The Bad Seed – Film Review

Rob Lowe‘s The Bad Seed is one of those strange movies that you’d turn on in the middle of the night just to have something to watch and it would all feel like a strange, surreal dream by the time you wake up in the morning. Oddly specific? Sure. But I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.

This movie already has one strike going against it – it’s a Lifetime movie. Now, that doesn’t automatically mean that it’s going to be bad, but it’s certainly not a promising sign at the same time. So, how is it? Well, as it turns out The Bad Seed is actually quite a bit better than most Lifetime movies, but it’s still quite bad.

Much like the rest of the crowd, this film simply cannot escape all the trappings of a Lifetime movie. The direction is seriously awful from Rob Lowe, who obviously doesn’t know what he’s doing because the film felt extremely sloppy and all over the place almost always.

The script from Barbara Marshall is supposed to be the beating heart and core of the film but unfortunately, it ends up being a ridiculously poorly paced slog that doesn’t go anywhere exciting whatsoever. Even the scenes where we see young Emma doing creepy things are boring because we don’t even see anything happen. All the carnage happens off-screen.

Yes, I understand that this is a made-for-television movie and because of that, they can’t make an incredibly violent and dark movie but at the same time, they could have at least shown more than they did. It just all comes off as way too tame for a creepy kid horror flick.

Heck, even the lighting and cinematography here is quite bad for the most part. There are some scenes that are, surprisingly, visually dazzling, but a lot of them are also remarkably flat and have absolutely nothing interesting to showcase to the audience. It’s hugely disappointing.

All of the performances here, however, are actually quite strong. Mckenna Grace is obviously the standout here as Emma, who does a wonderful job at portraying a genuinely creepy kid. Grace has been in countless projects throughout the years, and she is just as great as always here.

Lowe is also fantastic in the role of Emma’s dad, David. Unfortunately his character is reduced to nothing more than being the “concerned dad” type character, but even still, Lowe makes sure to put his heart and soul into the performance which was a good thing to see.

There are some elements to like, but The Bad Seed is a mostly awful horror-thriller that can’t escape its Lifetime movie trappings.