The Garden (DVD)

If you're feeling half-past dead by the time this too-talky Armageddon-styled horror flick is over, it's because director Don Michael Paul also put his name on the Steven Seagal slug, Half-Past Dead in 2002.

The saving grace for The Garden is a silkily sinister performance by genre-fave Lance Henriksen. He underplays Ben Zachary, the enigmatic owner of an idyllic ranch who steps into the lives of an emotionally disturbed boy, Sam (Adam Taylor Gordon), and his distant, alcoholic father, David (Brian Wimmer). Claudia Christian and Sean Young play small but important supporting roles.

Right away, Sam knows that all is not right in Mr. Zachary's garden of Eden, but all David sees is a path to paradise. Before long, the recently-divorced dad is off the wagon and doing the horizontal hoe-down with two townie temptresses. While dad is distracted, Zachary turns his attentions completely on the intuitive young Sam… both of them know that each has something supernatural percolating beneath the veneer of humanity.

Are they meant to be celestial allies, or eternal foes? How does the giant, seemingly dead tree standing in front of the ranch house factor in? Who – or what? – is behind all the strange spate of accidents and sudden deaths?

It's big, deep questions like that, that are addressed in The Garden. Too bad the ponderous pace of the movie prevents one from caring. The acting is decent, the cinematography is at times lovely, and the set decoration lends itself to a creepy, insidious look and feel. Too bad Paul's direction is so leaden; it's the true that the script is totally unoriginal and suspense is scarce here indeed, but some 'action!' might have helped matters.

If you like Henriksen, and the Biblical theme, you could do worse. The Garden is not all bad; it's just bland.

The DVD features audio commentary with the director, which brings to mind weak tea… it does the job, but doesn't give you much of a jolt. The Garden: Behind the Scenes is a collection of on-set video footage that runs approximately 5 minutes long. There's also the movie trailer, a still gallery, and Henriksen's bio.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson