The Seed (2021 film)
| The Seed | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Sam Walker |
| Written by | Sam Walker |
| Starring | Lucy Martin Chelsea Edge Sophie Vavasseur |
| Cinematography | Ben Ziryab |
| Edited by | Barry Moen |
| Music by | Lucrecia Dalt |
Production companies | Camelot Films Hardman Pictures |
| Distributed by | Shudder |
Release date |
|
Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Seed is the 2021 body horror feature film directorial debut of Sam Walker, who also wrote the script. The movie premiered in the United States at Beyond Fest, after which it was released to Shudder as one of its original films.
Synopsis
Three friends, Deidre, Charlotte, and Heather, have travelled to the Mojave Desert in order to livestream a meteor shower while staying at a palatial home owned by Deidre's father. Deidre is frustrated when their phones stop working, as she had hoped to use the event to further increase her standing as a social media influencer. A meteor crash lands on the property and the women retrieve it, only to discover that it's a strange alien creature. The following day the alien appears to molt, shedding its rocky exterior. Unnerved by the alien, the women try to have their young gardener Brett to get rid of it. This fails and Brett flees the property. The women argue over whether they should kill the alien, eventually agreeing against doing so for the time being.
That night the creature cries so loudly that Charlotte brings it inside, much to Heather's anger. The women again argue until they decide that Charlotte and Heather should go into town and find someone to take it away. While they're gone, the alien hypnotizes Deidre. Charlotte and Heather go to their neighbor Edna's home, in hope of finding help. They instead find her home uninhabited while also discovering disturbing notebooks about the meteor shower. They return home, where they find Deidre acting strangely. That night the alien turns into a blob and absorbs both Deidre and Heather, after similarly hypnotizing her.
The following morning Charlotte becomes frightened by her friends' different personalities and the increasingly menacing activities of the alien. Charlotte returns to Edna's home in hopes of finding a car and fleeing the home, but is unsuccessful. She re-examines the journals, revealing that Edna had also had an experience with a similar creature. Panicked, Charlotte goes outside and discovers that Edna had killed herself. She returns home, where the alien tries and fails to hypnotize her. Deidre and Heather's bodies begin to change as their stomachs swell, after which they begin to vomit a strange black fluid. Charlotte manages to kill the creature with some difficulty, but her friends remain changed. She then chases her friends outside and manages to kill Heather. Just as she is about to do the same to Deidre, a cowboy arrives and stops Charlotte by shooting her. He is killed by Deidre, who in turn is finished off by Charlotte. Just as she is about to flee, the meteor shower begins as Charlotte looks on in horror.
Cast
- Lucy Martin as Deidre
- Chelsea Edge as Charlotte
- Sophie Vavasseur as Heather
- Jamie Wittebrood as Brett
- Anthony Edridge as Cowboy
- Shirley Pisani as Edna
Production
Prior to creating The Seed Walker had only directed short films, making the movie his feature film directorial debut.[1] He has cited Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth, John Carpenter's The Thing, and Eraserhead, inspirations for the movie, as well as the art of painter Ambera Wellmann. Walker designed the creature so that it would look like it could have come from the planet Earth, "so the girls didn't look stupid for [not] clocking an alien right away", and chose the design after googling pictures of animals that had washed up on beaches.[2]
Walker used social media as an element for the film, likening it to how the creature was "kind of weak, blind, and strange, and have this something else inside it". He stated that social media "looks like it's one thing and you look at it -- yeah, that's cool, but you're doing something completely fucking different" and that "To me, The Seed represents how on social media, someone can watch one video that will then lead to something that begins to radicalize them."[2]
Filming took place in Malta during 2020. Deadline noted that The Seed was a "rare example of a project to have been fully packaged and financed during lockdown."[3] Lucy Martin was brought on to portray influencer Deidre, a character she described as high energy and different from herself.[4]
Release
The film had its world premiere on 5 October 2021 at Beyond Fest in the United States and went on to screen at FrightFest London.[5][6] The following year The Seed was released to horror streaming platform Shudder as a Shudder Original on 10 March.[7]
Reception
The Seed holds a rating of 56% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 18 reviews.[8]
References
- ^ Grobar, Matt (2021-09-29). "Shudder Acquires Creature Feature 'The Seed' Ahead Of Beyond Fest Premiere". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ^ a b "The Seed's Director Breaks Down the Movie's Monster Design and Social Commentary". CBR. 2022-03-09. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ^ Grater, Tom (2020-09-07). "Cameras Roll On UK Indie 'The Seed' With 'The Missing' & 'Vikings' Actors". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ^ CrypticRock (2022-03-09). "Interview – Lucy Martin". Cryptic Rock. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ^ "2021 Films". Beyond Fest. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ^ "'The Seed' Trailer Reveals a Grizzly Alien Invasion Horror". Collider. 2022-02-12. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ^ "March 10 Debut "THE SEED" Lays 'Eggs' In The New Clip From Shudder". Rue Morgue. 2022-03-08. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ^ "The Seed". Rotten Tomatoes.