Goddess and the Seed

Movie fans have become seriously obsessed with mythology: the Marvel Universe including its take on Norse mythology (see: Thor), the DC world of superheroes, Tolkien's Middle Earth and of course Game of Thrones & its prequel. Kayden Kross rather pretentiously (as is her wont) dabbles with myth in this 4-part feature for her Deeper label, prompting a certain amount of head-scratching (my initial reaction was WTF?, before delving deeper, pun intended) alongside the expected XXX sexual depictions.

Official description provided is not that helpful, to wit: "Elena summons the power of goddesses past to help her wrench free of attachments". Googling provided a brief discussion concerning the Egyptian myth of "Seth and the Seed Goddess", slightly suggestive in trying to understand what KK and her heroine Elena Koshka are up to here.

Visually, it's an impressive example of what used to be called "Artcore" porn from a couple of decades back: Elena performing various rituals, looking beautiful and sexy, with plenty of symbols present, including fire, the color red, pomegranates, a compass, magical costume changes, a bed piled with mattresses right out of the fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea", etc.

Overall, it emerges as mysterious and non-rational -out to bathe the viewer in oft-repeated imagery that is suggestive rather than making conventional sense. At its center is Koshka, a riveting persona worth staring at, whether up to strange behavior, or having sex with KK's other half Manuel Ferrara, a threesome with Mick Blue and Ryan Driller, or finally serviced by bbc stud Isiah Maxwell.

One segment gives Elena a rest, as she turns Manuel into Michael Vegas (by peeling something off his forehead, an element from the Egyptian myth), permitting Michael, wearing an elaborate wig, to show off his specialty fire-twirling act. Instead of Koshka, he gets to be dominated on a handy bed outdoors by starlets Kylie Rocket and Sera Ryder. Their lapsing into the corniest of pornspeak during sex betrays the greatest fault of Kayden's work.

Yes, despite her pretentions (including an inevitable pompous quotation to set the stage, in this case a misogynistic statement by Picasso), Kayden always reverts to gonzo sex, dished out in lengthy 30-minutes-plus segments. Despite their quality pantomime acting performances (Koshka does a fine job crying on cue at one point), the actors inevitably turn into mechanical sex workers doing their thing, effectively destroying the intended awe and mystery of the NonSex build-ups to each scene. And the repetition of symbols and even re-used footage among the four segments is annoying.