Also known as GARDEN OF DEATH and SEEDS OF EVIL, this is a 1970s no-budgeter that partakes of the horticultural horror trope popular at the time—see PREMONITION (1972), THE KIRLIAN WITNESS (1978) and Kenneth McKenney’s novel THE PLANTS (1976)—and features the legendary male sex symbol Joe Dallesandro in his first non-Andy Warhol affiliated film.
Dallesandro’s other film appearances included the Warhol productions FLESH (1968), TRASH (1970), HEAT (1972), FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN and BLOOD FOR DRACULA (both 1974). All those films were directed by Paul Morrissey, who encouraged his protégé to take the role in THE GARDENER, which according to Dallesandro marked “the first time I was on a set that didn’t involve a bunch of freaks.”
THE GARDENER was filmed in Puerto Rico by first (and only) time director Jim Kay. He admittedly played down the quirkier aspects of his script, which was said to have been a reworking of the myth of Persephone (something that doesn’t register at all in the finished film). Budgeted at a reported $800,000, it was completed in 1970 but had a horrific time finding distribution, so much so that a TV mini-feature (included on THE GARDENER’s Subversive Cinema DVD release) was made about the process, which took until 1974 to occur.
The setting is Costa Rica, amid a downright vomitus rich clique. The hippy gardener Carl (Joe Dallesandro), an ominous sort who likes parading around shirtless, has just been let go by his current employer, and is taken on by Ellen (GUESS WHO’S COMING FOR DINNER’s Katherine Houghton) and her husband John (James Congdon). Carl’s mastery of all things horticultural is demonstrated when greenery begins blooming everywhere, and offers up flowers that reach full bloom in seconds. The plants also have extremely sharp edges, and emit a toxin that causes the subsidiary gardener Ralph (Roberto Negron) to pass out. A Haitian servant comes to believe that Carl is practicing black magic, and indeed he is.
That the budget was ridiculously low is evident in the fact that we’re never given a good look at the title character’s apparently immaculate gardens. What we get are very seventies-centric montages showing Carl cavorting amid foregrounded vines and leaves, and, in the final scenes, some rudimentary psychedelia.
Joe Dallesandro was frankly never much of an actor (which worked fine in his Warhol productions, in which “acting” wasn’t required), the likely reason he has so little screen time. Dallesandro’s line readings are stilted and his screen presence somnambulant, yet his are the film’s best moments, with much interest created by the clashing of Ellen’s upper-class poise with Carl’s otherworldly surliness.
Not nearly enough screen time is expended on those things, alas, with far too much lavished on Ellen’s dull investigation into Carl’s origins (complete with lengthy shots of her driving). What we’re left with is a film that, as its writer-director readily admits, isn’t arty enough to work as an art film nor exploitive enough to work as exploitation.
Vital Statistics
THE GARDENER (GARDEN OF DEATH; SEEDS OF EVIL)
KKI Films/Nolan Production
Director: Jim Kay
Producer: Tony Belletier
Screenplay: Jim Kay
Cinematography: Michael Zingale
Editing: Cal Schultz
Cast: Joe Dallesandro, Katherine Houghton, Rita Gam, James Congdon, Anne Meacham, Teodorina Bello, Ivan Rodriguez, Esther Mari, Roberto Negron, Hal Lasky, Cass Fry, Robert Yoh, Tanny McDonald, Katherine De Beer, Orlando Rodriguez, Baron De Beer, Janet Gomez, Louis Vigoroux, Jorge Vasquez