Trama

An insecure man begins to suspect that the mushrooms his son ordered from a boy's magazine and is growing in the basement may be alien invaders.

Teenage boy Tom Fortnum is at home reading through a catalog and finds an about how boys can raise giant mushrooms in their cellar and sell them for money. He talks to his father Hugh and his mother Cynthia and gets chores so he can raise money to order away for seeds. When Hugh asks him if he wants to go to the baseball game, Tom refuses, eager to make money and waiting for a package to come in the mail. As they talk, their neighbor Mrs. Goodbody looks over the hedge and insists that he has to keep spraying to kill off weeds and parasites on her lawn. She warns them that invaders from outer space are coming and she plans to fight them. The mailman arrives and gives Tom his special delivery package from New Orleans. It contains Abyssian Amazon Mushrooms and Tom eagerly runs inside to the cellar.

Tom is soon growing giant mushrooms. Hugh and Cynthia come downstairs and Cynthia worries if they're actually poisonous toadstools. Hugh and Tom assure her that they're not and Hugh figures that the mushrooms are just Tom's most recent obsession, and figures the boy will soon become interested in something else.

As Hugh carpools to work with his neighbor, Roger Willis, they listen to a newscast about recent broadcast interference due to a meteorite shower. Roger tells his friend that he's been having night terrors and feelings of paranoia. He has nothing to justify his feelings, but insists that something awful is going to happen. As they arrive at work, Hugh half-seriously wonders what they can do and Roger says to watch everything. As he walks away, Hugh notices that the hairs are standing up on his hands, as if Roger's terror is contagious.

Later, Tom returns home and tells Cynthia what happened. Tom is still in the cellar working on his mushrooms. He comes up to show them his first crop and Cynthia thinks that they're hideous. Tom takes offense and runs off with them. Roger's wife Dorothy comes over and asks after Roger, who has disappeared and taken his clothes with him. She's worried that Roger isn't going to come back.

Hugh goes with Dorothy to her house to see if they can find any clues to Roger's whereabouts. Dorothy's son Joe says that his father walked away in the middle of a game of catch and left him on the lawn. There's no sign of Roger at the train station and airport. As they talk, Hugh notices that Joe is growing mushrooms in the cellar. As he goes home, Hugh considers what Roger said, and the fact that his son and Roger's are both growing mushrooms.

The next morning, Tom is working in the cellar when Roger calls Hugh and makes sure that he's alone. He explains that he's afraid of losing control, and that he's going to New Orleans before it's too late. He warns Hugh not to accept any special delivery packages. Once Roger hangs up, Hugh runs to the garbage and finds the special delivery package from New Orleans that his son received. Dorothy comes over and Hugh confirms that with her that Joe received his mushrooms in a similar special delivery package, and that Roger ate the mushrooms their son grew in their cellar.

That night, Hugh tells Cynthia what he's worried about: that Earth is being invaded by spores. He theorizes that a meteorite crashed in the swamps near New Orleans. The spores grew into mushrooms, someone ate one, and the alien spores took control of him. Now that person has started a mushroom company and is distributing the spores to unsuspecting boys across the world. Cynthia doesn't believe it and goes to bed. Dorothy calls and tells Hugh that everything is fine: she forgot that Roger was going on a business trip. When Hugh asks about her husband's warning on the phone, Dorothy claims that Roger was playing a practical joke.

Hugh, relieved, goes downstairs for a late-night snack. He looks in the refrigerator and discovers a plate full of Tom's mushrooms. The cellar door swings open and Tom calls out, asking to bring down some of the mushroom sandwiches. Hugh hesitantly goes downstairs and Tom offers him a bite. When Hugh balks, Tom calls him a chicken and taunts him into doing it. Hugh remembers Roger's warning but eventually gives in and takes a bite as Tom watches, smiling. The boy then suggests that they offer Cynthia a sandwich. Hugh starts smiling as well and agrees.

(From TV.com)