What starts off as an “Alien” rip off degenerates into nothing but a sub-standard slasher movie set in space. The horror genre is the one genre that sequelizes, copies or remakes itself to death. When a winning combination is to be found the host of imitators pops up in frightening numbers. Inseminoid is unsure of what it wants to be. It appears to be an “Alien” clone, even setting us up for the infamous John Hurt chest buster scene after a member of an unspecified scientific expedition to an unknown planet is injured when strange crystals explode and burn him. Surprisingly, the later scene where the crew, including the burned crew member, is having dinner fails to follow the expected route with no copied payoff despite the almost obvious previous set up. Much of the movie’s running time dwindles by before we even get a glimpse of anything resembling a creature, and when a male and female team is attacked by a barely glimpsed monster if you blink you’ll completely miss it.

The creatures look like alien puppets with Down Syndrome and are never convincing or even remotely believable as anything other than horrible special effects. Performances range from bad to outright horrible, with one scene in particular that stands out: a woman on the surface of the planet gets her ankle trapped beneath a rock and takes the tube out of her oxygen tank and sticks it in her mouth while she attempts to hack off her ankle to escape, almost like a bear caught in a trap gnawing off its foot to escape but without the phallic imagery. Finally the inevitable alien birth occurs and the movie ends abruptly, like the cinematic equivalent of hitting a brick wall. Once you watch Inseminoid you will envy the dead crew members within the film because they are dead and will never have the memories of this movie that you will, haunting and taunting you until your bitter end.

Inseminoid is one of the more memorable “Alien” clones due to the controversy surrounding the movie poster that was going to be used for the theatrical release. It showed two men attacked by a creature coming out from between a woman’s legs. It was so controversial that it was pulled and director Norman J. Warren insisted on another poster to be made in its place. Warren who was the director of such English productions as “Satan’s Slave,” “Bloody New Year” and the lesbian themed alien three-way “Prey” is at his usual, uneven self here on Inseminoid. There are scenes of attempted atmosphere meshed with scenes of such ludicrous schlock you’ll wonder if two completely different people directed it.

The movie lives up to its reputation of “so bad it’s good” and is one of the more inspired, if horrible, sci-fi shockers out there. Inseminoid would easily exist in the same universe as such fare as “Forbidden World,” “Starbeast” and “Creature.” Which one would be leader of the pack would be a difficult choice for almost anyone to make.