Domesticity is a prison in writer-director Barnaby Clay’s narrative feature debut, The Seeding. Both physically and mentally so, it turns out, for our grating and deeply unlikable protagonist, Wyndham Stone (whose contrivance of a name is mercifully glimpsed only briefly on his driver license). Not only does he find himself trapped in a pit-like canyon containing nothing but a shack and a woman of similar age called Alina, he’ll even spend some time in an actual cage, just in case you missed the prison metaphor. What’s more, it’s no coincidence that children have entrapped him, a pack of feral boys who periodically stand at the rim of the pit to taunt Stone and occasionally lower rations and supplies.
The entirety of the film involves Stone essentially caught between a rock and a hard place, as Alina (Kate Lyn Sheil), equally trapped, and for far longer judging by the tally marks on the wall, seems to have accepted her predicament and makes the best of it, while his various attempts at escape only result in injury. Played by Scott Haze, Stone’s character development consists primarily of the increasing volume and intensity of his aimless yelling. He’s disagreeable from the start. After driving into the desert to find the perfect spot to photograph a solar eclipse, he happens upon a boy in distress who claims to have lost his parents. His interactions with the boy are abrasive, yet he still foolishly follows the child to the point of getting lost in the wilderness. Spotting the shack, which may offer refuge or perhaps a working phone, he climbs down a rope ladder that’s been removed by the time he tries to leave the canyon the following morning, and when the menacing teen boys show up, it becomes clear his entrapment was intentional.
With no realistic way for Stone to escape the pit, the primary tension lies in to what extent he can trust Alina and accept his fate. Much as she does in She Dies Tomorrow (2020), Sheil turns in a compelling, inscrutable performance, as her enigmatic character presents alternately as pitiable and threatening. Conversely, Stone barks at Alina even when she’s offering help, and Haze never establishes this character as remotely sympathetic or even all that relatable. As days stretch into weeks and he begins to settle into this life, he has sex with Alina in a nightmarish Lynchian scene. Given the film’s title, the direction it will take from there feels heavily telegraphed.
Subtlety is not The Seeding’s strong suit, as evident from an opening shot of a dirty-faced toddler meandering through the desert while noshing on a severed human finger. The story is also rife with illogic, as Stone’s disappearance apparently inspires no search and rescue efforts, even though a helicopter or drone flyover would easily reveal his location.
Clay and cinematographer Robert Leitzell do often effectively capture the beautiful bleakness of the rugged Utah landscape, using angled shots that heighten the sense of claustrophobia and hopelessness. Ramping up vague pagan ritualism in the third act feels forced, however, a derivative and ill-advised stab at folk horror to spice up an otherwise bland story. Clay also clearly draws from the kind of rural horrors of Deliverance or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, in which unwitting victims stumble into unspeakable depravity in the uncivilized fringes of the American wild. The film’s scattered pacing can feel aimless in some moments and heavy-handed and obvious in others, and with an unpleasant protagonist making foolish decisions, the narrative bleakness doesn’t hit with the necessary impact, making The Seeding little more than a husk.
Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing
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