The Pod People (1983)
"Los nuevos extraterrestres" (original title)

A young boy in the woods discovers a lovable alien...or is it?

Director:

Juan Piquer Simón

Writers:

Joaquín Grau, Juan Piquer Simón

Stars:

Ian Sera, Nina Ferrer, Susanna Bequer

Bottom 100 #16 | See the Bottom 100 movies as voted by our users.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ian Sera	...	Rick
Nina Ferrer	...	Sharon
Susanna Bequer	...	Lara Stapleton (as Susan Blake)
Sara Palmer	...	Kathy
Óscar Martín	...	Tommy Stevens
Maria Albert	...	Tracy
Emilio Linder	...	Brian (as Emil Linder)
Concha Cuetos	...	Molly Stevens (as Connie Cheston)
Manuel Pereiro	...	Bill Stevens
Frank Braña	...	Burt
Guillermo Antón	...	Matt Collins (as William Anton)
Frank Sussman
Gary Richardson
Hugo Astar
Luis M. Martín	...	(as Louis Martin)

Storyline

One of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 faves. A little boy who has an extensive array of pets he likes to call "specimens" finds an alien egg to hatch, somewhat like Horton. The creature manages to use his snout to suck up peanuts and warp time and space with his fingers. Unfortunately, his brother who is found by poachers go on a killing spree.

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Plot Keywords:

boy | alien | egg | poacher | crossbow | 

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Taglines:

The Fate of the Earth is in Their Hands!

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Genres:

Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

Spain

Language:

French Spanish

Release Date:

13 December 1983 (France)

Also Known As:

The Pod People

Filming Locations:

Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range, Madrid, Spain

Company Credits

Production Co:

Almena Films, France 2 (FR2), France 3 (FR 3)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally intended as a low-budget horror movie about an evil alien. After the success of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the producers made the alien into a lovable character, and added a kid who befriends it. Director Juan Piquer Simón was not satisfied with the final result.

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Goofs

The movie frequently jumps back and forth between day and night, sometimes in the same shot. It's most noticeable when Joe wonders aloud who could be banging on the front door in the middle of the night. In the previous shot, when Rick was standing outside, it was clearly daytime.

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Quotes

Tommy: Trumpy, you can do magic things!

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Connections

Referenced in Mr. B's Lost Shorts (2001)

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Soundtracks

"Hear The Engines Roll"

User Reviews

Is he friendly or deadly?

This movie combines the friendly alien and the killer alien into one adventure. Well actually it is almost like watching three movies, and none of them are very good. First, you have poachers, then you have a kid living with relatives of some sort, then of course are the wacky teens going camping. Then there are the two aliens, both look alike, but their personalities differ. One is on the rampage, killing people here and there. The stupid thing is I just don't see how anyone dies. Sure one girl falls off a cliff and her friends pick her up and jostle her around continuously, but everyone else seems to die for no reason. The monster hits the people with very weak karate chops (the alien looks like Alf) and the people fall over dead. The friendly alien starts as an egg that the boy raises. This alien has powers to move stuff around that the other alien seems to be lacking. In the end it is just a bad movie. The boy says all the aliens want it to be their friends and sure the one he raises is nice enough, but the other one is killing indiscrimintly.