Canada | 2024 | 82m | English, Kanien’kéha

Seeds is an “influencer horror” film about a woman who takes a lucrative sponsorship gig from a big-time seed company, only to learn that things aren’t as innocent as they seem. Believing that this is the big break her budding social media influencer career has needed and her chance to escape the grueling delivery job that sustains her livelihood in Toronto, Ziggy, played by Kaniehtiio Horn (who also wrote and directed the film) quickly learns from her friends and family back home that the big business sponsoring her is actually, like, totally evil and apparently on a path to monopolize the world’s seed supply. Worse, one of the company’s lackeys stalks her to her Aunt’s home on a Mohawk reservation while Ziggy is there house-sitting.

Seeds then turns into a revenge tale, although never a particularly tense one. Ziggy is confident, strong, and funny throughout the story, willing to give her sponsor the benefit of the doubt or to forgive her ex, who shows up after too many calls go unanswered. Ziggy is moody but rational and empathetic. That’s why I found her psychopathic behavior in the movie’s audacious and extremely violent final scene jarring rather than satisfying. A Canadian maple leaf print visible on her victim’s boxers serves as a last bit of ham-fisted symbolism. Seeds will best be enjoyed by those looking for a violent, female-led mystery/thriller specifically from an Indigenous Canadian perspective. I myself wanted more from the story, which abandons its influencer plot thread by the time it reaches its brutal conclusion.

1.5/5

Viewed on September 7, 2024 at the Scotiabank Theatre as part of the Toronto International Film Festival 2024.