Wednesday, September 25, 2019
SEEDS (Film Review)
Starring: Trevor Long, Andrea Chen, Garr Long
Directed by: Owen Long
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The fine line that exists between what makes up a conventional "monster" movie, and a movie that contains monsters themselves is razor-thin, in my completely useless opinion, and as that razor-thin line can disappear in the correct shade of darkness, it's what we perceive as the entity itself is the real frightening centerpiece...pretty deep, huh? Yeah, I'm feeling a bit philosophical on this early Wednesday morning, so deal with this as you'd like - file it, memorize it or chuck it over your shoulder into your virtual trashcan - any way you slice it, I've planted some Seeds in your gray matter - interestingly enough, that's just the title of the film upon the slab today.
Directed by Owen Long (in his directorial debut), the film takes us inside the fragile psyche of a man named Marcus (Owen's brother Trevor), and his personal state is in need of some serious down-time and reconditioning, and it's in the beautiful coastline of New England that will act as a point of convalescence for him. What Marcus doesn't know that in the picturesque family abode he's resting in will soon become a harbinger for some rather horrifically-ingrained instances that have been dormant for some time - well waiting time is officially over. In the middle of this conscious nightmare are Marcus's niece (Chen) and nephew, and it becomes unflinchingly uncomfortable to see the "chemistry" develop between Marcus and his niece, but it acts as fuel to the fire here and is somewhat consequential to the breakdown of rational thought going on in his head...now I feel dirty for even typing that!
While the movie doesn't rely heavily on the jump-scare tactics like so many cookie-cutter films are employing today, the overbearing sense of "something's overly off" is what gets slammed into our chests like a 25 lb sledgehammer, and believe me when I tell you that it's effective. The tempo is unfortunately lagging, but the performances themselves are engaging enough to act as a lifeline for those who might fear that they could get dragged off to Sleepytown - not to worry! Long's directorial style is one that will blossom even more over time, and to have this as his maiden voyage is something to be proud of, without a doubt - anyone can go for the slam-bang scare and win over a crowd but the mental form of horror as a whole is something that must truly be constructed from the bottom floor on up - kudos to you, Owen.
Overall, Seeds will most certainly appeal to lovers of hard-lined psychological scares, and the added hints of a taboo relationship will assist in the skin-crawling department. The film will release on DVD and other digital platforms on September 24th, so make sure to check it out and give a hearty welcome to a man who very well could take the horror genre by storm if his movies keep up in this fashion.
RATING: 3.5 out of 5
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