Seeds

I saw this film as it was the second feature on a disc containing the previously banned Video Nasty 'Blood Rites'. As Blood Rites was entirely awful, I really wasn't expecting much from this film; but actually, it would seem that trash director Andy Milligan has outdone himself this time as Seeds of Sin tops Blood Rites in style and stands tall as a more than adequate slice of sick sixties sexploitation. The plot is actually quite similar to Blood Rites, as we focus on a dysfunctional family unit, and of course; there is an inheritance at stake. The film is shot in black and white, and the look and feel of it reminded me a lot of the trash classic 'The Curious Dr Humpp'. There's barely any gore on display, and the director seems keener to focus on sex, with themes of incest and hatred seeping through. The acting is typically trashy, but most of the women get to appear nude at some point and despite a poor reputation, director Andy Milligan actually seems to have an eye for this sort of thing, as many of the sequences in this film are actually quite beautiful. The plot is paper thin, and most of the film is filler; but the music is catchy, and the director also does a surprisingly good job with the sex scenes themselves, as most are somewhat erotic. Overall, this is not a great film; but it's likely to appeal to the cult fan, and gets a much higher recommendation than the better known and lower quality 'Blood Rites'.

A HEAVILY dysfunctional family gets together for the holidays. This leads to multiple murders (all badly done) and quite a few sex inserts that feature none of the original cast! This was originally shot as a straight-forward exploitation film with little skin. The producers saw it and decided to change it. They cut out key scenes that explained the plot, inserted some seriously terrible music that occasionally drowns out the actors dialogue, inserted some soft core sex scenes (seemingly at random) with two people who aren't even in the movie! They turned what MIGHT have been an OK movie into an incomprehensible mess. Still the script (or what's left of it) isn't bad, the acting is pretty good (even though some actors REALLY chew the scenery) and a lot of dramatic sequences really work. However the sex scenes the producers inserted pop up all over the place and go on for up to 5 minutes! The two actors (a guy and a girl) ARE attractive and have nice bodies so they're not a chore the watch...but their scenes totally destroy the flow of the story. So what's left is what might have been a pretty good film destroyed by editing and inserting pointless sex. A 3.

Say what you want about Andy Milligan - but if his family was even 10% as deranged as the one in this film, well then I guess he could have turned out worse. Unfortunately, the video print of this film contains sex scene inserts originally shot by the distributor to boost the picture's box office appeal. Several times during the film Milligan's ugly camerawork and silent film music abruptly ends, and suddenly good-looking stand-ins for Milligan's homely actors take over and start doing it to psychedelic 60's guitar rock. It's pretty easy to fast-forward through if you're trying to pay attention to Milligan's original film, which, unfortunately, is missing quite a bit of action that was cut to make room for the added sex scenes. What remains, however, is still compelling stuff. I don't think I've ever seen a more hateful mother in any film before.

Dysfunctional family goes home for the holidays and murder and mayhem result. Violent sexy Milligan at his most home made. Little better than a home movie (as much of Milligans films are) this is a trip into depravity 1960's style. Notable for the copious nudity and sex this film is neither sexy nor gruesome, playing now more as quaint.(though decidedly r rated). The film suffers from its uneven cast and from the cheapness of the production.(No one was ever sure where the money went on his movies since he was always broke). Its a bad bad movie thats not worth seeing except as a Milligan completeist or because its got some good looking people fooling around.

Andy Milligan co-wrote, directed, shot, and did the costumes for this grimly effective exploitation feature. It stars Maggie Rogers as Claris Manning, a vile and hateful bitch if ever there was one. Now her grown-up children are all putrid and hateful in their own ways, and she's convinced (probably not incorrectly) that they're waiting and waiting for her to drop dead so her fortune will become available to them. The old lady's daughter Carol (Candy Hammond, whom Milligan married during filming) invites the ugly brood over for a Christmas dinner, and things turn ugly in more ways than one. Some of the family members start dying off in various ways.

"Seeds" is one of those trash flicks that makes up for in spirit what it may lack in technical polish. It may indeed be "rough around the edges", but Milligan and his co-writer John Borske concocted a wonderfully sordid story and wonderfully sordid characters here. It's all compelling in a really twisted way, especially since incest is a theme that recurs throughout. And because so many of the characters are despicable (including house staff that have their own scheme in the works), we're only too happy to see these people bumped off.

There isn't that much in the way of graphic violence, but exploitation devotees will be delighted to note the abundant nudity and sex. The lack of a big budget helps to create a truly depraved and, well, seedy atmosphere. There are very few settings used, with most of the action confined to the house.

The dialogue is often very amusing, and better than one might expect, and the same goes for the performances. Rogers, in particular, is memorably hideous as one of the nastiest mothers in screen history.

As some people likely already know, this is also available in an alternate cut, "Seeds of Sin", which trims out a lot of Milligans' original material and adds new sex scenes with different actors, in an attempt to increase the pictures' possible revenue.

This could make for interesting alternative Christmas time viewing for more adventuresome movie lovers.

Eight out of 10.