By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"Moon Garden," from director/screenwriter
Ryan Steven Harris ("The Hard Way") is trippy, dark horror fantasy that will test your patience.
I was impressed most by the movie's young star
Haven Lee Harris ("One is the loneliest number") who happens to be the director’s daughter. This kid is natural talent and has a bright future in film.
In "Moon Garden" she plays Emma, a cute, inquisitive girl who constantly sees her mother Sara (Augie Duke, TV's Mayans MC") and father, Alex (Brionne Davis, TV's "Dark Beauty") fussing and fighting.
Sara has had enough of Alex's emotional abuse. One night, she grabs Emma from bed and tries to sneak out of the house and jumps in the car, but Alex prevents her from leaving and she's back to square one.
The arguing continues, but little Emma runs into her parents’ room and tells them to stop. As she attempts to go downstairs, Emma falls. The accident leaves her in a coma and Alex and Sara are filled with pain and guilt.
As Emma lies in the hospital room, she begins to have these wild and weird dreams of being in a fairyland. She's somehow guided by hearing her parents’ voice through an old transistor radio.
Her dreams also include a variety of strange characters. There is a Mud Witch (Angelica Ulloa, "Clickbait"), a Musician (UC Davis alum, Phillip E. Walker, "Soul of Sin City"), a Bride and Groom (Tea McKay, "Texas Zombie Wars: Hellfire"), a groom, Timothy Lee DePriest, TV's "West World"), a headless, Ballerina (Emily Meister) and a Princess (Maria Olsen, "Beneath Us All").
As haunting as they are, Emma is also being stalked by a monster (Morgana Ignis, TV's "Far-Fetched").
"Moon Garden" draws from Emma's childhood. Her toys and other things in her bedroom become this vast, mysterious world. Danger lurks at every turn as she struggles to reunite with her parents.
It's an interesting concept of horror and fantasy seen through a child's eye, but the dream sequences become repetitive which causes the film to lose much of the intrigue and tension it initially begins with.
However, "Moon Garden" does earn stylistic points with its animation techniques and hallucinatory color schemes which gives it a chilling and unsettling effect. It's a trippy, little movie.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays now at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Look At This Trailer For
"MOON GARDEN"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
