A gore-drenched body horror detested by its own target audience turns stomachs on streaming

In 99 percent of cases, horror is geared more towards its target audience than critics, and the former tend to respond in kind by taking a more favorable stance on any given movie’s merits. However, 2021’s The Seed didn’t just score less than stellar reviews, it was roundly rejected by its own demographic.

Writer and director Sam Walker’s stomach-churning sci-fi splatter fest rustled up a 52 percent critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is about par for the course for such an outlandish and gore-soaked slab of intergalactic carnage.

On the other hand, a miserable 14 percent user average highlights that The Seed was disregarded by the people it was made for in the first place, which isn’t a position any film seeking success wants to find itself in. And yet, because horror is every bit as bulletproof as it gets on streaming, gorehounds everywhere have been lapping up the death and dismemberment after FlixPatrol revealed it to be one of the most-watched features on Google Play.

Sophie Vavasseur leads the ensemble cast as Heather, who heads off with her friends for a girls’ weekend in the remote reaches of the Mojave desert. Naturally, things go completely, utterly, and insanely off the rails to an unfathomable degree, with plans for rest and relaxation falling by the wayside in the face of an alien invasion.

Not for the faint of heart, The Seed does boast some stellar effects work and suitable levels of evisceration, but proceed with caution based on the tepid reactions from its own target demographic.