From producer Stephen J. Cannell (who entered the horror genre with Demon Hunter)comes a tale of the Garden of Eden starring Lance Henriksen as… oh well, I bet you’ll figure it out.
Sam (Adam Taylor Gordon) is a very disturbed kid. He has bad dreams and in a effort to cope with them he cuts himself. He’s currently in a mental hospital under the care of Dr. Cairns (Claudia Christian). She has given Sam and alternative to him hurting himself and made his coping skill drawing. He keeps drawing pictures of an old, gnarled tree. His parents are divorced and his father David (Brian Wimmer) is picking him up from the mental hospital.
On the way home they’re in car wreck after seeing an apparition on the road. They’re rescued by the mysterious Ben Zachary (Lance Henriksen) and nursed by to health. Sam has suspicions about Ben from the start but David is content to take up Ben’s offer of a job and stay there. Sam is enrolled in the local school and put in Miss Chapman’s (Sean Young) class. They’re currently having a special class on the Garden of Eden. Ben has a nasty habit of killing visitors that interfere with his plans, so when Dr. Carins shows up at Sam’s mothers request you can guess the result.
It would also seem that the strange apparition that they saw on the road was another of Ben’s victims. However, is this real or part of Sam’s bad dreams? Also, the old, gnarled tree that Sam keeps drawing is on Ben’s property. So what exactly is old Ben up to and how does the Garden of Eden figure into all this?
The Garden tries to create a mystery wrapped up in biblical wrapping paper. The problem is that once we unwrap the package the result is not exactly the gift we were expecting.
Ben's handiwork
In a bit of typecasting, Lance Henriksen is playing the villain (what a shock). This is pretty much a role that he could play in his sleep. I’m starting to think that Lance might be falling into the “anything for a paycheck” school of screenplay picking. I thought that there might’ve been some good or interesting ideas here but felt that they’re half-baked in this movie.
Claudia Christian is more of a cameo and really doesn’t have too much to do. I could also say that about Sean Young as well. The problem is that all of the ends are supposed to come together at the end of the picture and I’m not entirely sure that they do. I sure didn’t think so. It seemed to me that a lot of the items that were supposed to come together in the big finale were not properly telegraphed or explained.
The Garden is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.77:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include an audio commentary with Don Michael Paul and a 5 minute behind-the-scenes featurette. There’s also a theatrical trailer, still gallery, and a Lance Henriksen bio.
The game begins
Only Lance Henriksen fans need apply. I can’t say that the Garden doesn’t have some interesting ideas in it, but I felt they were poorly executed and in the end I felt the film didn’t work.
The Garden is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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