Very Cool!!!

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Some unadapted teen girl travels to some small town in search for her dad after she fought with her mom who told him that she had aborted the girl. Soon she meets what seems to be a normal young man. But the morning after she finds herself chained in the basement on a bed of dirt. Another half dead girl is sitting nearby and a bunch of skulls. He talks to her kindly, explaining that she's key to his garden and that loves his garden. Meanwhile the father of the other girl is just out of jail and looking for his daughter. As more people disappear things get complicated. But the highlight of the movie purports to be the return of the father of the young man, who isn't a whole lot better than his son.Note that this is not a horror movie really. It's all about the psychological torture of the girls. The guy spends what seems like hours chatting with the girl trying to make her feel at home. Yet, it's never horrific let alone entertaining to watch a villain talk non-stop with his victims. There is a bit of violence, a tiny bit of blood. What's mostly of a more out-there nature is the theme of this movie, the family relationships, it's all very adult stuff. The language is very filthy throughout the movie. But there's little violence, no gore, no nudity, nothing. It's all very dull.

What a strange movie this is! Is it supposed to be some macabre humor? It seemed to take itself much too serious for that. As a thriller it didn't have enough suspense and the storyline just was too thin. And as a downright horror flick it didn't have enough scares or gore. So the net result was a non-distinct mix of everything and nothing. On the positive side I have to say that the acting was over-all fine. Maybe Ashley Greene didn't have to stretch her abilities, since she most of the time walks around as a traumatized zombie. But the parents were great, especially Stephen McHattie as the father is very convincing as an intimidating, self-assured but always good-humored psychopath. And I have to give due credit to Peter Mooney as the weird and mentally deranged son. I thought he did a terrific job, his acting is a perfect mixture of boyish charm, insecurity and innocence with hair-raising bursts of sudden violence and unpredictable behaviour. I saw Peter Mooney in the TV series Falcon Beach and snubbed his performance on IMDb, but now I see that that was due to bad casting and a way too shallow character-definition in the script. Here he's absolutely great! Now back to the negatives. There were all these illogical things that kept amazing me. We're made to believe that the son habitually abducted girls to lock up and torture in the family basement. Why? And why does mother condone this rather quaint behaviour? It never gets explained. He does this for years and years? Didn't the police or anyone come and search for missing persons? Where did they ditch the bodies? What was the purpose of the "garden"? Did I miss some metaphor here? Or are the (numerous?) bodies buried there? The script never gives any clue.Suddenly the evil father shows up (very convenient for the storyline, since he turns out to be exactly the lost father that our heroine is searching for). He doesn't seem to have much affection for either wife or son, in fact he relentlessly and without a single hesitation kills them on the spot to claim the girl for himself. So what kept him from doing the same thing much earlier, I mean, he apparently made these visits frequently, and he must often have found a locked-up girl there that he fancied for himself. Our heroine succeeds in winning some trust with her captors and is eventually allowed to roam freely within the house. Was she so numbed that she couldn't make a go for an escape? She seemed to have had ample opportunities. The ending was an anti-climax, to say the least. When evil daddy leaves the car to chat with an innocent by-standing woman (presumably to inflict some terrible harm on her), our heroine leaves the car and stabs him in the back. The end. Come-on now, couldn't they have done a little bit better than that!?! I know that many horror movies make the death of the villain/monster etc. a bit too elaborate, with countless miraculous and sudden resurrections before the final and most spectacular blow is given. But here everything ends with a dreadful puff: deranged son and mother killed with one shot, father killed with one stab, that's it. I want my money back!!

Rebellious and foul-mouthed Summer Matthews (Ashley Greene of Twilight fame) goes on a road trip in search of her long lost father. This brings her to a semi remote town, where she meets Tom Hoxey (Peter Mooney). After being rather helpful Summer ends up at Tom's home, where they spend a passionate night together (with Tom's mother listening in intently). The following morning as Summer is ready to leave and continue her venture Tom turns out not to be the nice guy she believed he was. Summer ends up chained in Tom's garden as a precious treasure (together with another women for that matter). Tom's mom, Gaia Hoxey (Barbara Niven), is fully complaint with her son's hobby. Something he got from his dear old papa Gant (Stephen McNatty)...In theory this sounds somewhat promising, even if reeks of a 'House of 1000 corpses" ripoff. But this theory doesn't help to cover up some of the nonsensical segments of the script. The whole psychology of the murderous family is rather dodgy and the garden is never satisfyingly explained. Even worse are the discussions between the unwilling captive and Tom, who don't really make much sense with one key scene, where an already chained-up Summer casually talks about why she went on this little road-trip in the first place (terribly acting by Greene for long parts of the movie). To some extent it almost makes this movie feel like a gory soap-opera. Even the key sequences of the movie feel somewhat livid and don't pack any emotional wallop as would be required for this movie to work.To make matters worse the so-called shock twist is apparent from miles away and about one-third into the movie you already know what's going to happen. Actually if you focus one minute or so on the title of the movie you can guess the plot twist before turning on the movie.On the plus side I think the whole threesome creating the dysfunctional Hoxey family did a bang-up job and they are really a guilty pleasure to watch. Nonetheless it not that brilliant and you really have no need for seconds. Thankfully the whole Hoxey family gets killed off before the end credits, so I don't think we'll be getting a sequel.

Summer (Ashley Greene) has run away from home and is searching for her father who had abandoned her and her mother when she was very young. A policeman catches her red-handed while she is attempting to steal from a store. She escapes from the policeman with the help of stranger, Peter (Tom Hoxey). She hooks up with him for a one-night stand and to her horror, he and his mother happen to be psychopaths. Peter catches young girls off-guard and brings them down to his basement where he has a human garden which is downright horrific. Here he subjects them to inhuman torture if the girls try to escape. Summer tries to escape, but cannot and decides it is better to join them rather than knowingly inflicting harm. During the course of her stay, Peter's father comes home and she finds out he is her father also. But her long awaited fairytale reunion is marred by the cold-hearted father who decides to enjoy her young ripe body, rather than enjoying her presence. Peter is bodily harmed when he decides to intervene. Her father takes her away to a secluded area where there is only a woman, whom he plans to finish off. Can Summer manage to escape her monster of a father? Ashley Greene did a good job in portraying Summer & Peter as the psycho who makes her a pretty flower in his "Human Garden" with skulls & another girl were pretty disturbing. I liked this film more than I would have as it stars Ashley & I'm a fan of her from Twilight. (Now, that will get me some hate..). She's not the two-goody shoes here & its very fascinating. The film when it starts to slightly drag sees the introduction of Peter's father, who is rather entertaining to us audiences. How could any mother do that with her child? That's just gross. This film, though not awesome stands on its own & you will not get bored. The performances are quite realistic. Give it a chance people. Don't overlook it.7/10