The Garden (2005/Anchor Bay)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

Is young Sam (Adam Taylor Gordon) just having major problems with mental illness or is something supernatural going on?  Since Don Michael Paul’s The Garden (2005) is released from Anchor Bay, it is obviously going to be the latter, but did it have to be so predictable?  Sam’s father (Brian Wimmer) is an alcoholic, which is something he is recovering from but after Stephen King’s The Shining is supposed to be an indicator of trouble to come, in that either the father will try to destroy the son or simply is not empowered enough to help him.

 

This is paralleled by Ben (Lance Henriksen) who owns the ranch they land up staying at, which seems to bring Sam’s visions to palpable life.  For good measure, female genre favorites like Sean Young (Blade Runner) and Claudia Christian (The Hidden, TV’s Babylon 5) also show up.  Between the casting, shooting and script by Paul and Samuel Bozzo, the film is much more a pastiche of ideas we have seen all over the place versus something coherent and more original.  Instead, it joins a very long, very tired series of half-baked productions that even make the cats look bored.  Anchor Bay has plenty of better titles in the Horror and Fantasy genre.  Try those instead.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is on the weak side with yet more gutted out, toned down colors with no point and poor from throughout from cinematographer Thomas C. Callaway.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 mix is equally weak, with limited surrounds and dialogue recorded oddly.  It plays back with a lower volume than it should and the combination can be trying throughout, so try two-channel stereo playback only.  Extras include trailer, stills, featurette and audio commentary by the director.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo