Seed (2007)

Director:

Uwe Boll

Writer:

Uwe Boll (written by)

Release Date:

22 November 2007 (Germany)

Genre:

Crime | Horror

Plot:

After a seemingly undead man is bound and buried alive, he digs himself back to the surface and seeks bloody vengeance on those who caused him his suffering.

Plot Keywords:

Executioner | Tied To Chair | Electrocution | Stabbed In The Eye | Profanity

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Michael Paré	...	Detective Matt Bishop
Will Sanderson	...	Max Seed
Ralf Moeller	...	Warden Arnold Calgrove
Jodelle Ferland	...	Emily Bishop
Andrew Jackson	...	Dr. Parker Wickson
Thea Gill	...	Sandra Bishop
Brad Turner	...	Larry Thompson
Phillip Mitchell	...	Simpson
Mike Dopud	...	Flynn
John Sampson	...	Officer D. Ward
Tyron Leitso	...	Jeffrey
Michael Eklund	...	Executioner
John Hainsworth	...	Witness
Vincent Walker	...	Inmate #1 (as Vince Walker)
William 'Big Sleeps' Stewart	...	Inmate #2 (as William 'BIGSLEEPS' Stewart)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Australia:R | UK:18 | Argentina:16 | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Pitchblack Pictures Inc.

Trivia:

The movie Matt and Emily Bishop are watching is BloodRayne (2005).

Goofs:

Factual errors: The press announcement for this movie claimed the story is based on true events. However, the notion that a convict who survives three jolts from the electric chair is automatically pardoned and set free is an urban legend. There is no such law.

Quotes:

[from Trailer]
Davis: I want you to find him, I want you to KILL him, and I want you to put him in the ground so he can never come back again.

Movie Connections:

References Psycho (1960)

Shockingly Pointless

Over the past year, Uwe Boll has shown marginal improvement as a filmmaker, cranking out the competent "In the Name of the King" (a "Lord of the Rings" clone) and the proudly vulgar, post-9/11 satire "Postal." But then came "Seed," and the counter was reset to Zero, keeping his bid for legitimacy and respect that much further out of reach. And I'm a fan of the guy–his films exhibit a uniquely screwball vision, and are never dull.

Spawned from his frustration over the savage notices his early films received, "Seed" is a colossally misguided attempt at social commentary, and an even worse jab at creating an iconic slasher mythology (Boll often seems to be taking a page from Rob Zombie's successful reboot of "Halloween"). The antagonist is Maxwell Seed (Will Sanderson), a mute, hulking brute who's slain 666 people and sits on death row, awaiting execution; after unsuccessfully frying the beast, he rises from the grave to seek revenge on those who put him there...and so begins a string of wholly gratuitous mayhem.

Trying to create a new-millennium slasher in the vein of Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, Max Seed is too nondescript and boring to leave an impression, ultimately resembling a washed-up pro wrestler doing "The Toolbox Murders" on a succession of equally boring victims. Furthermore, Seed's character and Boll's "message" run contrary to one another: the death penalty is wrong, sure, but are we really expected to sympathize with a soulless killer who's left a couple hundred corpses in his wake? I think not.

Meanwhile, Michael Pare acts like a listless, long-lost brother to James Remar's character on "Dexter": a cop who sits at his desk a lot, thumbing through newspaper clippings, and watching pointless stop-motion scenes of decomposing animals and people trapped in Seed's lair. By the time he and a bunch of cardboard cops storm Seed's hideout, the sequence is so drawn-out, ill-conceived (the lighting is almost non-existent), and unexciting (despite a healthy dose of gore) that it almost put me to sleep.

The shoddy film-making isn't limited to just that sequence: "Seed" appears to have been shot by a drunken cinematographer, since the camera bobs and weaves endlessly, a technique that's more stomach-turning than the gore itself; these protracted takes of very little happening only draw attention to the meandering, almost non-existent narrative. At 90 minutes, the film is distended enough to be considered a form of torture, which might have been Boll's intent all along.

Pure genius...I guess the joke's on me.