Joining the ranks of bleak, slow burn horror, Barnaby Clay’s The Seeding is a strange and hypnotic film that exudes a confidence in the story it tells with little self-consciousness, challenging the viewer to look past what initially feels like hicksploitation clichés to the deeper and more unsettling layers just below the surface.

Starring an always stunning Kate Lyn Sheil (please immediately watch Amy Seimetz’s She Dies Tomorrow for another incredible Sheil performance) and Scott Haze (What Josiah Saw), The Seeding throws us headfirst, along with protagonist Wyndham Stone (Haze), into a nightmare of isolation and confusion, as Stone follows a boy who claims to be separated from his parents into an abyss in the center of the desert, a large cavernous opening at the bottom of inescapably high rocks that contains a single metal-roofed shack. Upon making the unbelievably stupid decision to climb down the sketchy ladders to reach the bottom, Wyndham meets Alina (Sheil), a woman seemingly unsurprised and unmoved by his sudden presence, simply carrying on with her life as if he had always been there.

My first thoughts as the first act melted into the second is how much longer viewers will accept such careless decisions in a horror film. There’s a certain level of unbelievability in how Wyndham ends up in this predicament, but where Clay re-earns my trust is the almost hypnagogic sense of the days and nights as they begin to stack up. The protagonist has no recourse, no matter how hard he attempts to rally Alina to his aid in finding a way out – all the while refusing to acknowledge her obvious hand in the nefariousness at foot – and his lack of action against Alina once her own motivations are revealed. The film morphs into something greater than the story of one man’s survival; it allows itself to mutate into the theater of grotesquerie that the cavernous prison represents.

Imagery of decaying animals and food accompany each new “chapter” of The Seeding, guiding us through the devolution of Wyndham as a man, as he gives up further agency, gives up fighting, is reduced to an animal in a cage. I almost wish it was just Alina and Wyndham in this world. The wildling children – vile and sadistic in a way that feels out of place in this film – dash Wyndham’s hope for escape over and over, but overall detract from the more personal and intimate relationship taking shape within the walls of the canyon. Even the opening scene, showing a dirty toddler alone in the desert, chomping on a human finger, seems to be trying to coerce us into watching with expectation of certain genre elements the film doesn’t ultimately offer.

I could see The Seeding being met with mixed reviews, as even the trailer teases more The Hills Have Eyes than the meditative, contemplative, and soul-crushingly desolate nightmare we are met with. But I happen to be a fan of the unexpected, as well as the gorgeous cinematography from Robert Leitzell (shot the wildly underrated Black Bear), so I can only urge audiences to sit with the feelings The Seeding evokes, be they viscerally unsettling or irritating, and understand the value of independent horror that takes risks.

The Seeding is available now on VOD in the U.S. from Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures. It is available in the UK on Feb. 12th from Lightbulb Film Distribution.

Film Rating: 💀 💀 💀 💀/5

2 oz. Shelter Distilling Single Barrel Blue Corn Bourbon
1 oz. fresh lemon juice
.5 oz. simple syrup
.25 dropper Bevy Bitters Lemon Hopped
Maraschino cherry

🥃

Add ingredients (sans cherry) to cocktail shaker.
Add many ice cubes. Shake vigorously.
Strain into old fashioned glass with large rock + cherry.
Enjoy.