Wyndham Stone (Scott Haze) sets off to the desert to capture a full solar eclipse. Having photographed the natural wonder, he comes across a lost boy in search of his parents. Wandering the desert, he loses his way and finds himself in an isolated canyon. Looking for help, he comes across Alina’s (Kate Lyn Sheil) house. Spending the night, Stone realizes he is trapped in the canyon and at the mercy of a pack of wild desert dwelling boys.
With a strong emphasis on the beautiful yet harsh desert environment, Stone is forced to accept his circumstances and make peace with the fact that he is trapped in the canyon. The reserved yet accommodating Alina does little to inform the man of what exactly is happening, as she seems a willing participant to the situation.
Not handing itself any favors, the film develops at an uneven pace. In a setting that may be familiar in terms of how the story will unravel, the first act concludes on a somber note that foreshadows the story’s ultimate ending. With Stone trapped with Alina in the seemingly inescapable canyon and every one of Stone’s attempts at escaping thwarted by either the desert dwelling boys or bad luck, the tale unfolds as expected, with little intrigue or mystery.
Establishing an ominous and foreboding atmosphere, Haze’s Stone counteracts that quality of the film by delivering an erratic and uninformed performance. For every attempt at establishing an air of mystique for the film, Haze’s choices detract from that tone, resulting in an uneven pace and confused development of the story.
Sheil’s Alina however does evoke a sense of quiet danger and sternness. Even though initially the character is accommodating and inviting, Sheil manages to balance her character as that of a pragmatic survivor and motivated head of a cult-like family. Sheil manages to convey the character’s simple yet demanding way of life and pairs it beautifully with her distorted sense of reality, intensifying towards the film’s conclusion.
With a plot that isn’t challenging to understand, some of the directions the story takes feel unnecessary. Delivering a handful of absurd and mesmerizing sequences that amount to genuine horror, those scenes are too few and far in-between to result in a cohesive and sustained sense of fear. Counterbalancing the horror with drawn out dramatic scenes, ‘The Seeding’ does little to evoke a sense of dread or terror, creating a frustrating experience rather than a suspenseful one.
Arousing intrigue, the simple premise of the story has the potential to generate a spectacular showcase of scares, yet the path it eventually chooses to go down does little by way of creating a horror thriller worth while. With most of its highlights centering around Sheil, ‘The Seeding’ fails to grow into much more than a half-baked film about isolation and potential desert cultists.
Score: 1/4
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