The Seed Review

4 star sci-fi black comedy creature feature.

The Seed is a 2021 sci-fi horror with a good dollop of (literally) black comedy thrown in for good measure. It is the gory, occasionally cringeworthy, but very enjoyable  feature debut of Sam Walker who writes and directs. It is presented on Shudder.

“24 hours is a lifetime on the Internet. I’ve got sponsors, I don’t post, I don’t get paid.”

Dierdre (Lucy Martin – Vikings), Heather (Sophie Vavasseur – Exorcismus) and Charlotte (Chelsea Edge – End of Term) are childhood friends. Heather’s father owns a luxury villa in the middle of the desert which the three girls are heading to in order to watch a once in a lifetime meteor shower and also to do a photo shoot.

Dierdre is a social media influencer, while Heather is a spiritual guru and they are both looking forward to the meteor shower as an opportunity to gain more followers. Charlotte on the other hand has no interest in the Internet whatsoever, even using an old cell phone.

Their plans begin to go wrong when the Internet suddenly ceases to function just after the start of the meteor shower. They are further disrupted by the unexpected arrival of a small, dirty and very smelly rock in the pool. They fish it out and soon discover that it has a face. Thinking it is dead they head off inside to go to bed.

The next morning, they find it has been dragged across the garden and looks like some sort of bear. When the gardener Brett (Jamie Wittebrood) tries to move it with a shovel, it wakes up and screams, scaring everybody and generally causing mayhem. What is this little creature and how did it get here?

The Seed is a very entertaining film to watch, featuring some brilliant special effects, so good in fact that it’s occasionally quite difficult to watch. The acting is really good too, how anyone keeps a straight face with some little bearlike alien lothario wooing them and smothering them in weird fleshy stuff is anybody’s guess.

It’s an interesting mix of genres, part sci-fi, part comedy, part porn and all with a girl’s weekend away vibe which brings the whole thing together really well. With plenty of gore and lots of laughs, this is a fun film and well worth a watch.

“Can we have some fun now please? We came here to have a good time, not drag some stinking dying bear around in the blazing heat.”

The Seed is available to stream now on Shudder.