The Garden (2006)

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.

Director:

Don Michael Paul

Writer:

Sam Bozzo

Stars:

Lance Henriksen, Brian Wimmer, Adam Taylor Gordon

Cast

Credited 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	...	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)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Danielle McKee	...	Deceased Dr. Cairns

Storyline

The boy Sam is tormented by dreadful visions and nightmares and self-inflicts injures to his body. After a period in the hospital, Dr. Cairns tells Sam's father David that the boy is affected by the divorce of his parents and a period together with him would be good for Sam. David travels with Sam in his truck but Sam sees a spirit on the road and pulls the steering wheel off his father, provoking a car accident. Out of the blue, the farmer Ben Zachary rescues them and offers a job to David in his farm. He accepts the offer and enrolls Sam at the local school. Sam has Bible classes with Miss Grace Chapman and sooner he leans that Mr. Zachary is the devil and the place is the Garden of Eden. Further, Zachary has an evil plan for David.

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Plot Keywords:

boy | farm | divorce | road trip | blood | 

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Taglines:

Armageddon is at hand and the final prophecy is about to be fulfilled.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 July 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

River to Havilah

Filming Locations:

Raleigh Studios - 5300 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Havilah Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Lance Henriksen's character is introducing his hobby of comic collecting, he says that the Marvel Tales comic he is holding is a first print from 1964 but on the back cover there is an advertisement for Battletoads the videogame meaning the comic was actually from around 1991.

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Connections

References The Evil Dead (1981)

User Reviews

A horror movie with an identity crisis

I saw this movie at the BIFFF (Brussels international festival of fantasy film) and found it struggling with it's plot material.

A young boy suffers from nightmarish visions and as a result has a tendency to put his body full of razor cuts. The boy resides with his father who is recovering from alcoholism and fails to be of support for his troubled son.

When father and son end up having a car accident caused by a vision the boy has, they get rescued by an elder man named Ben (Lance Henriksen).

Ben has a spooky air around him; vanishing and appearing at random pace throughout his ranch, always the sharp answer or life lesson on his tongue.

Ben has a weird agenda as he manipulates the father into alcoholism again and the boy into experiencing weird visions.

The movie tries so hard to build up the Christian undertone (think tree of life, adam & eve, apocalypse themes) but fails at each occasion.

The visions of the boy are the only up tempo sequences as the rest of the movie focuses on Lance Henriksen talking in Chinese fortune cookie lingo.

A shame, because the production values are there, the star (Henriksen) is wasted with this kind of script and the editing tries to contrast every moment of suspense with random actions (like heating up a stove, cleaning a fish, ...) This is B-movie material, a rental for the Henriksen fans, others should wisely avoid.