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The Garden Directed by Don Michael Paul Compared to most moderate to low budget horror films, the acting, direction, dialogue and even music of The Garden are exquisite. And while I include the dialogue of the script in this list, it is the story within that script that may be hard for many to swallow. But compared to most religious thrillers of the last 20 years ( The Seventh Sign , Stigmata , The Omen remake, End of Days ), I'd say it's fucking Bergman. The story begins with twelve-year-old Sam (Adam Taylor Gordon) being released from a mental institution into the care of his father David (Brian Wimmer). Sam is covered with scars from cutting himself, a repeated self-injury brought on by his parents' messy divorce and his father's alcoholism. But his father has committed himself to sobriety for Sam's sake, and Sam's psychiatrist (Claudia Christian) has helped him channel his pain into drawings instead of cutting, although the drawings show a troubling obsession with imagery from his trancelike religious visions. David and Sam begin their long drive home to their ranch somewhere in the pacific Northwest. They stop to buy horses for the ranch and Sam picks four with very specific colors that will become significant later in the film. Don Michael Paul's poetic style of direction makes itself felt in these eraly scenes. He creates a tone that is moody but lyrical, taking full advantage of the Oregon setting with its lush emerald forests and massive clouds sailing across wide vistas of Dutchman blue skies. Horses gallop across fields in slow motion giving a feeling that is both Edenic but has an undercurrent of threat as well. The road trip turns bad when David crashes the truck, perhaps due to one of Sam's hallucinations or perhaps due to the supernatural machinations of an old farmer, Ben Zachary (Lance Henriksen). Ben retrieves Sam and David from the wreck and gives them shelter in his home where both recuperate. David agrees to work for Ben around the ranch for awhile, but Sam grows increasingly suspicious of the old farmer. He offers good pay and dispences grandftherly wisdom to both man and child, but Sam sense something wrong about him. And when Ben's advice takes a very worldly turn and he encourages David to return to drinking, smoking, and whoring, Sam begins to panic. As he tells his characters' story, director Don Michael Paul also uses imagery symbolically, giving the film its Bergmanesque feel. Sam draws the same tree over and over, and he sees the tree in his vision. Snakes appear draped from its branches. Fruit hangs portentiously from another tree in a garden. Blood runs from the ceiling and fills the bathroom tub. Corpses with mouths sewn shut appear in mirrors. Even Sam's comic book heroes fall into place among the accumulating biblical symbols as they seem to represent an elemental battle between good and evil. Similarly, Ben challenges Sam to repeated chess battles, both a nod to The Seventh Seal and another symbol of ancient iconic battle. And the knights of the chessboard call attention to the horses that figure so strongly in the film. It is unclear how horses relate to the Garden of Eden until we learn that the Garden in question is not from Genesis but from the Book of Revelation. In playing the character of Ben, Lance Henriksen is subtle, understated, even enigmatic in the beginning. He leaves the viewer unsure whether he is the cause of the trouble enveloping Sam and David or whether he is stepping in to help when trouble arises. His country wisdom is never smirky or sardonic, but delivered with the patient gravity of long experience, even if the content of the advice is somewhat off-kilter. When Ben finally reveals his full identity, Henriksen does not mug or overplay the role. Although Henriksen has played many campy, over-the-top roles in his long career as a B-movie actor, he shows here – as he has in many roles since his career-defining role in the Fox series Millenium – that he can be a consummate actor with the right material, and that his deeply lined face and gravelly voice can convey great depth of character. Adam Taylor Gordon as Sam is a suprisingly effective young actor despite his youth and limited experience. And with supporting roles played by seasoned actors Claudia Christian as Sam's doctor and Sean Young as Sam's teacher Miss Chapman, the film is a pleasure to watch and there are no bad performances to distract from the story. The tension of the film builds as the mystery behind Ben's identity and his plans deepens. We follow Sam as he attempts to unravel the mystery and wonder whether he will have the courage to face the inevitable battle. The religious symbolism behind this confrontation relies on biblical information that is for the most part common knowledge with the exception of one alternate reading of the Book of Revelation, which is quickly and clearly explained by Miss Chapman. But the film is not abstract or purely symbolic. The characters are very real people with very mundane problems that viewers can relate to: alcoholism, divorce, financial failure. Even Sam's cutting is an all too real emotional disorder that many children and teenagers suffer from. Like The Exorcist in the early 70's, The Garden builds a religious crisis from common, worldly problems. Regan's life with a single parent in a secular household made her vulnerable to sprititual threats. The sudden tranformation behind her foul mouth and horrific appearance made her a very relatable threat to parents of teens coming out of the hippie era. Here, Sam's trauma caused by his parents' divorse and his own emotional collapse opens a wound that allows infection, in this case spirtual, to find an opening. The Garden shows the danger of a world where fathers, real or supernatural, are absent. by Nemo Swift |
Sins of the father
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