👽🎅 Feeders 2: Slay Bells Review: Camcorder Aliens Crash Christmas Eve
My Rating: ⭐ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/5
Ever wonder what would happen if someone handed you $100 and told you to make a movie?
Here is your chance to find out.
A cozy Pennsylvania living room.
A Christmas tree, a plate of cookies, and a family dog in a bright pink cast.
And a flock of hungry puppet aliens hovering over the rooftop.
Welcome to our Feeders 2: Slay Bells Review. This 1998 shot on video oddity comes from Mark and John Polonia, twin brothers from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. It pits homemade extraterrestrials against Santa Claus himself on Christmas Eve.
Yes, that Santa. The real one, with the sleigh.
It is extremely low budget. The acting is stiff, the pacing is glacial, and the special effects look like a weekend craft project. You really have to be bored to sit through the whole thing.
But that is exactly where the Kilroy value lies. The Polonia brothers built an entire alien invasion out of local locations, family members, household materials, and pure determination. No studio. No real budget. Just a camcorder and a dream.
This Feeders 2: Slay Bells Review stays spoiler free. Some secrets deserve to be discovered with a cup of cocoa and a very forgiving attitude.
Feeders 2: Slay Bells Review: Santa Meets the Camcorder Aliens
The story centers on Alan Parker, a mild mannered family man played by Mark Polonia himself. Alan has a wife, two kids, a cozy suburban home, and a holiday season to enjoy.
The family decorates the tree. They wrap presents. They set out cookies for Santa. Everyone gets ready for the best Christmas ever.
There is just one problem. Alan’s boss is a first class Scrooge, and he makes Alan work on Christmas Eve.
There is also a second problem. The Feeders are back.
These small, flesh eating aliens have arrived to treat Earth like an all you can eat buffet. They pick off the locals one by one. Then they set their sights on the Parker home.
Meanwhile, a survivor from the first film keeps turning up to recap earlier events. His scenes feel like they wandered in from another movie. In a way, they did.
Who can stop an alien invasion on the holiest night of the holiday season? The answer is right there in the synopsis. Santa Claus and his elves.
How Santa gets involved, and how it all wraps up, stays under the tree for you to unwrap yourself.
Meet the Polonia Brothers of Wellsboro
To understand Feeders 2, you have to understand the people who made it.
Mark and John Polonia were twin brothers, born September 30, 1968, in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. Wellsboro is a small town in the northern part of the state. It is known for gas lit streets and a nearby gorge nicknamed the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.
It is not known as a film capital. The Polonias did not care.
The brothers started making movies as teenagers. Their earliest film, Church of the Damned, dates to around 1985. Their breakout came in 1987 with Splatter Farm, a gory shot on video horror film made when they were about seventeen.
Splatter Farm somehow landed a nationwide VHS release. It became an underground favorite and is still sold in collector editions today.
From there, the brothers never stopped. Together they wrote, directed, and produced more than 40 feature films, mostly horror and science fiction. They were also known for their generosity toward aspiring filmmakers in the independent community.
They did all this while holding regular jobs. John reportedly worked at a BiLo grocery store in Wellsboro for 22 years. Filmmaking happened on nights, weekends, and holidays.
Sadly, John Polonia died suddenly in February 2008 at just 39 years old. Mark has kept the family business going ever since, cranking out creature features for new generations of fans.
When Anyone With a Camcorder Could Make a Movie
Feeders 2 is a perfect time capsule of a very specific moment in movie history.
Before the 1980s, making a feature film meant buying film stock, renting cameras, and paying a lab to process every foot. That kept moviemaking in the hands of studios and well funded independents.
Then the home video camera arrived.
Suddenly, a teenager with a camcorder could shoot an entire feature on cheap videotape. There was no film to develop. You could watch your footage the same night and edit it between two VCRs.
This gave birth to what fans now call SOV, short for shot on video. Horror fans often point to early 1980s titles like Boardinghouse and Sledgehammer as pioneers of the form.
By the late 1980s and 1990s, regional SOV filmmakers were popping up everywhere. They worked in farm towns, suburbs, and back yards across America. They used their friends as actors and their houses as sets.
The results were rough, strange, and often unwatchable. But they were also completely personal. Nobody in a studio office was telling these filmmakers what to do.
The Polonia brothers became some of the most famous faces of this movement. Feeders 2 shows the SOV spirit in its purest, most homemade form.
Built for the Video Store Shelf
Why did so many of these movies get made? Because video stores needed something to fill their shelves.
In the VHS boom years, rental stores popped up in nearly every town in America. Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and countless mom and pop shops all wanted new titles every week.
Hollywood could not supply enough movies to fill every horror aisle. Small distributors stepped in, buying up cheap independent films to sell to stores.
A great box cover often mattered more than the movie inside. A painted alien, a bloody tagline, and a punchy title could rent a tape all by themselves.
Feeders 2 came with a classic tagline: “Close Encounters of the Worst Kind.” You have to admit, that is a pretty good pitch.
The film was released on February 20, 1998. Yes, a Christmas movie released in February. That tells you something about the direct to video world.
Sub Rosa Studios handled the sequel. In 2004, Sub Rosa paired it with the original Feeders as a double feature DVD.
They even got the riffing treatment when RiffTrax took on Feeders 2 in December 2019.
From Feeders to Slay Bells
The original Feeders came out in 1996. It was directed by John Polonia, Mark Polonia, and fellow SOV filmmaker Jon McBride.
The budget was reportedly around $500. The plot followed two buddies on a road trip through rural Pennsylvania, running into tiny flesh eating aliens.
Then something remarkable happened. Blockbuster Video picked it up for rental shortly after Independence Day became a summer smash.
Video stores were hungry for anything with aliens on the cover. Feeders reportedly became Blockbuster’s number one independent rental of the year. It was the Polonias’ first truly wide distribution.
A hit like that called for a sequel. Two years later, the brothers brought the Feeders back and gave them a holiday makeover.
Feeders 2 is not really a direct continuation, though. The first film did not leave much of the world standing. So the sequel simply starts fresh with a new family and a new invasion, while borrowing a familiar face and some familiar footage.
The Cast: Family, Friends, and Familiar Faces
There are no movie stars here. That is part of the charm.
Mark Polonia plays Alan Parker, the family man caught in the middle of the invasion. Polonia also wrote and co directed the film. He brings a very sincere, very 1990s dad energy, complete with a neatly trimmed mustache.
Maria Davis plays Bernice Parker, Alan’s wife. Davis was a Polonia regular. She appeared in the first Feeders and in Saurians, and much later in Return to Splatter Farm.
Courtney Polonia plays the Parker daughter. As the name suggests, this one was a family affair.
The Parker son is played by another young family member. Cast listings credit him as either Anthony Polonia or Anthony Thomas.
Jon McBride returns as Derek from the first Feeders. McBride is an SOV legend in his own right. He directed the cult video favorites Cannibal Campout and Woodchipper Massacre, both from 1988.
John Polonia appears as well, though his Bennett scenes come from archive footage of the first film.
The acting is exactly what you would expect from friends and relatives working for free. Lines are read rather than performed. Scenes run long. But everyone is clearly trying, and it shows.
Homemade Aliens, Handmade Effects
The real stars of Feeders 2 are the Feeders.
These little aliens are homemade puppets. They have big heads, gaping mouths, and the look of painted foam. They wobble. They bob. They sometimes appear to be held up by an invisible hand just outside the frame.
You will not believe for a second that they are real. That is not the point.
Somebody sat at a kitchen table and built these creatures by hand. Somebody painted them, glued them, and figured out how to make them chomp. In an age of digital everything, there is something wonderful about that.
The gore effects follow the same recipe. Fake blood flows freely, and the kills are messy in a cheerful, community theater sort of way.
The brothers also relied on a few classic Polonia tricks. Footage from other productions gets reused. Still photos sometimes stand in for outdoor shots. It is resourceful, even when it is obvious.
This is filmmaking with whatever is lying around the house. And honestly, that is the most interesting thing about it.
Santa Brings a Ray Gun
Then there is Santa.
Feeders 2 does not give us a gentle mall Santa or a cozy storybook Santa. It gives us an action hero Santa armed with what looks like a toy ray gun.
He has elves. He has a mission. And he has absolutely no patience for aliens messing with Christmas.
It is a gloriously silly idea. Santa versus space invaders sounds like something a ten year old would dream up on a snow day. The Polonias simply went ahead and filmed it.
Old school movie fans will catch the nod to a famously goofy 1960s holiday science fiction picture. You probably know the one. The less said, the better, for spoiler reasons.
When Santa finally gets into the action, Feeders 2 comes alive. These are easily the most fun minutes in the movie. The trouble is getting there.
A Pennsylvania Christmas on Camcorder
The movie was made in the Polonias’ home region of Pennsylvania. You can feel it in every frame.
Real living rooms stand in for sets. Real Christmas decorations hang on real walls. Wintry woods and small town streets provide the rest of the scenery.
The long stretches look like a family’s Christmas home videos. The Parkers wrap gifts. They wait for Santa. They open presents. They talk about Christmas.
For better or worse, that gives the movie an odd authenticity. It feels like you are peeking into a real Pennsylvania household in the late 1990s. The clothes, the hair, the furniture, and the decorations are pure time capsule.
If you grew up in that era, you may find yourself spotting toys and ornaments from your own childhood.
Where It Stumbles
Let’s be honest. No Feeders 2: Slay Bells Review would be complete without a warning. This is a very hard movie to sit through.
The pacing is the biggest problem. Long scenes go by where absolutely nothing happens. People stand around talking about Christmas. Then they sit around talking about Christmas.
The recap scenes from the first film add little and slow things down even more.
The acting is flat, and the dialogue is clumsy.
The story does not always make sense, either. You may finish the movie still wondering what the aliens actually want.
And the effects, as lovable as they are, never come close to convincing.
Bottom line, you really have to be bored to watch this all the way through. Even the best Santa action cannot completely make up for the long, slow road to get there.
Why Movies Like Feeders 2 Still Matter
So why spend time on a movie this rough? Because Feeders 2 represents something bigger than itself.
It is proof that anyone with a camera and enough stubbornness could make a feature film and get it into the world. The Polonias did not wait for permission. They did not wait for money. They just made movies.
Today, collectors hunt down Polonia VHS tapes and big box releases. Boutique labels restore SOV titles for Blu-ray. Fans pack screenings of these films for the sheer joy of watching something completely homemade.
For collectors, a movie like Feeders 2 is a piece of folk art. It belongs to the same family as hand painted signs and homemade Halloween costumes.
It is not polished. It is not professional. But it is unmistakably human.
Who Should Watch Feeders 2?
This is not a movie for everyone. In fact, it is not a movie for most people.
If you want genuine scares or real holiday cheer, skip it. If you need a well told story, keep walking.
But some viewers will get a real kick out of it. Shot on video fans will find it essential. Bad movie lovers will find plenty to laugh at. Aspiring filmmakers may find it oddly inspiring.
It works best as a group watch. Grab some friends, pour the eggnog, and talk back to the screen. Feeders 2 practically begs for it.
Watching solo? Keep the fast forward button handy until Santa shows up.
Final Thoughts 1/5
This one earns a 1 out of 5 from Kilroy. Wrapping up this Feeders 2: Slay Bells Review, the single star goes straight to the Polonia brothers for trying. They had a camcorder, a family, a Christmas tree, and a wild idea, and they made it happen.
“A homemade holiday oddity where Santa battles puppet aliens with pure camcorder grit.”
ML Lamp, Kilroy Was Here Shop
As a movie, Feeders 2 is slow, clumsy, and padded. As shot on video history, it is a fascinating snapshot. Back then, anyone could make a feature in their own living room.
Watch it for the Santa showdown, the handmade aliens, and the Pennsylvania Christmas time capsule. Just do not expect a holiday classic.
If the aliens don’t get you this Christmas, the home video footage just might. Keep the remote close.
