For thousands of years a religious order known as the Druids worshiped trees believing that every tree has a guardian spirit.
Most of the trees are associated with good
but many trees embodied powers of evil and darkness.
In this folktale,
The Guardian by director
William Friedkin is his first horror film
since
The Exorcist.
The Guardian is based on a parent’s
worst fear, losing a child.
Parents of
two children, Alan (
Gary Swanson) and Molly (
Natalija Nogulich), decide to take a trip leaving their two children in
the care of a guardian, Camilla Grandier (
Jenny Seagrove).
Camilla’s intentions are quickly revealed as
a battle for the child’s soul begins, based on the popular novel by
Dan
Greenburg, “
The Nanny.” As the parent’s
leave for their trip, Molly, the wife realizes she left her glasses at
home.
She returns home to find her
youngest child missing and had been taken away by Camilla.
Camilla sacrifices the baby to the tree in
the woods which leaves the imprint of the baby’s face in its roots.
Fast forward to three months later where the
story continues with a new couple Phil (
Dwier Brown) and Kate (
Carey Lowell), and their baby boy Jake who
moves into the same house. The parents
hire Camilla, as a guardian to look after Jake so they can continue with their
advertising jobs. Ca
milla
quickly becomes a part of the new family. Things begin to get strange when the
husband begins to have weird dreams about Jake and Camilla that begin to come
true. As the story continues, Camilla is caught trying to steal Jake from the
hospital after a minor injury.
A
detective investigating the baby’s injury tells the parents that Camilla
doesn’t exist.
Camilla begins to turn
into part tree and attacks Kate, while Phil attempts to cut down the demonic
tree with the embedded baby’s face. As he cuts down the limbs of the tree,
pieces of skin start to fall off Camilla and she loses her entire leg after
Phil cuts down an entire branch of the tree.
The Guardian is an action packed horror film with lots of folklore
on the Druids who sacrificed human beings to trees for centuries, and includes ancient
evil, and the occult. The film is clearly another well directed movie by the
famous
William Friedkin, which makes the film a must see for horror fans. Released on
Blu-Ray by
Scream! Factory is now available for purchase also as
DVD on Amazon.
Beyond Darkness Aka “Horror House II” is an Italian horror
film directed by Claudio Fragasso and produced by
the legendary Joe D’Amato. Beyond Darkness is also a sequel to the Italian gem “Ghosthouse”. In this film Father Peter (Gene
Lebrock) is given a satanic bible from a crazed woman on death row. The
crazed woman claimed she is a witch and was imprisoned for eating children for
their souls. The crazed woman placed a
death curse on him before dying in the electric chair. Father Peter, his wife and
two children move into an old house, with no knowledge that it was built at a
location where a coven of witches were burned at the stake. Shortly after, strange and paranormal things start to happen as peter begins peaking
in tongues and rants on with strange incantations which seem to
disrupt and awaken the evil further within the house. Suddenly, upon
moving into the home, the film becomes very similar to Evil Dead as inanimate
objects begin to take a life of their own. Now fully aware of their haunted
house, Peter attempts to compel the evil spirits to leave. When he brings up
the strange occurrences taking place at the home to his superior, who appears
to be aware of what happened at that location decades before he insists that Peters
faith will send it away. Once again the superior suggests that Peter can subdue
the evil with the strength of his faith. Quickly things progress and his son Martin (Michael Stephenson) become trapped in another dimension behind
the wall and with his help from a good friend Father George (David Brandon) Beyond Darkness has its moments of being very similar to “Poltergeist” and “The Exorcist”, as well this time to travel to
the realm Beyond, Darkness. When a simple haunting turns into full bodied
burned witches, Beyond Darkness is an excellent
film that refreshes the haunted house subgenre in a whole new way. Newly
released on BluRay as a double feature by Scream! Factory, Beyond Darkness is not a film to pass up on
especially if you loved the first film to this sequel “Ghosthouse” It can be purchased on Amazon or directly from Scream! Factory packaged as a double feature with a sci-fi
horror, “Metamorphosis”. Italian
director Joe D’Amato’s work on this film is spectacular as with the
hundreds of other excellent horror films he released in the past.
