The Garden (2006)

User Rating:

4.4/10   

Director:

Don Michael Paul

Writer (WGA):

Sam Bozzo (written by)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

A troubled young boy and his father on a road trip stumble upon a rural farm where the elderly owner has sinister plans for the both of them involving witchcraft and evil. |

Plot Keywords:

Road Trip | Farm | Young Boy | Apocalypse | Heavy Rain

Cast

Lance Henriksen	...	Ben Zachary
Brian Wimmer	...	David
Adam Taylor Gordon	...	Sam
Claudia Christian	...	Dr. Cairns
Sean Young	...	Miss Grace Chapman
Victoria Justice	...	Holly
Erik Walker	...	Jesse
Ariana Richmond	...	Trashy Girl #1
Jennifer Lutheran	...	Trashy Girl #2
Rick Barker	...	Faceless Person
Shawn Howell	...	Conquest (White Horseman)
Dale Gibson	...	War (Red Horseman)
Mike Watson	...	Famine (Black Horseman) (as Michael George Watson)
Tad Griffith	...	Death (Pale Horseman)

Also Known As:

River to Havilah (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Filming Locations:

Golden Oak Ranch - 19802 Placerita Canyon Road, Newhall, California, USA

Company:

Havilah Production

Goofs:

Continuity: After the automobile accident, Sam climbs out of bed in his bare feet. Sam walks out of the bedroom and the camera zooms in on Sam's bare feet as he continues down the hall. We see another shot of Sam's bare feet as he ambles down the stairs to the kitchen. Sam's dad, who is on the front porch, sees Sam through the kitchen door and calls out to him. As Sam instantly runs to meet his dad, we clearly hear the sound of Sam's bare feet slapping on the hardwood floor as he races across it. But as he barrels through the kitchen door onto the porch, Sam suddenly and miraculously has his boots on.

Movie Connections:

References Spider-Man (2002)

For those looking for highly symbolic good vs evil

A Blockbuster rental, I chose it mainly because of the seasoned character actors in it.

It was basically as I expected and the actors definitely made the movie better than the ancient story line would allow.

A 'very special' boy named Sam (Adam Taylor Gordon) is struggling with his parents divorce due to his father's alcoholism and other issues not apparent. This pushes Sam to self mutilate, but it seemed that there was more to Sam's self mutilation than just the divorce.

Sam's father David (Brian Wimmer) takes Sam traveling during his summer with the boy and they have a car accident caused by Sam's hallucinations, seemingly brought about by the will of Ben (Lance Henrikson) close to Ben's remote country home. Ben nurses them both back to health, but David is taken in by Ben's logical approach to life's problems and agrees to stay with Ben as a handy man until they can afford to leave. Sam and Ben never hit it off as Sam detects something odd in Ben's outlook on life and the continued hallucinations make life with Ben uncomfortable.

As the weak father turns to self indulgence with the urging of Ben, Sam gains strength from the other key mother figures to forgive and protect his father from whatever Ben has planned for them.

The plot is very simple. The struggle of good and evil people constantly battle within themselves and how blind faith can simplify life's decisions when people are guided through life's choices by logical (but evil) arguments they are ill equipped to refute.

If you don't have a very good background in Christianity/Judaism you will not understand the high degree of symbolism, and the movie will seem very heavily edited. I can see it being a cultural classic for the evangelical crowd.