Seeds Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Seeds Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 5, 2021

Note: This film is available as part of The Dungeon of Andy Milligan.

Lovers of what might be charitably termed Grade Z Cinema have had a number of outstanding releases by a variety of labels over the past few years. Arrow has offered fans surprisingly deluxe-ified (that's a word, I insist) editions of The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast and Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection, among others, while Severin Films has gotten into exploring this decidedly odd nook and/or cranny with releases like Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection. Severin's back with more, um, "masterpieces" with this inventively packaged homage to the late Andy Milligan, a kinda sorta auteur whose professional life had more than its fair share of hurdles, and whose personal life unfortunately ended up not being much better. The 14 films (with one bonus film in HD, Toga Party) aggregated in this set are exploitation outings at their "finest" (?), which means those with more patrician tastes are probably well advised to steer completely clear of this release. Those with grittier sensibilities will find some at times oddly entertaining movies and Severin's usual supply of appealing supplements.

Andy Milligan's personal "issues" arguably suffuse at least the subtext of some of his films, and in that regard, some may wonder what holiday gatherings around the Milligan home must have been like after having watched Seeds. This is another Milligan effort that tries to combine an acerbic tale of family dysfunctions (to say the very least) within what is a quasi-horror context. An alcoholic and wheelchair confined woman named Claris Manning (Maggie Rogers), presides over a brood that, yep, comes home for the holidays, though not necessarily from any action on the part of Claris.

The rest of the Manning family is a veritable grabbag of Freudian Id-iots (sorry, couldn't resist), including incestuous siblings and other sexual improprieties between various characters. This has an undeniably theatrical flair, and in fact most of the actors seem to be playing to the second balcony, but there's an almost delirious giddiness to how peculiar this film is once varous Manning members are, well, dis-membered.

Seeds Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Seeds is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Severin's booklet included with this release has the following information on the transfer:

Seeds was scanned and restored in 4K by Vinegar Syndrome. This reconstruction of Milligan's original director's cut was sourced from a combination of its 16mm camera reversal as well as a 35mm blow-up dupe negative.

While this is another presentation that has what are probably unavoidable variances in clarity, detail levels and grain structure, due to the two format sources utilized, this is on the whole one of the more appealing looking transfers in the Milligan set (it's kind of interesting that to my eyes some of the better looking presentations in this set are of the black and white films). Contrast is generally solid throughout, with perhaps just a bit of milkiness in blacks in some of the darkest material. Detail levels tend to be quite good as well, with things like the herringbone patterned draperies of the family house rendered with precision. While there are some noticeable ebbs and flows to the grain field, things resolve naturally throughout.

Seeds Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Seeds features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that, like so many of the tracks in this set, is hampered by some kind of strident, brash sounding high frequencies that may bother more sensitive ears. Otherwise, though, the film's limited sonic ambitions are served competently by this track, and dialogue is rendered without any major problems. Optional English subtitles are available.

Seeds Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:03)

Seeds Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The more I watched the Milligan films in this set, the more I came to the conclusion that Milligan was, despite evidence perhaps to the contrary, an overly ambitious filmmaker who at times tried to do too many things at once, ending up failing pretty spectacularly at all of them. There are some interesting if over the top performances here, but this story never really gels as either a dissection of a family in crisis or a dissection of another sort entirely. This offers some of the more consistent video quality in the Milligan set, though audio can be a bit bright on the high end, for those who are considering making a purchase.