Seed

Seed (2007)

Written and directed by Uwe Boll

Seed starts with a warning that the movie "contains graphic and disturbing footage of real events", which are included "to make a statement about humanity." Said footage is the immediately following film of dogs undergoing disgusting and shocking acts of cruelty, compiled from Peta's archives. It was hard to watch. I pushed on.

Seed is another 'based on real events' film, using the premise that Washington state law required a prisoner to be set free if they survive three shots in the electric chair. Accordingly, after convicted serial killer Sam Seed survives the chair, he is buried alive and the true events covered up. He digs his way out of his grave and resumes his killing spree. Actual truths in all this are, the internet tells me, debatable.

After the confrontational beginning, the pattern of 'dread/suspense' and 'full-frontal shocking' commences. As much as I shrank away from the beginning, my attention was soon lost as a team of police wanders through a dark and decrepit house. This became the pattern for the rest of the film, where I would lose interest while the ominous, brooding soundtrack drones as soon-to-be-victims tread nervously around in the dark, and then cringe while Seed bludgeons a woman's head to pulp (only to relax when the special effects don't hold up), and then relax, and then cringe, etc. The gory bits deliver on cringe and the suspenseful bits, for the most part, don't deliver. The film finishes on its strength. I won't spoil it.

Graphic and disturbing indeed, with a few moments of scary suspense, but ultimately pointless.