Seed (DVD)

Introduction

Uwe Boll is practically a hate figure amongst film fans - he makes desperately bad movies, normally adaptations of videogames and, if he wasn't German, would have gone out of business years ago. Fortunately for him a tax law exists in Germany that allows investors to have their money considered as a tax deduction and, in financing not seen since The Producers, if the film makes a loss, the investor receives a tax write-off!

Apparently in a dark place after the critical mauling meted out to Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead, Boll came up with the idea of a horror movie about a serial killer who survives his execution to take bloody revenge on those who captured and tried to kill him.

In 1979 Max Seed, a hooded, hulking, monster of a man, has murdered 666 men, women and children and is on death row. All efforts to secure a new electric chair have failed and he is to be executed using the existing machine. Seed survives the three charges of electricity sent through his body and state law says that he must therefore be freed. This is so unacceptable that those in charge of his execution pull the curtains round and tell the assembled victims and press that he is dead, before burying the still breathing Seed in the prison graveyard.

Seed digs his way to the surface and sets about killing those who put him in the ground.

Video

A decent enough transfer with plenty of gore and real scenes of animal torture (provided by PETA). The low-lit scenes are reasonably clear and the picture is OK. However the period costume and settings are lousy and, unlike say Zodiac, you never feel that the film takes place in the time specified - it just looks cheap.

Audio

Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or 2.0 Stereo - the 5.1 obviously has the edge but the score and sound design are terrible. There isn't the slightest bit of tension and, as such, the film is tedious rather than scary.

Extra Features

The 10 minute behind-the-scenes featurette shows Boll at work in the execution scene and confirmed my suspicions that he was working without a script. There is also the trailer but not Boll's commentary or the deleted scenes that are in the R1 version - I counted this as a blessing.

Conclusion

I may be risking the challenge of a boxing match but, here goes. Uwe Boll has a reputation as of one of the worst filmmakers currently plying their trade. After House of the Dead this is the only film of his that I've seen and consider them to be amongst the most wretched, stupid, offensive and badly made pieces of rubbish that I've ever seen.

This begins with a warning stating that the film includes real scenes of animal cruelty, but this is something to do with Boll's statement about humanity. There is absolutely no reason why such footage should be included and I wondered whether it was his humanity at risk, not that of his fictional serial killer.

Seed is a horrible film, badly acted, directed, edited and scored with such a downbeat ending that I began to wonder if Boll is some sort of sick lunatic. The murderer survives and a young girl is about to starve to death next to her father's body??

I urge everyone who reads this not to watch this film - don't rent, buy, illegally download or even watch it on TV. People railed against 'sick' film like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Cannibal Holocaust and I Spit on Your Grave but at least they had interesting things to say about American society, the media and gender stereotypes whilst being technically well made. Seed can claim to be none of these things and it's a sad state of affairs that sees such gutter trash being given a DVD release.

Avoid it at all costs - don't even let morbid curiosity get the better of you.