In The Seed, a film which has just received its UK premiere at the Halloween Arrow Video FrightFest event, three friends find their lives upended by the arrival of an unexpected visitor. Down-to-Earth Charlotte (Chelsea Edge) and her two more affluent and high maintenance friends, Diedre (Lucy Martin) and Heather (Sophie Vavasseur), visit Heather’s lavish holiday home in the desert for a weekend of relaxing. Their getaway also happens to coincide with a once in a lifetime meteor shower during which something lands in the property’s pool. As the friends fight over what to do with their discovery, strange phenomena start to occur.
A weird concoction of an alien invasion B-movie and Under the Skin, The Seed is built around the relationship dynamics of Charlotte, Diedre, and Heather, writer and director Sam Walker explores the bonds, and in some instances toxicity of sandbox friendships. There’s a clear hierarchy to our trio: Diedre is the Queen Bee who rules over the timid Heather and sees the lower class Charlotte as a project to work on. It’s an example of female friendships that has been played out time after time on screen, but Walker uses that familiarity as a short-cut to status quo, forgoing unnecessary exposition. The group have been besties since school, and in spite of their obvious differences in social standing and outlooks, have somehow remained in each other’s world. They’re essentially in a toxic friendship rut, each woman would clearly be happier with more like-minded people and yet they cling to their pasts like a tattered security blanket. As the narrative progresses, the three are slowly released from the shackles of their threadbare relationship, and as their true feelings are revealed, communication dissolves and suspicions begin to form.
Diedre and Heather are more closely suited to one another and so it is Charlotte who is the odd inclusion. Whilst her peers are technology and social media obsessed, she has opted for a life off of the internet highway, even her phone is an old-school, pre-smartphone brick. Heather and Diedre are also far more wealthy than Charlotte, she is the only one of the three who has a “regular” job and the divide between classes causes tensions from the very beginning. All these differences are compounded with the arrival of their alien guest and quickly prove how fickle their bond really is. The new visitor begins to drive a wedge between the three friends, its goal clearly being to divide and conquer, but it really doesn’t have to try all that hard.
The creature itself looks like a cross between a turtle and that small creature from The Flight of the Navigator. Much like Charlotte’s aversion to smartphones, Walker and his crew have opted to make the alien practical, and its existence in the physical world rather than the digital helps to sell it. Watching the women touch and interact with the puppet serves to make it feel more real, like how after Gremlins you could tangibly believe that Mogwaii existed.
The group’s dealings with their “guest” can be viewed through a maternal lens and seen as a look at modern motherhood. It sounds like a strange thing to say, and yet with the being appearing as a young infant, there’s a debate about how to care for it. Charlotte offers the more traditional motherhood portrayal, her goal is to keep the “baby” fed and comfortable. Heather is a reluctant caregiver, more concerned about the mess and damage it could cause, whereas Diedre is far more callous and couldn’t be less inclined to care about it if she tried. Diedre’s repulsion at the prospect of being responsible for another creature’s life has a humorous slant to it when compared to her devastation at losing functionality on her smartphone. In this situation she’s emotional, upset, and sits caressing and nurturing the device. Yet when faced with a living thing requiring some maternal love, she completely shuts down.
Outside of the interesting themes and character dynamics explored, The Seed struggles to assert its identity. Not quite a campy b-movie, nor the strange art house film it appears to be, The Seed languishes somewhere in the middle and by not firmly pushing into one camp or the other, the film feels confused. There’s also a tonal disconnect, parts of the story play for exaggerated laughs, whilst others attempt to be more subdued and serious. Due to the comedic moments, the parts that attempt at being something more conservative end up appearing as simply melodramatic. The back and forth jars, leaving The Seed in No Man’s Land.
Under the Skin by the way of Heathers, with some b-movie and body horror affectations thrown in for good measure, The Seed has more to it than its shallow facade, but its murky and unbalanced tone prevents it from being a complete success.
The Seed
Summary
With The Seed, Sam Walker has a lot of interesting commentary to say about friendship, motherhood and the control that technology and social media holds over society.
The Seed was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest.
