Seed returns in "Blood Valley: Seed's Revenge", this time with new story and direction provided by Marcel Walz. Uwe Boll hangs back as producer on this sequel to the 2007 slasher horror. "Seed's Revenge" moves the nightmare into the desert of the southwest, not far from Las Vegas, where some girlfriends find themselves battling for survival against Max Seed's brutality.
"Seed's Revenge" takes on a whole different look and feel than the original film directed by Uwe Boll. This one has a modern grindhouse/torture porn thing happening that comes of more like Suicide Girls take on the Hills That Have Eyes. It just really doesn't fit the bases of what Boll created with the character and his mythos-what little there was of one. Max Seed still is just as menacing and brutal as ever, only in "Seed's Revenge" there seems to be less of a plot than in the original one.
The cast do decent enough jobs at being lambs for the slaughter, but there isn't a strong continuity in the style that Walz chose for the full story arc to make an appearance here. Choppy scenes fragmented between the present and past events are more cumbersome than dramatic and emotional. I understood the intend of showing the powerful and gritty fate of the characters, then pull us into the more human, and compassionate side, but so often, and suddenly makes it almost unnecessarily broken-the story that is. It also confuses the intended effect.
The special effects are half and half. The practical, bloody, full on graphic violence is still present in "Blood Valley: Seed's Revenge" , but the theatrical nature and religious overture of the sequences felt more ridiculous than artistic. Then there is that pesky CGI stuff that kills moments. Plus the moments that CGI was used in this film could have been done just as effectively through practical application. The soundtrack and atmosphere is acceptable, however it is over used a lot. Some scenes the music just bursts into the scene for no real reason- especially when the result is so underwhelming.
Overall "Blood Valley: Seed's Revenge" is a let down. The story is a thin, fragile spectre of the Max Seed mythos, with more torture porn attention paid than actual, purposeful story. Plus the setting and deeper development of Max Seed's character, and a few others introduced, just seems convoluted. On a positive note, the kills are gruesome, bloody and brutal. There is no remorse or concern for audience tolerance. The ending that ties into the first film is a really cool moment in the film but not enough to save this sequel. If you set out to see the film just be warned that it is less impressive than the first film-by Uwe Boll-that that as you will.
