for a cheaper alternative.
That alternative being British light actress Judy Geeson, an unlikely candidate for murderous qualities, and not a particularly imposing one for that matter. She is not the one who starts out as the threat, that task belongs to the bloke who was blown up at the beginning as he takes a funny turn and goes on the rampage before he can be overpowered and shot dead by Stephanie Beacham. Logic is not the strong point of Gloria Maley and special effects man Nick Maley's script, with the main impetus for anything happening apparently resting on how shocking it can be.
Of course, with the filmmakers so all out intent on shocking the viewers, it's quite often the case that the opposite reaction is elicited, as is the case with Inseminoid. So when one of the scientists takes an electric carving knife to cut off her trapped foot, you will probably be idly wondering why she didn't simply cut the metal around it and therefore have a better chance of surviving. This kind of lunacy abounds, but sadly this does not make for an unintentional laugh-fest, more of a shrug of the shoulders-fest as yet another actor is dispatched with.
And what of Judy? Her Sandy character gets unwittingly impregnated by a space alien which turns her into a rabidly violent psychopath determined to kill off her fellow cast members. Filmed in the exotic location of Chislehurst caves, Warren at least works up a bleak atmosphere where it's clear he won't allow anybody to make it through the crisis if he can really help it, but what this remains most notable for is it's somewhat embarrassing antagonist. So little Judy throws people around the room, carrying an alien baby all the while, and ensures that nobody escapes the film with much dignity left intact. It's just that with very little rhyme or reason behind the events, none that we are privy to anyway, there's not much to engage with and anything approaching plot is let down. Synthesiser music by John Scott, and lots of it.
