Garden of Evil
Garden of Evil. 2001. Two Left Shoes Films. Reviewed by Brian Kirst
Alright, let me be frank - this is not a great movie. Yet, it is filled with so many bizarre plot points and unusual occurrences that just like Alyssa Milano - it charms me!
In this 1998 filmed - 2001 released effort, horror movie-low budget veteran Malcolm McDowall plays Ben Carter - a 35 year old, deranged botany enthusiast who looks like he’s 65. You see, poor old Ben suffers from an accelerated aging disease. This swift aging process not only affects Ben’s appearance but eats away at his mind as well. (Of course, being raised by a half mad maiden aunt might have something to do with that, too.) Now, good old Ben plans to purify the female population by turning them into flowers. Ben wasn’t counting on determined police woman Kelly, though. Kelly(Playboy model Angie Everhart) is determined to hunt down her missing partner (and Ben victim) Iris and Ben is eventually going to find her a lot harder to get rid of than any kind of pesky, flower strangling weed.
Garden of Evil is full of all the strange glories that make horror films so good. It starts out as a violent detective tale and tailspins into a bizarre fright hybrid of Motel Hell and The Collector. If the effect of Ben Carter’s unexplained aging conundrum doesn’t strike you as humorously interesting then there are plenty of dream sequences with women being devoured by violent floral monsters and/or turning into ravenous flowers themselves. There are also moments of sexual obsession, encounters with an aging neighbor hippy and vengeance minded drug lord (both played by the same actor), a Nightmare on Elm Street 4 inspired ending - and enough awkward pacing to get fans of bad horror truly smiling.
Most of all, though, there is the cast! Garden of Evil is filled with genre film staples such as Everhart and McDowell. While, Everhart ultimately pales before McDowell’s deranged hi jinks - you can tell she is truly trying. She reaches far and wide to deliver her character’s anguished determination, but never quite succeeds. She redeems herself, though, in the final scenes which find her chained to a table, masqueraded as a giant rose sacrifice and ultimately fending off McDowell covered in nothing but a plastic tarp. B-Movie stalwart Richard Grieco is featured as Everhart’s hardened superior and his presence alone seems to qualify this as bargain basement fun. Justin Carroll as the above mentioned hippy and drug lord provides menace and humor in equal levels. But it is Olivia Hussey (Black Christmas, Psycho IV, Ice Cream Man), Dynasty and Cellar Dweller’s Pamela Bellwood (credited here as Belwood) and Kim Morgan Greene (Silk Stalkings and numerous night-time dramas) who provide the most enjoyment. All are film and television veterans and they provide their eccentric and cruel characters with meaty sass. (Hussey as Carter’s clipped aunt, Bellwood as a Carter’s absent minded former college professor and Greene as Carter’s former toughened flame.)
Director James D. R. Hickox provides some amazing sights.(Hickox is actually a fright director veteran with credits such as Children of the Corn III, Saber-tooth and Blood Surf - a crocodile gone amuck flick that also absurdly entertains me.) A moment where Everhart jumps off a second story ledge and lands on her feet with her gun blazing away is an awesomely rendered sequence. Still, he plays Joseph Gunn’s script too straight to make this anything but a lower rung pleasure for enthusiastic viewers such as myself.
But, if you are like me and the sight of 30ish Greene and 50ish McDowell playing their characters as high school sweethearts brings a goofy smile to your face - then this movie might just be your bloody, hibiscus scented cup of tea.
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