Shadows in the Garden
(2003)
review by Head Cheeze

I always enjoy queing up a film I know nothing about. There's a harmonious balance of anticipation and low expectations that, if I really enjoy said film, make the viewing experience that much more of a pleasure. I recently had such an experience with the wonderful short horror film Shadows in the Garden, an unabashed homage to the creature classics of Lovecraft, given a modern spin by writer/director Wayne Spitzer.

In the town of Cthulhu Gardens, a serial killer has claimed the lives of at least a dozen people, including the town's sheriff; or has he? When a mysterious creature turns up, shrouded in the darkness and a veil of flowers from the Sarnath Botanical Gardens, the denizens of Cthulhu Gardens now have a serial killer and a monster to contend with. The question is, which is worse?

Shadows in the Garden is a very short (approximately 20 minutes) and mostly dialogue free tale of love, loss, and retribution, told through the eyes of a man who has become a monster. The film packs a lot of emotion and cohesive visual storytelling into it's trim running time, not wasting a minute on forced narrative or expository imagery. Instead, the film immediately embraces it's central character with subtle allusions to his identity that eventually explain what he is and where he's come from unto themselves, although never so much as to deny the viewer his or her own interprertation.

Shadows in the Garden is a very low-budget project, but a good story and a lot of heart can blur the line between hundred dollars and a million. Spitzer and company achieve just that.

Lean, mean, and effective, Shadows in the Garden delivers.