Seeds

Directed by Kaniehtiio Horn, Seeds follows an influencer (Horn’s Ziggy) who travels home and subsequently encounters sinister happenings within her former community. It’s clear, ultimately, that Seeds benefits substantially from Horn’s appealing, compelling turn as the affable central character, as the movie otherwise doesn’t possess much in the way of attributes designed to sustain the viewer’s waning interest – with the somewhat arms-length atmosphere compounded by Jonathon Cliff’s low-rent visuals and an ongoing (and entirely needless) emphasis on less-than-subtle elements. And while Horn’s attempts at integrating social commentary into a pretty standard thriller-movie narrative are admirable (albeit clumsy), Seeds‘ lackadaisical pace, coupled with its general absence of gripping interludes and digressions, prevents it from becoming the tense, engrossing piece of work Horn has obviously intended – which ensures that the whole thing peters out long before arriving at its impressively violent climax.

** out of ****