Seed of Darkness

Seed of Darkness
Director: Michael Chuah

1.78:1

Two words that should not be associated with this movie: exciting and scary.

Asian cinema was seen as the antidote to Hollywood's by-the-numbers movie making in the late 90s and early 2000s. This cinematic beacon of hope however has been proven to be just another flicker in the dark. Like their more expensive cousins, the quality of Asian movies vary from very good to very bad. One consistent style that emerges from contemporary Asian cinema is the depiction of ghosts in its horror movies. However, consistent style + the horror genre = stale.

Seed Of Darkness tells the tale of Yan who has just moved in to an apartment. The apartment complex is a little bit run-down and secluded, but that doesn't stop her from moving in with her daughter, Ying Ying. Soon after the big move, Yan begins to notice her daughter behaving strangely. Yan gets more stressed out when she senses that they are not alone in the apartment.


If the above synopsis got you excited, let it be your only exposure to this movie. Don't spend your hard-earned cash on a ticket because the movie is a total mess. Let's start at the beginning: the script.

Like other movies, horror movies must have its rules and logic so that the arc of the story is complete. It is also important because if the rules and logic don't hold up upon the first viewing, people are more disinclined to see it again. Seed Of Darkness failed this test not because it doesn't have its rules and logic but because they weren't shown or narrated on the screen. In fact, it doesn't even feel that the movie have much of a plot either!

Specifically, the ending was designed so that audience would be compelled to see the movie again to watch for clues they may have missed throughout the movie. However, the breadcrumbs the filmmakers left were so few. So instead of keeping the audience guessing as to how the film will end, the guessing was about if the end will come at all.

To that end, the faults lay with director Michael Chuah, who also co-wrote the movie with Khee Mei Chyn and Oliver Lee. He failed to keep track of the clues he should have dropped. He also allowed the film to have too many fade-ins and fade-outs which segmented the film into episodes that slowed down the momentum of its supernatural core.

The disjointed effect of the film is further exacerbated by some pretty awful performances. Wong Sze Sen as Yan can't overcome the limitations of the script and rise above it. Instead of becoming a mother pushed to the brink of insanity, her Yan is a mother pushed to the brink of numbness. Another key performance that needed to be great is Ying Ying but the child actor's performance is mundane. Her role is deemed irrelevant enough that she is not even credited on the production notes or on the film's website. The worst performance of the cast is Amber Chia who played Dr. Chen, the psychiatrist who is treating Yan. What little lines she had to say is said with blandness, but what made her performance the worst is that she looked like a model pretending to be a shrink.


Interestingly enough, the better performances came from the male leads. Vick Teo as Kit, Yan's protective brother, is believable enough in the few scenes that he is in. Alvin Wong makes the most of his small role as Sang, the sympathetic neighbor. His performance is the most nuanced of the cast.

The movie is also marred by bad editing, foley effects, sound design and mixing. There are several instances where an extra half a second could have been cut from the top of the scenes to speed up the flow of the narrative. The bad editing is also evident in the "car park" sequences where Yan's running speed varies from cut to cut. She goes from fast to slow to fast again within the scene. This created havoc for the foley artist who had to match her steps. Not only that, the "car park" sequences sounded like she is running on a wet, muddy field instead of a wet cement floor. Lastly, the dialog volume level fluctuates between normal to high with each scene, causing an unintended "scare" and perhaps puncturing an eardrum or two.

Thankfully, the film does not feature "the hunchback female ghost with long hair" that much even though it tries to immitate the atmospheric syle from Ringu. However, there is little to praise here. Seed Of Darkness is not going to be a good Malaysian cinematic import. The only bounty it will sow are seeds of disdain.