DVD Review: Seed
Seed (2008)
Studio: Vivendi Entertainment
DVD Release Date: September 9, 2008
Directed By: Uwe Boll
Cast: Michael Paré, William Sanderson,
Brutal As Hell Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Review By: Marc Patterson
I’m going to go out an admit something that may come as a surprise to some of my friends and regular readers. I like Uwe Boll. (Or at least I used to) Any guy who is brilliant enough to market himself the way he does despite his consistency at producing shitty films deserves some recognition. Hell, I even consider BLOODRAYNE a bit of a guilty pleasure. That being said, SEED made me spit with abhorrent disgust. I have nothing but contempt for this vile, narcissistic piece of trash.
SEED follows the events surrounding a certain depraved serial killer, Max Seed (Sanderson), who has been sentenced to the electric chair, but after three attempts at electrocuting has still managed to not die. Thanks to a glitch in the legal system, this entitles him to walk free. As a free man he invokes a path of bloody carnage so exacting and brutal even the hardest of the hardcore will look away and squirm in their seat with discomfort.
Folks, Uwe Boll has clearly gone to a dark place. There is some serious narcissistic evil in that man, and I’m not so sure a hug will help work it out. If anyone hasn’t caught wind, SEED is Boll’s attempt to shock us in a way that makes HOSTEL and SAW look like an after school special, and he does, but in a poorly packaged shell of a film.
Don’t get me wrong. I get the point of “shock horror”, and by all means kudos to Boll for accomplishing that task with brilliance. But shock isn’t original, nor is it groundbreaking. On the subject of animal cruelty, which is dominantly showcased in the early moments of the film I would have to remind you that the Italians were cutting their films with shots of animal cruelty decades ago. CANNIBAL HALOCAUST anyone? So, what makes the disgusting PETA footage Boll uses innovative? Absolutely nothing. But, animal cruelty is only the tip of an insanely large iceberg that only continues to show its dark edge when a baby is abjectly placed in room, and we are left to watch it squirm and cry over a time lapsed sequence before it falls over and dies. Honestly, I don’t need to see this kind of shit. If not for the purpose of review, this would have been shut off within the first ten minutes.
Get past the shock factor of babies being brutally killed, unnecessarily long and drawn out torture sequences, blah, blah, blah. What is Boll trying to accomplish with this film? If to tell a story of brutal revenge then fine, this much is done, however poorly. The plot moves slowly, spending more time focused on the said excesses instead of developing an intelligent story.
There is a line to be had in any genre and Boll not only found the line and pushed it to its extent, but managed to annihilate it in the same act. Again, I’m not against pushing the boundaries of comfort, but for fucks sake, do it with some artistic merit. Take a stab at competency. A loosely held together shock film, poorly made, ultimately demands itself to be relegated to the garbage compactor. And, shame on Vivendi for feeling the need to package this film both with a short film by a completely different director, along with a shitty video game just to sell a few additional units.
Here’s the bottom line, however you view this level of depravity I don’t care. One could feasibly argue its artistic merit until they were blue in the face. This is the grey zone that Boll exists in, and is the reason why I can appreciate him as a director. He’s consistently able to make shitty films that get people not just talking, but fired the hell up. Usually I shrug it off, laugh, and enjoy the show. This time I’m not laughing. As a critic, I’m inundated with some of the best and worst of films. I’m tossing this one down as one of the worst. The level of deplorable violence embraced in this film just isn’t my thing. I’m not interested and don’t see the need for it. I guess I now know how Roger Ebert felt when he called I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE a “vile bag of garbage”.
If it needs to be said then I’ll say it. Avoid this film at all costs. Me? I’m tossing my copy in said garbage compactor.
Some critics may try to spend their time empathizing with Bolls “artistic” perspective. After all, everything is subjective, and how can one sit and watch a rape scene in a “classic” exploitation film, and then in the same breath call SEED shit? Maybe it’s the way that SEED pushes it so intensely in your face that there’s no commentary left.
You know, I admittedly don’t have a solid answer for that. Again, there are some boundaries in film and Boll has pushed them too far.
While his commentary track plods on relentlessly showing his strong anti death penalty beliefs, such a statement doesn’t exactly support the film too well. Not when were forced to focus upon this level of absolute cruelty. For Boll, it’s all been said before. It’s as though he really just felt the need to exact his revenge upon an audience that has long ago written him off as a hack. Believe me, the opinion hasn’t changed.
