Die Saat des Todes

Warhol entourage beefcake Joe Dallessandro portrays Karl, a gardener in the employ of a wealthy but neglected housewife(Katharine Houghton, miles downstream from her earlier success in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER). His command of the botanical arts is impressive, but his references are tough to check considering most of his previous employers have died. Suspiciously.

Houghton's garden is soon the envy of her upper-crust clique, and her reserved and perpetually bare-chested gardener becomes the object of much lustful flutter among her female friends. The household staff(native to the South American environs where this is set and filmed) are less enthusiastic about Karl's presence, and they warn their housemistress of his evil wizardry. Shrugging off this superstitious cautioning, she becomes increasingly drawn to Karl...but when people around her begin to die mysteriously, she comes to suspect a tenebrous connection to the flora cultivated by her brooding and sexually Svengali-like greenskeeper. The bizarre eventuality of this mystery is the manifestation of Karl's true nature. It seems he is...quite literally...a tree.

While THE GARDENER is a semi-creditable example of an under-the-radar horror film ethos, it's not likely to have strong appeal to a mainstream viewing integer. Sluggishly paced and lacking 'comme il faut' shocks and bloodshed, it does otherwise manage to build an obfuscous atmosphere of weblike mystique.

A mellow horror high for some, probably a harsh toke for others...5/10

Face it, if you're at all interested in looking up a movie like "Seeds of Evil" in the first place, you ought to see it. IF you can find it...our video store had a Unicorn Video print, in the dustiest corner of the dustiest shelf.

The music on the soundtrack is disconcertingly cheery...some of the acting is horrendous...some isn't bad and a couple of the actors have a curious appeal. For instance, James Congdon is like a poor man's Burt Reynolds.

Not as bad as some other viewers have indicated...again, if you are interested in looking at ratings for this one, just go watch it.

Gardener is a 70s Horror Film starring Joe Dallesandro as the title character, a gardener with evil powers. More importantly, gardener who never wears a shirt with evil powers. Excited yet? The movie is very pretty, filmed in Puerto Rico. Very gorgeous shots of various flowers and our title character fill the movie. It's not very believable that Carl - The Gardener - can manipulate the flowers to drive his employers and friends crazy, and that's mostly because it isn't really explained. It just happens, and they expect us to believe it because the evidence is there. He comes, he goes, they go crazy. I want to say that this movie was made to exploit the young actor (at least young at the time), but he's never really explored. He has some exploitive scenes, like when he skinny dips and seduces various female characters, but he's really not "fleshed" out. LoL. Flesh. Our main character Ellen (played by Katherine Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton) gets most of the screen time and she falls prey to Carl's powers of manipulation. The flowers in the house start to affect her other servants, her husband, and her best friend, who just wants to bed him. (Rita Glam, stealing every scene she's in) I obviously wanted to watch the movie for some eye candy, and I kinda' get it. Joe Dallesandro as Carl struts around the movie in nothing but a pair of tight camel skin pants. We get a butt shot and some ab shots, but nothing that I can't see on an episode of Desperate Housewives or Weeds. Still, the acting of our two main actresses, (playing the typical main character and main character's horny friend that pollutes so many other films) rises above B movie status and they take the ridiculous script so seriously that it elicits some unnecessary laughter throughout. Worth a watch for cult movie fans, and gay people, but don't expect too much. Just some flesh, flowers and HORROR!!!! heheh.

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My review was written in February 1981 after a screening at NY's Thalia theater.

Shot on location in Puerto Rico in 1972 under the title "The Gardener", "Seeds of Evil" is a failed indie horror film never widely distributed, and reviewed here for the record.

Uneventful story deals with Carl (Joe Dallesandro), a sinister but attractive young gardener whose wealthy His employers have a habit of suddenly dying. His current employer Ellen Bennett (Katherine Houghton) is stuck with an inattentive husband (James Congdon) and is attracted to Carl. Beautiful neighbor Helena (Rita Gam) also falls under the gardener's spell, leading ultimately to violenced and Carl's death. Writer-director Jim Kay unimpressively grafts onto this sexual attraction premise a ludicrous horror plot to which Carl's orchids and other flowers conspire to kill people. With no budget for special effects, film becomes camp in scenes of victims' terrified reaction shots to the innocent-looking (but supposedly lethal) flowers. At film's end the dying Carl turns into a human tree with makeup and design work that is laughable. Instead of being scary, film is simply pleasant, with endless scenes of the lead actresses chatting, going to a costume ball or just showing off their wardrobe.

Katherine Houghton (niece of Kate Hepburn and previously featured in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner") is a very engaging personality here, surviving the lame material by playing each scene with spirit and no condescension. Rita Gam provides humor as her arch best friend. In his first starring assignment away from the Andy Warhol factory, Joe Dallesandro merely nonacts with a disinterested monotone delivery, but helmer Jim Kay does exploit thesp's male sex symbol status well in tasteful nude shots and arresting closeups. Tech credits (other than effects work) are professsional but undistinguished.

Katharine Houghton ("Guess Who's Coming to Dinner") stars as Ellen Bennett, a well-to-do American living in Costa Rica. She makes a big mistake when she hires the hunky but mysterious "Carl" (Joe Dallesandro, "Flesh for Frankenstein") as her gardener. The man has a "green thumb", to put it mildly, and soon the Bennett estate is overflowing with lush vegetation. However, Ellen finally wises up and realizes that there's something really "off" about this guy.

"The Gardener", a.k.a. "Seeds of Evil", is a flat, disappointing "horror" film from writer-director James H. Kay. It was the only feature film he ever got around to making, and it's no surprise. It's pretty much a dud, albeit one that I *wanted* to enjoy more than I did. It's rather a wash as a horror film, even in uncut form (although this is partly because it's too dark to really see the nastiest bits). And the horror really only occurs towards the end, when Ellen is concerned about the behavior of her visiting niece (Cass Fry, in *her* only film credit).

Houghton is sincere and fairly appealing, although the viewer will likely get annoyed over her clueless nature. Ellens' husband John (James Congdon, "4D Man") is at least more wary of Carl than she is, but he never really does anything about it. Dallesandro is of course as boring as always, although if one is a fan, they'll appreciate how well his physical attractiveness is played up - most of the time he parades around topless, and he even has a few nude scenes. The only real standout here is Rita Gam ("Klute") as Ellens' friend Helena.

Although pleasures to be had watching this are few and far between (Kay can't even deliver a great ending), it *does* have a haunting score composed by Marc Fredericks, some fun local color (it was actually filmed in Puerto Rico), and some amusing psychedelic touches.

It's not one I'd recommend, unless your curiosity gets the better of you.

Four out of 10.