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Garden of Love
The Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine
Germany 2003
produced by
Yazid Benfeghoul for Benfeghoul & Goldberg Filmproductions, IMAS Filmproduktion
directed by Olaf Ittenbach
starring Natacza Boon, James Matthews, Daryl Jackson, Bela B. Felsenheimer, Donald Stewart, Alexandra Thom-Heinrich, Jean-Luc Julien, Anika Julien, Jeff Motherhead, Kayla Motherhead, Barrett Jones, Damien Coyle, Anthony Failla, Stefan Hummel, Karin Kain, Thomas Reitmair
written by Olaf Ittenbach, Thomas Reitmair, music by A.G.Striedl, special effects by Olaf Ittenbach, special makeup effects by Thommy Opatz
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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12 years ago, she has survived a massacre in which her whole family has
been killed, but has had amnesia due to this and has been raised by her
uncle Don (Donald Stewart) and aunt Barbara (Alexandra Thom-Heinrich) who
made her believe they were her real parents. Now though, visions of the
past begin to haunt Rebecca (Natacza Boon), and she does find out that she
indeed is not her parents' daughter and did survive a massacre. So she and
her older boyfriend David (Daryl Jackson) pay a visit to the cop who
investigated the case, Munster (James Matthews), after which she visits
the scene of the massacre, her father's (Bela B.Felsenheimer) farm, on her
own - to meet those who have been murdered, who now demand her to bring
them their killers to have their revenge. Thing is, Rebecca at first does
have no idea who their killers were - until she returns to her boyfriend
David who promptly tries to kill her and while doing so confesses to
having been after her inheritance (which she doesn't even know about) all
the time - since he killed her parents with a partner. Rebecca manages to
kill David though, then pays a visit to officer Munster to let him handle
the whole affair - only to rather unexpectedly find her foster parents
there ... and soon it becomes clear they were all David's partners who
tried to get her hands on the fortune of Rebecca's father. Rebecca knows
she is no match for them, so she kidnaps Munster's daughter Melanie (Kayla
Motherhead) and lures Munster, Don and Barbara to her father's farm to let
her ghost-family take care of those responsible for their slaughter. The
ending sees Rebecca having adopted innocent Melanie, who like her has been
hit with amnesia after witnessing her father being slaughtered - and just
like Rebecca's father did, Munster already starts appearing to Melanie to
make her help him having his revenge ... As a concept, an
inheritance plot mixed up with a ghost story is always good for a few
unexpected plottwists, and Garden of Love is not too bad in that
respect, even though much of the basic plotline is easy to guess for
anyone who has seen a few of these films. On an acting level, Garden of
Love though hardly rises above average, with some of the performances
being definitely below par. The film's saving grace though are its many
gore effects courtesy of Olaf Ittenbach, which are not only beautifully
crafted, but Ittenbach as a director also sees to it that they are also
being put onto film quite as perfectly, without just giving the audience
a tour through what seems to be a slaughterhouse for shock effects, as is the case with
modern gore movies all too often. Of course, an ok story and beautiful
gore don't make a masterpiece on their own, but a totally watchable movie
at least - provided you are into more explicit violence on screen.
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find The Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine at adultvideouniverse.com
