FILM GUTTER SPECIAL: OCTO-BOLL PART THREE- SEED 2007

Dir. Uwe Boll, 90 min, Canada

Well, Film Gutter seems to have fallen upon technical difficulties, and that promised House of the Dead review might just have to wait, as it's completely vanished from my desktop somehow. So, in a slight change to your scheduled programming, today's offering will be Seed.

Looking at it now, in many senses, this is the perfect review to follow on from Attack on Darfur, which was deeply upsetting and extremely hard to watch. That motif is continued here with an unrelentingly bleak serial killer piece that enjoyed a sequel in 2014 and is probably most known for its opening five minutes. More of that in a moment.

One of the things I have always loved about Boll as a director is his unapologetic nature – he’s always made the films he wanted to make how he wanted them. Postal is a prime example of that attitude, and Seed is probably an even stronger one. This is grungy, grimy, gory and generally has nothing nice about it at all, including a heartily depressing ending and some genuinely shocking moments throughout.

Even with the above said, it’s not a bad film at all. In fact I think Seed is pretty good, but there does remain a slight sense that there could have been something even better in there just waiting to get out.

The story centres around serial killer Max Seed, who cuts a pretty terrifying figure throughout. He's been sentenced to death by electric chair, but having survived three blasts of electricity by state law he has to be released. However our lead, Detective Matt Bishop, is pressured into burying Seed rather than releasing him to commit more crimes. But Seed is anything but ready to leave it there, and it's not long before he's clawed his way from the grave and is ready to continue his killing spree and wreak his revenge.

In many ways, Seed is nothing original as one of a host of demented serial killer flicks. What sets it apart is the absolute brutality – dare I say nihilism – that is on show here. The opening scene is infamous for using footage of real animal suffering from PETA's archives (with PETA receiving a cut of the film's profits) that is indisputably hard to watch. There's also some deeply unpleasant scenes throughout, including one shot of a woman being beaten with an axe handle for five minutes solid which is really vicious. As such, I think there's enough to make this one stand out from the crowd as a strong example of its subgenre.

There are a handful of things that hold this one back for me – I think the performance from Michael Pare in the lead is a bit overblown in places, and the revenge plot is pretty obvious and contrived, treading little new ground. Some of the deaths are a little predictable to boot, and it would have been nice to see some more development of Seed beyond the masked killer stereotype.

I may have seen gorier, but this movie might just be one of the most depressing serial killer pictures you're ever likely to see. If you're a fan of the milieu, then Seed is certainly well worth a look.

RATING: 7/10. Since watching Seed, I've been trying to think of a movie as consistently upsetting as this one and pretty much drawn a blank. There's no comic relief and absolutely no let-up in the darkness on display, which might well be off-putting to a lot of viewers. But this pure howl of cinematic rage has plenty of tension to keep you watching, and barring a few smaller flaws is a strong example of its subgenre.