Toronto 2024 Review: SEEDS, Fear The Angry, Kick-Ass Indigenous Woman

Ziggy is Kanyen'kehà:ka, a member of the Mohawk tribe living in the big city of Toronto. Ziggy’s goal is to be an influencer, to quit her job shuttling meals around town on her bike. After work and making her videos she relaxes by watching reruns of a Canadian true crime show from the late 90s, Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science, hosted by Ziggy’s ‘spirit guide’ of sorts, Graham Greene. At her side sits her emotional support animal, Potato. 

 

Ziggy’s big break finally arrives when the biotech company Nature's Oath hires her to be a spokesperson for the company, offering big money for the first time in her life. At the same time though she’s called back to the reservation. Ziggy’s cousin Wiz needs her to come back home and look after her auntie’s house while auntie is away. Most important of all is that Ziggy looks after her family’s heirlooms, her auntie's seeds, The Three Sisters. They are her auntie’s life's work, passed down for generations. They are the only ones of their kind. 

 

Someone starts creeping around the property and soon word gets to Ziggy that heirloom seeds have been stolen from other families in the area. She will discover the true intentions of Nature’s Oath, that they’re not all they’re cracked up to be. They’ve sent someone… seedy, to the reservation to steal the seeds. Ziggy will have to channel her inner Kevin McCallister, to defend her home and protect all of her seeds. 

 

Kaniehtiio Horn, Kanyen'kehà:ka and member of the Mohawk nation here in Canada, makes their feature film debut with Seeds. No stranger to the genre space they have started out their directorial career with a horror thriller, a story about legacy, preservation of culture and family, with some food autonomy on the side. All the while they sprinkle in slight humor, some of it the fish out of water kind as Ziggy has grown used to life in the big city. The story slowly builds on thrills, culminating with a decent and horrific finish where Ziggy taps into her Mohawk roots as she deals with the corporate stooge sent to steal her heirlooms. Just one more opportunity for Horn to portray a kick ass Indigenous female character. 

 

We’re going to use this quote from their Director’s Statement as a waypoint, and see if Horn achieved what they set out to with their debut. 

 

Inspired by Home Alone, Shaun of the Dead and the Canadian classic Clearcut, I wanted to make a fun ride I wished I had seen when I was younger. I craved seeing a smart, relatable, kick ass Indigenous female lead who I could cheer on and a soundtrack I could rock out to.

 

Apart from directly quoting the tiny, white warrior Kevin McCallister there isn’t really any other direct reference to Home Alone in Seeds. Ziggy doesn’t set up any elaborate traps for Patrick Garrow’s menacing character Drake Bondsman to fall into. To do so would take away from the urgency and danger of the situation; making light of the situation with stunt gags would most definitely take away from Horn’s intentions here. Ziggy’s trip down memory lane, citing the holiday season favorite, likely and simply reflects Horn’s in real life. Once someone has said the lines everyone who watches that movie every holiday season immediately knows who they’re talking about. 

 

Seeds isn’t a zombie movie so the humor of Shaun of the Dead must be the inspiration to Horn. Humor is sprinkled throughout the narrative and unlike Shaun of the Dead it is most often understated and slight in its execution and nature. It elicits a laugh here and there. Much of the comedic relief falls on Mdewakanton Dakota and Dine actor Dallas Goldtooth (Reservation Dogs) through their character Cousin Wiz. Horn’s co-star from the Letterkenny series, Ojibway actor Dylan Cook, also gets their share of moments as well. Meegwun Fairbrother, of Ojibway descent, gets a couple shots to earn their comedic participation ribbon but their role is meant to serve primarily as Ziggy’s love interest.

 

Other than having the Indigenous and Canadian icon Graham Greene appear on screen and within a screen on screen the nod to Clearcut is painfully obvious and part of the horror elements that we’re rewarded with in the story’s climax. The more overt reference in the film, Ziggy quotes the movie directly. And this is where Horn saves the best for last, after a steady build towards the film’s climax. This is when the real horror happens, after Ziggy lets her ancestor's rage take over. She has taken on the role of protector, protecting her auntie's seeds and protecting everyone’s life around her. 

 

Seeds structure can be a bit shaky and its story probably too streamlined for its own good. Perhaps too much time was spent on those fish out of water elements, maybe, even the love interest. The randomness of Cousin Wiz was odd as well, like it was a reminder to the audience that they were around. Our definite thought was that it took longer than necessary to introduce the threat to Ziggy’s life. No sooner than the halfway point do we finally have something that creates a tremor of tension in the story. Once there, in the build up to it conclusion, these moments are good at creating fear in the audience, in the moments. The horror elements are more than satisfying, if not a bit grimace-inducing to satisfy horror fans. There is no violence like historically based and justified violence. 

 

Indeed shots have been fired and another voice has been added to choir of Indigenous, First Nations female filmmakers in the genre landscape. In 2022 we hailed the arrival of Inuit filmmaker Nyla Innuksuk and their debut Slash/Back. That Fall we mourned the sudden loss of Mi'kmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby and the universe needed balancing, we needed more Indigenous genre filmmakers. Moreso, we needed more Indigenous female genre filmmakers. We were already excited with the glimmer of hope back in 2021 when Horn first pitched their idea for Seeds in the coproduction market circuit. More promising was their return to that same market for further development of the project the following year. It was really looking like it was going to happen. We had to wait two more years to finally add Mohawk filmmaker Kaniehtiio Horn to the ranks. 

 

Seeds is a debut full of promise, with an understanding of what makes good horror and thriller elements. Horn has many inroads to this community and we believe tapping into more writers will further strengthen their craft. We’d love for Horn to continue filling the genre space with more angry, kick-ass Indigenous female leads, please. She is one of the heroes that young Indigenous women need.