The Seeding reads like a film that exists because someone stumbled upon a gigantic hole in the Utah desert and thought, “What a sublime location for some horror stuff!” It is, mind you. Writer/director Barnaby Clay collaborates with cinematographer Robert Leitzell to illustrate sunburnt isolation in this thriller about a man stuck in a sunken pit, but the crisp camerawork is wasted on a frustrating script that tries so, so hard to keep our clueless protagonist in his well of misery. The corroded mineral walls, dehydrated trees, and all of nature’s other décor are wonderfully shot, and the performances aren’t to blame, but The Seeding just doesn’t have the storytelling mindset to protect its characters from looking like fools instead of victims of horrific circumstances.
Scott Haze stars as photographer Wyndham Stone, who’s out snapping shots of an eclipse in a nowhere stretch of dead desert. Wyndham is dressed in a button-down, more desk jobber than outdoorsman, which questions his survival instincts should he find himself astray. That exact predicament happens when Wyndham stumbles upon a lost boy, who leads him away from civilization and disappears. Wyndham spies a pioneer-looking shack at the bottom of a massive crater, so he climbs down a rickety iron ladder that connects to rope footholds, where he asks homeowner Alina (Kate Lyn Sheil) for a phone. She instead offers stew and a bed, but when Wyndham wakes up the following day, the rope ladder has disappeared—Alina doesn’t seem to think he’s going anywhere.
Clay’s inspiration for The Seeding is humbly personal: his son’s birth. The paranoias of pregnancies, parenthood and familial safety are like fresh wounds in a movie called “The Seeding” (those themes shouldn’t be a surprise). Wyndham encounters a gang of lost boys with leaders Corvus (Alex Montaldo) and Arvo (Michael Monsour), who torment the city slicker forced into Alina’s domestic bubble. Psychological and physical abuse become the norm as these adolescent vagrants dangle harnesses like carrots in front of Wyndham, cackling like wayward brothers out of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or The Hills Have Eyes. There’s something diabolical at play; Clay views the “cycle of life” in a barbaric and bloodthirsty manner.
What’s less successful is the character of Wyndham Stone—a horror protagonist who makes all the wrong choices to keep Clay’s story moving. He’s also a prick, intentionally as commentary on Wyndham’s masculine caveman instincts, which doesn’t make you root for his ascension to freedom at any point. The Seeding primitively questions the place of man in the universe but does so with an off-putting shallowness. There’s nothing wrong with a complicated or problematic protagonist, but there is an issue when said character tanks the ensuing story. Wyndham’s begging for whatever nastiness comes his way, and that’s a mood killer.
To a detriment, The Seeding is built on the shock and awe of its gnarly conclusion. There are scant bouts of gore as Wyndham encounters the wild boys, who evoke the ritualistic aspect of Clay’s folkloric themes through chants and secret languages. Chapters are split into “Moons,” from “Harvest” to “Beaver,” conveying the assumption that something far grander is at play beyond stumbling upon the wrong place, wrong time—an undercooked Ari Aster recipe come the film’s finale. Violence is raw and merciless when enacted, and Sheil does an admirable job making you question whether Alina is imprisoned or ring-leading, but the shifty Stockholm syndrome apprehension isn’t as helpful given how long Wyndham has, runtime-wise, to act a fool.
Clay’s instincts as a director are spot-on when it comes to generating visual appeal and motivating performances. Unfortunately, The Seeding doesn’t have a thoughtful enough script to sustain its maternal containment thrills. Woman is king, man is obsolete and families must depend on themselves—Clay’s saying his themes out loud, but they’re less impactful due to the character perspectives we’re forced to follow. Wyndham Stone is a failed caricature of a horror protagonist, and while I admire any filmmaker who can make their work so personal, The Seeding is a seedling of an idea that never fully blossoms.
Director: Barnaby Clay
Writers: Barnaby Clay
Starring: Scott Haze, Kate Lyn Sheil
Release Date: January 26, 2024
Matt Donato is a Los Angeles-based film critic currently published on SlashFilm, Fangoria, Bloody Disgusting, and anywhere else he’s allowed to spread the gospel of Demon Wind. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association. Definitely don’t feed him after midnight.