It's time to break out the tiny violins. Being a constant viewer of movies and a constant blogger is a fairly thankless task, especially for those who decide not to keep finding the right level of hyperbole to make an opinion go viral. It takes up a lot of time and energy, and you're never really sure if anyone else is going to care about what you have to say. Which is why I usually write for my own satisfaction, it is my own strange way of finding a little bit of extra happiness and of keeping my mental health on an even keel (an empty day on the blog is a bad sign). There are some positives though. You can get involved in some great discussion with people who have similar, or very different, opinions on the movies watched. You can also, very occasionally, be given an opportunity to check out a film before many others. This happened to me with The Seed, a situation that both pleased me enormously and also gave me extra anxiety (in case I hated it). The version of the film that I saw some time ago wasn't quite the finished and polished version now available on Shudder, which is why I waited to rewatch and review the thing properly.
I was also keen to share my opinion on the film because I certainly DIDN'T hate it.
Written and directed by Sam Walker, The Seed is basically the tale of three women (Deidre, played by Lucy Martin, Heather, played by Sophie Vavasseur, and Charlotte, played by Chelsea Edge) enjoying a weekend away. They're going to watch a meteor shower, both Deidre and Heather using the event to build up their social media influencer profiles while Charlotte remains steadfastly away from that kind of nonsense. Something lands on the property during the meteor shower, something repulsive, but also possibly just a little bit cute, and things start to get very strange.
Part body horror movie, part sharp comedy about vanity and narcissism, and part potential alien invasion movie, The Seed is an assured and polished feature debut from Sam Walker (who first came to my attention almost a decade ago when I was lucky enough to see his short, Bite Horse, at a horror film festival). With the potential to go in any number of different directions, and it would have been very easy for Walker to retool this and have a group of disposable teens in the main roles, it's admirable that this stays interested in exploring the various personalities of our central trio, and how they are changed, as opposed to just lining up people to wait for their turn to be a victim.
Walker is helped enormously by his cast. Martin is perfect in her role, always trying to maintain a higher energy level when she has to turn "on" for her online viewing audience. Vavasseur is similar, but shows why she is lagging behind. The two women work well together, always considering how things can be shown off best, what prospects they have to make their latest strong impression, and how the whole weekend can be a productive time for them, in terms of developing their online followings. Edge is allowed to roll her eyes at all of this without feeling like a grumbly killjoy, and she's easy to root for as things start to become more creepy and dangerous. And I also need to mention Jamie Wittebrood, only onscreen for a couple of minutes, but he's so much fun in his very small role.
The FX work is another big help, with the central creation absolutely managing to be both occasionally cute and downright ugly and terrifying at the same time. There are a couple of moments as confusingly visceral and gloopy as some of the final scenes in Society, which is another reason to recommend this, and the gore and flesh is all very well realised.
Everything comes back to the script and direction though, with Walker managing to make a horror film that tonally weaves from the sharp and witty to the darkly disturbing with surprising ease. The bright and sharp look throughout helps the juxtaposition (and it's a great job on the cinematography by Ben Braham Ziryab), and the fairly minimalistic score from Lucrecia Dalt does a fine job, but Walker seems to have maintained a clear vision from start to finish, allowing him to deliver a film that feels different from many others you could choose from, yet it's one that still provides the genre moments you want.
8/10
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