Retitled Seeds Of Evil for theatrical play, The Gardener is only for those curious to see beefcake icon Joe Dallesandro's first acting gig outside of Andy Warhol's early 70's film attempts like Trash and Heat. And if that's the only reason you're watching this, and you're female, you'll be pleased to know he spends the entire movie without a shirt on (and the same pants, making me wonder about his body odour) - otherwise be prepared for a long, boring haul.

When friends Ellen (Katharine Houghton) and Helena (Rita Gam) meet up at their recently deceased friend's house - who we witnessed in the opening scene die in a hospital bed of apparent fright by the plant her nurse has just placed on the bedside table. Ellen decides that since their friends seemingly odd, but studly, gardener Carl (Dallesandro, who brings wooden line readings and a lack of emotion to his role) is headed for unemployment that she'll hire him on to spruce up the grounds at her house in Costa Rica depending on if her constantly away businessman husband John (James Congdon) approves.

Soon enough Carl has moved in and gets to work on the place. First he tells the current gardener to take a hike, then he starts filling the house up with plants, but all this time there's just something off about him. Seeing as he likes to walk around half-nude however, Ellen's husband soon becomes jealous and suspicious of her, which is pretty understandable as it seems Carl's attempting to seduce her (we assume so, but the sub-plot is half-baked and barely there).

From here writer-director Jim Kay decides he should attempt to at least do something with his film as he's spent almost the entire running time loading it up with many scenes of Ellen and Helena talking and little else to hold our interest. So he sends our two friends on a wild goose chase to uncover Carl's past that leads to them learning of the trail of bodies he's left behind him. And yet they still try to pass this thing off as a horror movie.

The Gardener barely even fits the genre considering that the entire premise of an evil gardener is never given much play and the fact that sinister music and close-ups of plants aren't at all effective at building any sort of suspense. In fact, the movie is too subtle in general - sure, one person is seemingly poisoned by the plants and the muddled finale (that explains nothing) has Ellen hacking up her best friend with a scythe before Carl somehow mutates into a tree - but by then we're so dulled out of waiting for anything interesting to happen we could care less.

As a sexploitation thriller, this fails. As an attempt at a supernatural themed scare flick, this fails. The Gardener has no idea what type of movie it wants to be and that's quite obvious since there's no nudity, barely any blood, and certainly nothing much "horror" to see. And to think Subversive is presenting this in its "Uncut" version - there's nothing here to warrant it. (Chris Hartley, 4/5/06)

Directed By: Jim Kay.
Written By: Jim Kay.

Starring: Katharine Houghton, Joe Dallesandro, Rita Gam, James Congdon.

aka: Seeds Of Evil.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: The Gardener cost under a million dollars to make and it's over twenty years old, so it's surprising that the transfer here is as good as it is. There's slight hints of grain a few times, but Subversive have supplied us with as clean a print as can be. The clarity is also quite good and the colours (which look overly bright at times) are solid as well. This one is all around solid.

Extras: While I had a hard time enjoying the movie, this "Special Edition" certainly lives up to the name.

Subversive have shown a knack for good packaging and this is no exception as it follows the trend their previous release The Freakmaker started by including reprints of the movie poster and some lobby cards. They've also packed it in a pretty cool embossed slipcover.

On the actual disc you'll get more extras than you'd ever expect as we get a trailer (plus trailers for other releases), a stills/poster gallery, biographies, an interesting "Planting The Seeds Of Evil" making of retrospective that runs 35 minutes, the awesome 1980 mini documentary "Million Dollar Dream" (29 minutes) that talks about B-movie distribution and success and was used by producer Chalmer Kirkbride, Jr. as a thesis project in University, and two commentary tracks: one with Dallesandro that's moderated by Subversive's Norm Hill, the other with just director Kay.

For more info visit Subversive Cinema.