Gardens on film
The flesh-eating plant in Little Shop of Horror and the hedge maze in The Shining... Garden elements play a key role in a number of movies.
Little Shop of Horror (1986)
A flower shop featuring a man eating plant
A musical directed by Frank Oz. The geeky flower shop assistant Seymour (Rick Moranis) finds a strange and unusual little potted plant, which attracts many clients to the flower shop. However, the plant soon grows to size and starts to eat people, demanding Seymour “Feed me!”
At first Seymour’s rival, the sadistic dentist that dates his florist colleague Audrey, falls a victim to the plant, soon dubbed Audrey II. Can Seymour control the giant flesh eating plant?
The Shining (1980)
A hotel featuring very exciting evergreens
A horror movie directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Stephen King’s novel. Jack Torrance gets a job as custodian of the Overlook Hotel, in the mountains of Colorado. The place is closed down during winter, and when the snow storm blocks the family in the hotel, Jack's son Danny, who is clairvoyant, discovers that the hotel is haunted. The demons of the hotel slowly drive his alcoholic father crazy and he ends up chasing Danny with an axe through the hedge maze in the garden.
In the novel it is the topiary animals that come to life to haunt Danny. However, in 1980 computer graphics were not advanced enough to make this credible. The hedge maze was an excellent cinematic alternative that has been paraphrased in a number of other films.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Another chase through a hedge maze
The horror romance directed by Francis Ford Coppola is of course based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It stars Gary Oldman as Count Dracula in a cast also featuring Winona Ryder as Mina. At some point Lucy is walking around the hedge maze and Mina is calling and searching for her.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
A competition in a hedge maze
In this fourth Harry Potter film directed by Mike Newell Harry finds himself selected as a competitor in a high risk school competition. The third task involves a huge hedge maze with magic boundaries. In the centre of the labyrinth is the Triwizard Cup and the first to touch the cup wins the task.
Being There (1979)
A gardener becomes spin doctor
The movie directed by Hal Ashby starring Peter Sellers as Mr. Chance, a simple gardener. Chance has been tending his employer’s garden without any contact with the outside world. When his employer dies he must enter the real world, where his simple garden allegories are mistaken for deep wisdom, knowledge and complexity. He quickly becomes a prominent celebrity and even presidential advisor.
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Tall arrogant flowers and a strange game of croquet
There's been many adaptions of Lewis Carroll's books, but Disney's version from 1951 is probably the most celebrated. In her chase after the Rabbit, Alice enters into a garden of beautiful, but arrogant flowers who regard her as weed and throw her out. Afterwards she meets the caterpillar who turns into a butterfly.
Alice also meets some playing cards (in the hedge maze garden) who are painting white roses red on direct order from the obsessive Queen of Hearts. She is subsequently challenged to a game of croquet using hedgehogs as balls.
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Showdown in a Japanese garden
Directed by Quentin Tarantino this movie is about a martial arts trained assassin, The Bride (Uma Thurman), who wakes up after a long coma. She demands revenge on the assassination team that betrayed her - a team she was once part of. The Bride goes to Japan to kill the Yakuza boss O-Ren Ishii, the second name on her death list.
After battling the Crazy 88 The Bride and O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) fight it out, a long and evenly-matched sword-fight outside in the snow. The Japanese garden includes many classic traits including a bamboo fountain.
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