“The Seeding deals with big themes, but in a small, contained way, almost like a brutal adult version of a children’s story or fable – something to bore under your skin and stick around for a while. I hope, like all great horror, it speaks some truth about human nature, even if its a side we’d rather not see.” says Director/Writer Barnaby Clay.
Clay goes on to say: “The Seeding emerged from two deeply important parts of my life: a love of psychological horror films that began in my early teens, and family; the birth of my son in particular. I’d been searching for a story that was both contained and compelling, andwalking through the Joshua Tree Desert with my wife who was pregnant at the time, Icame up with the central conceit forThe Seeding:A man finds himself marooned in an inescapable desert canyon, where the inhabitantshave built a primordial society, structured around a merciless coda of survival andprocreation.You may ask how such a brutal film could be inspired by the joyous birth of my son and Ianswer that birth is brutal, an experience rivaled only by death in its level of rawintensity. Also, as the man in the equation, you are an appendage, potentially interchangeable and at the mercy of the mother, who is everything.”
Credit:Magnolia Pictures & Magnet Releasing
Prior to ‘The Seeding,’ Barnaby directed the documentary SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock, and his award-winning short films includes Carousel starring Chloe Sevigny and Sickdog starring Tunde Adebimpe and Natasha Lyonne. Barnaby’s background is rooted in the music and art space having directed numerous music videos for bands like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan and TV On The Radio and creating unique art installations like Live On Mars Revisited and An Encounter With Lux Prima.
‘The Seeding’ will be released by Magnet in theaters and VOD January 26, 2024.
