Dark Garden Review

Reviewed by DeathIncarnate  on  3/12/2000

Production date 6/99

A Michael Ninn Feature

Starring Nikita, Vicca, Julian, Lea Martini, Juli Ashton, Mia Smiles, John Decker, Tyce Buné, Ramon et al.

Synopsis: So, this is it.. my first review, and the DVD I was waiting for for so long. Was it worth the wait? I guess. Was I disappointed? A little. At first, it's easy to be impressed with the bells & whistles VCA put into the DVD version of this flick. It starts out with a cool menu, and one doesn't really know where to start: Photo Gallery, Cast Info and Interviews (including the director), Scene Selection etc. are nothing new, but here we also get multiple angles, a behind-the-scenes segment and a director's commentary! I will come to this later in detail... let's get on with the film:

Almost anyone would be blown away by the main title sequence.. though similar to the one in 'Ritual', it has a perfect music score and segues smoothly into the first scene of the movie, where we see the corpse of a man lying flat on his bed, two strange holes or burn marks in his temples. Investigating the murder (or is it something else?) are detectives Julian and some older guys (apparently played by VCA salesmen) who all do a really good acting job. Too bad it turns out that the dead guy was the mayor's son. Bad luck, and so Julian and Juli Ashton, playing his partner, are sent to investigate; and since our hero seems to be a troublemaker, this kind of routine work has him occupied. Actually I unintentionally skipped the first sex scene here, which is a flashback to the mayor's son getting visited by Vicca, delivering 2 strange metal rings who cause sexual visions ('Strange Days' anyone?), in this case it's Nikita masturbating, followed by Vicca fucking our man in a rather feeble scene (to me, anyway). The visual style is hard to match though, which is what always distuingishes a Ninn feature from the rest. As it turns out, Julian is addicted to the metal himself, which causes another fantasy of Nikita masturbating, again, this is really well shot, though I don't care for solo scenes. It is around here that we're introduced to Jamie Gillis as.. the devil? In essence, it's a reprise of Al Pacino's role in 'Devil's Advocate' and this bothers me a little. Gillis is pretty good here, but there are several whole ideas lifted from that film. He does have a mentally backward brother however. That's a new one, and some special effects and editing tricks bring us Gillis in a double role! As if we couldn't get enough of him as is :)) The third sex scene comes half an hour into the DVD when Nikita takes on 2 guys (cops, no less..) who DP her. In this scene there is extensive use of the alternate angles advertised on the box, however there only 2 in fact. Furthermore, there usually isn't that great a difference, usually angle 2 is a close-up. And then.. comes a REALLY messy layer change. We really have to wait for several seconds! The completely strange thing is that in fact the timer of my DVD player restarts from scratch here, so there are 11 chapters that can be accessed before the layer change, for the rest you have to wait!! That did piss me off a little, I wonder what VCA did there..

We get then treated to a sex scene between Juli Ashton and Julian, and this is really the best one of the whole movie. Not too many close-ups, but a lot of full-body shots and reaction shots. And I like Juli a lot better than Nikita that's for sure.. The plot seems to make a little halt here, in any case there's a lot more sex from here on. This wouldn't matter too much, but 2 of the scenes are really just fillers who don't really have a place in the movie. That would be a Mia/Decker coupling and pretty Lea Martini and her hubby Ramon. Both scenes are a bit lacklustre even regarded on their own merits.

At the end, Julian's dependency on the drug leads him again to Gillis' stylish headquarters where a final scene with Nikita is carried out, but not before another OK lesbian scene with our tall Russian gal and Lisa Belle. Here the angles really work, as you can watch either watch Lisa Belle (angle 1) or Nikita (angle 2) masturbate separately before the sex. Nice touch! The movie then ends rather dramatically and stylishly.

DVD features: I already talked about the (not sensational) multiple angles, but the rest is more interesting. The behind the scenes stuff is quite interesting, as a lot of people throw in their opinion on making the movie. The interviews with Nikita and Ninn are less special, in particular Mr. Ninn seems a bit too blasé about his success (a fact that was not in evidence in the other interviews/commentaries I listened to). The gallery is extremely hardcore, if you like that sort of stuff.. DP close-ups and such. Now a word about the 'director's' commentary which is NOT! We get to listen to D3 (who edited 2 of Ninn's features and serves as a video technicia here), Nikita (who doesn't exactly come across as a rocket scientist) and the 'technical director' whose name I didn't catch (I don't recall him mentioning it!), and who might be Veronica Hart's husband who is also seen in the behind-the-scenes segment. Well, while it is rather interesting, I must say that the commentary on 'Cashmere' was certainly better(though there was less technical talk on that one) which may also be linked to Kylie Ireland's charisma.

The video/audio quality are outstanding though: It must be said that the music on this video is outstanding, there is not one piece that doesn't grab you. The art direction, editing, etc. are expectedly great (some of the best work Ninn has ever done may be buried here), but my qualm lies in the camera work. There are several 16mm segments in there who look great (esp. a scene where Julian walks across town at night), but the look of the main scenes is too video-like. The other Ninn features look somewhat richer, you could never tell that 'Shock' was shot on video, for instance. This bothered me a little in some of the scenes. In the sex scenes, I didn't care for the decidedly hardcore slant Ninn put in them. I liked his dreamy style more. Though some of the scenes keep that style, others are too ridden with close-ups and loud moaning for my taste. I certainly won't watch the DP scene twice... The absence of facials in recent VCA movies is also in evidence here, as is the presence of condoms in all b/g scenes. Be warned!

Verdict: All in all, this surely is a mostly great DVD version of a superior adult movie. While both have some imperfections, I will conclude by recommending this one anyway. The mix of art and hardcore sex is less evident here than in some of Ninn's other films, but the story here may be his best. And he has great actors here pulling it off. This was not the case with 'Sex' for instance. So, give yourself a treat.. "I am a priest in the new digital order. All I wanna do is juice up your dreams a little" -Michael Ninn (closing credits)