Written and directed by Sam Walker
Starring Lucy Martin, Chelsea Edge, Sophie Vavasseur
Unrated
Runtime: 91 minutes
Available on Shudder March 10th

by Whitley Albury, Staff Writer

I’m all about some weird cosmic horror. I’m even more about some B-level cosmic horror. But then there’s The Seed.

We open on a girls trip into the desert, with Deidre (Lucy Martin) and Heather (Sophie Vavasseur) planning on livestreaming a once-in-a-lifetime meteor shower and with friend Charlotte (Chelsea Edge) along for the ride. There’s a heavy emphasis on how Charlotte is “not like other girls” as she works in a pet store, she’s broke, has a shitty relationship, and, the topper, she’s brunette! So, obviously, she’s the odd duck. As the three prepare for the meteor shower, their phones all stop working. It’s clearly not a normal celestial event, as all three girls ask, “is it supposed to do that?” All the fun comes to a halt as a meteor splashes down in the pool. The girls panic, trying to get it out of the water. One of them says, “God just took a shit in your pool!” And this is when it starts getting highly weird: the meteor is an alien. An alien that looks like a bald badger and screams like a pterodactyl.

But honestly, weird is probably the best genre fit for The Seed. There’s conspiracy theory, there’s in-fighting, there’s a strange kissing scene between Charlotte and a teenager who mows the lawn (which is a whole other conversation). There’s a lot happening all at once. And sometimes it does feel like the film should have been longer to address some of the storylines. There’s one scene where Charlotte is in the pool and glares as Heather and Deirdre gossip. Like there’s clearly a lot of back story there, but we just don’t get any.

The bald badger is the most delightful puppet I’ve seen in a horror flick in recent years. Aesthetically, the film is fantastic. It’s about a five on a ten point gore scale (lots of alien blood, less so human blood, and a decent amount of pus). There’s one shot that I particularly love, toward the end, where black alien blood mixes with normal human blood.

This film also ticks a lot of kink boxes, to put it lightly. If you’re familiar with Possession, then good news, you’re slightly more prepared for a few scenes than I was! I’d say that it’s worth watching if you want to get comfy and inebriated in your preferred way and just have something new to watch. The very end kind of killed the vibe. There were a couple of bits of comedy, but I don’t know if there were enough to classify it as a “horror comedy” or “dark comedy”. If anything, watch it for the weird little bald badger puppet.