SEEDS Review: Don’t Mess With Influencers

Seeds is a 2024 horror film written, directed by and starring Kaniehtiio Horn. It will have its World Premiere at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

Ziggy is offered her first gig as an online influencer, promoting for Nature’s Oath, a seed and fertilizer company. When her cousin summons her back to the Rez, she is forced into a battle to save her people’s legacy. Through adversity she finds her power along the way.

A film about an influencer who finds out the corporation she is representing is evil had me intrigued. Definitely wasn’t expecting this crazy and violent spiritual journey that I got to follow Ziggy on.

One thing I want to bring up is the structure. The story starts out light, with little indication of where we are going to end up. That may not be for everyone but I think it really helps here. There is definitely a problem of anticipating the "good stuff" while tolerating anything outside of that. This approach lets you settle in to things nicely. I was free to get an understanding of Ziggy’s world and the push/pull of her current life to her time on the Rez.

Ziggy

I am reading a story about a young female warrior and at a point in the story an instructor of hers tells her that the time of potential has past. That warrior now needs to show that she is great not just that she may be capable of one day being great. That feels quite close to the journey that Ziggy is on. As we move through her story we see how strong Ziggy is.

We find out at least part of the reason for the move to the big city and it is hard to have a better example of the strength to carry on. The film’s final third leaves us in no doubt as to how strong Ziggy is.

Subverting Expectations

Ziggy and Bandit (Meegwun Fairbrother) were a pleasant surprise. When you get former lovers onscreen, too often things are predictable. It is just nice to see people using their words to talk about what went wrong between them and being able to move forward. Too often in film and TV it is just used for conflict for conflict’s sake so seeing them air things out and really communicating is just nice. Especially given the situation that they find themselves in.

Community

Being a part of a small community can be a curse and a blessing. Everyone knowing your business can be a lot and when we found about the tragedy in Ziggy’s past it makes a lot of sense that she takes the chance to start over.

Protecting Her Legacy

The final third of the film shifts things considerably tone wise. The plot raises the stakes and things come together amazingly well. Things do get very violent so be aware of that. A trigger warning is perhaps warranted when this comes to the theatre.

Seeds is an incredible feature debut for director and star Kaniehtiio Horn made even more impressive by the double duty of director and star. The film is a female led, compelling story that kept me entertained and interested throughout. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the final confrontation being our heroine alone standing tall against her enemies

The film stars Kaniehtiio Horn, Graham Greene, Dallas Goldtooth, Patrick Garrow, Meegwun Fairbrother and Dylan Cook. New Real Film are the producers, Eva Thomas is the executive producer. Jonathon Cliff is the cinematographer on the project. Horn wrote, directs and stars.

Seeds will premiere theatrically on October 25, 2024.