Shot in Puerto Rico by
industrial filmmaker James Kay, The Gardener (aka Seeds of Evil) – despite a considerable cult
interest – remains his only feature film due to its box-office failure at the
time. It’s not a forgotten masterwork,
by any stretch, but as yet another anomalous oddity of 70s movies, there is
much about it that’s of interest; in particular a modern retelling of Greek and
other mythologies like the story of Persephone and Hades. Polysexual underground icon Joe Dallesandro
plays a laconic, ponytailed, perpetually shirtless gardener named Carl who
moves from one estate to another creating luxuriant bowers, growing exotic and
mysterious plants, ultimately taking over the households and even killing his
various employers. A wealthy, childless husband
and wife are his latest bosses/victims and are naturally the last ones to
suspect anything odd about this new gardener, who shows up to his interview in
nothing but skin-tight pants and without a polite word to say. There seems to be several issues, or
subtexts, going on; none of which are really driven home, nor are they handled
sensitively enough to create a general feeling of ambiguous menace. There is class disparity; (the Hispanic staff
of the house are the only ones who sense evil in the new gardener). There is forbidden sexuality in the form of
Dallesandro himself in juxtaposition to the impossibly wholesome wife. And there is the notion of ancient and
suppressed occult forces breaking into modern life like grass coming through
cracks in pavement. Like an elongated
episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery,
some interesting ideas and visuals sort of compensate for iffy acting and
unimaginative direction, just not enough to really make it great.
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