The Seeding – Movie Review (4/5)

THE SEEDING is a new horror thriller that takes place in the desert. Well, at the bottom of a canyon mostly. It’s a slow-burn movie that gets very dark and sinister. Read our full The Seeding movie review here!

THE SEEDING is a new genre-hybrid that might feel a bit out of this world, but there is nothing supernatural about it. Instead, it’s a very dark horror thriller that ends up evolving in extremely sinister ways.

The story is slow-burn but it goes places that are sure to keep your attention. With a very small cast and a story that plays out almost entirely at the bottom of a canyon, it’s a claustrophobic experience. The runtime is 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Continue reading our The Seeding movie review below. Find it in theaters and on VOD from January 26, 2024.

The Canyon has Eyes

In The Seeding, we meet Wyndham Stone. A man who is out in the desert to get some great photographs of an eclipse. As he hikes back to his car, he meets a young boy, who seems to be lost.

In his effort to help the boy, the man gets completely turned around and ends up being lost in the desert. Suddenly, he discovers a woman living in a house at the bottom of a canyon.

He takes refuge with this woman, Alina, who is living alone, but welcomes the company and offers him food, water, and shelter. Unfortunately for the man, he wakes up to discover that getting out of the canyon is a more difficult matter.

Also, the woman may not exactly be there willingly. Though we’re not quite in the same universe, it did make me think of The Hills Have Eyes. Only set in a canyon, so I guess it’s more of a “The Canyon Has Eyes”-deal.

The two leads of The Seeding

As the man, Wyndham, we see Scott Haze (Antlers, What Josiah Saw) who delivers a very strong portrayal as a man who isn’t very likable. If things aren’t going his way, he finds it impossible to understand that he isn’t in control.

The woman, Alina, is portrayed by Kate Lyn Sheil (Swarm). She won Best Actress at the Sitges Film Festival, which was great for her. I think she was more fascinating in She Dies Tomorrow and not as interesting in this.

But hey, that’s just my opinion. And I still liked her performance in The Seeding!

Simple but so very dark

While The Seeding is essentially a very simple story, it is so dark and sinister in ways that I could not shake. Against my expectations, it turned out to be the kind of movie that has stayed with me longer than I expected. That’s always a compliment.

It means it struck a nerve and somehow kept applying pressure even after the end credits. I have to address this as it usually means more than what you might feel or experience while watching the actual film.

We follow one man from the beginning until the end, but at the same time, it’s just a slice of life for the other characters. They had a whole world without him and will continue to have a new kind of world after him.

Watch The Seeding on VOD or in theaters

Barnaby Clay is the writer and director of The Seeding. He previously directed a lot of music videos over the past two decades and that really does tend to be a great way to start.

This is his feature film debut and I’m actually excited to see what he does next. As this is his feature film debut, it also goes without saying that Barnaby Clay (a cool name, by the way) is a relatively new filmmaker.

However, with his music video experience and a great eye for both character and world-building, he has what it takes. That all-important filmmaker/storyteller talent that a movie like The Kitchen desperately lacked!

The Seeding is in US theaters and on VOD from January 26, 2024. In the UK & Ireland, the digital release date is February 12.

Details

Director: Barnaby Clay
Writer: Barnaby Clay
Cast: Scott Haze, Kate Lyn Sheil, Alex Montaldo, Charlie Avink, Thatcher Jacobs, Michael Monsour