Directed By: Pete Mander
Cast: Scott Murphy, Jordan Paris, Jonathan Paris, George Murphy, Jay Fawbush, Greg Holmes, Scott Spence.
Crew: Jay Fawbush, Andrew Petrie, Chris Detherige, Eric Johnson, Jerry Munsie, Andrew Petrie, Thomas Brown, Tim Brown, Scott Spence, Kim Smith, Tammy Guindon, Andrew Miller, Scott Murphy, Jordan Paris, Jonathan Paris, Andrew Petrie, Jay Fawbush, Graeme Ring, Nick Ring, Mike Rogula, Ryan Woodgate, Jared Newcombe, Jesse Newcombe, Emily Havermann
Posted by Darkness on June 6, 2015
As we know from the Alien series, Weyland-Yutani is the evil company that seeks to retrieve a Xenomorph for their weapons division. The story in S.E.E.D. tells us how the Yutani Corporation first became involved with Weyland Industries. The fan film begins with a Predator spaceship crash landing in a remote forest and multiple Xenomorphs escape. The film is shown from the perspective of Major Jordan Paris and Captain Scott Murphy, both SWAT operatives, who begin chasing a Predator.
They both are recruited into Black Ops and Spencer, the CEO of the Yutani Corporation, reveals that the 1947 Roswell crash was actually a Predator spaceship and they used the infamous alien autopsy video to cover it up. He says the Predators have visited our planet many times and each time, a special team of operatives was sent to investigate but none of them ever returned alive. Spencer reveals that these alien creatures have crashed in a forest and have sent a sniper, Jordan’s brother, to watch the creatures. So Paris and Murphy are sent on a search and rescue mission. They find the sniper alive but quickly find they are in a massive battle between Aliens and Predators.
Oh, dear, where do I start reviewing this fan film? There are so many problems with S.E.E.D.. It’s no secret that there were numerous problems throughout production. According to director Pete Mander, 60% of the script wasn’t filmed so they ended up only shooting a small part of what they wanted. He ran out of time and money and essentially had trouble finding people with the same motivation to make the movie. Real-life commitments got in the way of everybody involved. As a result, a lot of the story is completely lost. They supposedly had enough in the script to film a two hour movie. Even at 27 minutes long, you’ll still come out of it scratching your head.
The other main problem is that none of the cast and crew had any kind of experience in acting or filmmaking so they learnt as they went on. Bad audio, bad camerawork, bad lighting. This brings me to the single biggest problem – the editing. In the climax of the movie when everything kicks off between the Xenomorphs and Predators, the editing is so chaotic you can’t tell what’s going on. I couldn’t even tell you how many Predators and Aliens were in this film because there were that many quick cuts and battles going on.
The main highpoint of the film, and the reason S.E.E.D. was made, is the fantastic Alien and Predator costumes and animatronics that Pete Mander crafted from scratch. Again, I don’t know how many he created as there were more creatures in S.E.E.D. than any other fan film we’ve seen in the community. I think there were about seven Predators with completely unique features. We have “Blades” who has two blades jutting from its mask – seems like a precursor to the Tracker Predator in 2010’s Predators. “Scanner” has a weird mouth while “Blinded” is in the water battle. “Albino” was the only unmasked Predator and his skin was white.
“Badblood” was the one with the dark red mask and was a rogue Predator. That’s another thing that is completely unexplained in the fan film. Where did the rogue come from? Why was he attacking the other Predators? Badbloods have been in the comics for a long time but this was actually the first time we see Predator vs Predator action in a film, until Predators was released. Another first for the media was the introduction of a female Predator who has a more feminine mask and breastplates. It’s a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment as she appears for only a few seconds. I’m not a fan of female Predators but I’ll give Pete Mander full credit for throwing it in there. There are a few visual effects in S.E.E.D. such as the Predators’ shoulder cannons and vision modes. It works, I guess but it’s very outdated from what we saw in the Predator movies.
There’s no denying that Pete Mander is fantastic when it comes to sculpting and making costumes but I wish somebody else with movie-making experience took charge of production while he worked in the background. It’s a bit like asking the Strause Brothers or ADI (who both have backgrounds in effects but have no clue about directing) to make a movie. The finished result is always going to be a mess. Despite the sketchy story, acting, and editing, I still do love seeing the creatures on screen and for me, it does a lot to salvage S.E.E.D..
Interview: Pete Mander – Director of S.E.E.D. (October 26, 2006)
Interview: Scott Murphy and Jordan Paris – Actors in S.E.E.D. (October 26, 2006)
S.E.E.D. Premiere Report – Interviews with Cast & Crew (October 26, 2006)
Download S.E.E.D. Script – Offline but can be found in Web Archive.
Official Seed Website