Bad Seed is a short psychological horror exploring women's mental illness and the consequences of generational trauma. 

Our story is set in the 1960s. Rose, a young woman, lives with her heavily medicated mother, Constance. Rose suffers from depression and psychosis and is isolated from the world. She finds solace spending time with her younger sister, Bette, at the bottom of the garden playing imaginary games and sharing secrets.

After a fateful call with the family doctor, however, Rose's reality begins to unravel. As she struggles to piece together the fractured remnants of her psyche, she starts to uncover the truth about her sister's fate.

Nancy started writing this film after learning about a relative who suffered from mental health problems and was forced to have a lobotomy against her will.

The few lobotomies that are depicted on screen tend to feature male protagonists. In reality, most patients lobotomised by doctors were women. In the UK, the procedure was still being performed until the late 1970s.

Bad Seed aims to shed light on how lobotomies were weaponised as an agent of control against women and explore the ways in which the medical establishment has failed women. With this film, we want to honour a generation of women who were systematically silenced and abused, treating them with the love and sympathy they deserved but never received.

Our film draws influence from psychological dramas of the 1960s, including Ingmar Bergman's Persona (1966) and Joseph Losey's The Servant (1963). Bad Seed will also employ avant-garde techniques - inspired by the works of Peter Tscherkassky, Man Ray and Johnathan Glazer - to create a visceral, highly sensory experience for the audience; placing them inside the fragmented mind of an isolated, vulnerable teenage girl. 

We're a passionate team of student filmmakers in our final year at UAL London College of Communication. Having worked together on three previous films, our tight-knit crew is excited to embark on our biggest project yet. 

Bad Seed is currently in pre-production, scheduled to shoot in mid-February. The project will be completed in early May. Following that, we intend to run a number of screenings in London, and enter it into film festivals in the UK and Europe.

This is our graduation film; the most ambitious project we’ve worked on to date. We’re calling in as many favours as we can, but making films is expensive! Our current budget comes in at just under £6,000 - we have secured over two thirds of this total so far, but we need your help to ensure this project comes to life and reaches the audience we feel it deserves. 

Please consider supporting our project by contributing to our campaign, spreading the word on social media and telling your friends and family.

Thank you for being a part of our journey!

The BAD SEED team