The Garden

When I sat down to watch the 2006 supernatural thriller "The Garden" here in 2022, it was without ever having heard about the movie. I stumbled upon the movie by random luck and saw that Lance Henriksen was on the cover. So of course I opted to sit down and watch what writer Samuel Vartek and director Don Michael Paul had to offer here.

The storyline, as written by Samuel Vartek, was fair enough. I mean, the story was well-enough paced, but the script did suffer from being somewhat generic and overly predictable. And sadly so, then there wasn't any surprises or any major ups and down throughout the course of the 92 minutes that the movie ran for. Don't get me wrong here, because "The Garden" is not a bad movie, it was just not an outstanding movie.

The acting performances in the movie were good, and I liked that they had cast Lance Henriksen for that particular role, especially since he was rather nicely cast for that role and pulled it off quite entertaining. I wasn't particularly familiar with the cast ensemble here, aside from Lance Henriksen, and I do believe that I might have seen Claudia Christian in a movie or two somewhere.

Visually then "The Garden" was okay. This wasn't a movie that was working heavy on the special effects, and the ones that were in the movie played out well enough.

There is a really good atmosphere in the movie, and that definitely helps to drive the movie forward.

My rating of "The Garden" lands on a five out of ten stars.

First and foremost, it's a VERY bad idea to schedule a mainly story-driven and atmospheric horror movie like "The Garden" at 3am during a Film Festival and after exhilarating movies like "The Hills Have Eyes"-remake or "Neighborhood Watch"! The subject matter "The Garden" brings forward is interesting, but too abstract and definitely not compelling (let alone exciting) enough to keep you on the edge of your seat. A divorced father and his psychologically troubled son are involved in a car accident and recover at the house of a mysterious old man (Lance Henriksen in his umpteenth inferior horror role). The old guy's garden turns out to be the genuine Paradise of Eden; the place where our whole existence began according to the Holy Bible. Through the re-occurring nightmares of young Sam, the apocalypse can be inflicted in this exact same garden (don't ask me how as I somehow must have missed that part) and maybe that even is what the old man desires to achieve! Don Michael Paul's second film as a director starts out surprisingly stylish with elegant camera-work and a patient drawing of characters and settings. The first murder-sequence also comes at the exact right timing and it's quite bloody, especially considering the tone of the film so far. For reasons I fail to comprehend, "The Garden" then turns into a confusing and painfully dull mess that eventually reverts to annoying clichés and predictable plot twists. The only elements left to enjoy near the end are the creepy music and young Adam Taylor Gordon's impressive acting performance which easily surpasses the quality of his lines.

In my opinion, this film was innovative and compelling yet at the same time it slightly lacked the ability to grip me as a spectator. Mind you, I watched the entire film and thought it was a good concept. The metaphor of the fathers drink addiction and his temptation for the devils urges was very well done. Adam Taylor Gordans superb acting performance was very well needed in this film. The ending was perhaps a little confusing, but, who knows, perhaps it was the best ending possible.

Storyline - 8/10, acting - 8/10, Cinematography - 8/10

I rate this film overall 8/10.

I recommend this film to anybody who's a fan of the genre, even though the genre escapes me right now. Try not to get confused by the plot like I slightly did.

Justed watched it very confusing but has great ending.A bad script but great acting from Lance.He made it watchable.You actually feel bad for his version of Satan because he acts so well.Sean Young is great as well.Kinda slow till the last half hour or so but not bad.Adam Taylor Gordon is brilliant he be awesome as he grows up.Some good scares but needed to explain more of what Lance's role was trying to do.Great biography on Lance +interview with him.Maybe with sequel the could expand what he was really trying to do.Bit of trivia did you know Lance was in the Omen 2.Good for rental if nothing else available or just like Lance.Also I can't really see this being a movie for christians it's too gory + to conveluded,and talks about reversing the apocalypse I don't really think it talks about that in the bible.Nice imagery of the four horsemen thats it.Sorry but as so called Christian theme it really misses the mark.For a good scary Christian movie rent The Vistation.That's a good scary movie for Christians or any one else.

Beside good photography, the only other good thing about this movie was the skillful performance by veteran Lance Henriksen, (as old man Ben). Unfortunately, painfully, the other main characters seemed to have absolutely no sense of timing. This I attribute to directing/editing deficiencies. So many of the scenes are drawn out like taffy. Even parallel scenes belabor alternating imagery, least the audience miss the meaning of the juxtaposition I guess? Once the story got going I was optimistic that a provocative pay off was in store. Alas, it ended the way so many movies do, offering nothing more than borrowed meaning, delivering no message or perspective of their own.