Fella_shibby
This movie was lacking in both suspense and b movie fun. I saw this on a rented VHS in early 90s. There's just nothing really scary about the tree. Even worse is that a great director like Friedkin (the exorcist, bug, killer Joe, rules of engagement, the French connection). can't bring any tension from anything but quite a bit of nudity and some extremely gory scenes. I hated this movie. Not only is it a chore to sit through with the tedious pace, its inexplicably stupid as well. We are given no proper explanation as to why all these events are transpiring, nor do they bother to tell us why a damn tree is wreaking all this havoc. We also get no proper character development. I think a nanny bathing with a baby naked would be questionable. This movie contained such annoying nonsense. The movie has Carey Lowell (licence to kill). Dwier Brown (the house 1 n 2, red dragon). Jenny Seagrove. Miguel Ferrer (iron man 3, Robocop, night flier).
Mr_Ectoplasma
"The Guardian" centers on a young bourgeois couple who move to the Los Angeles suburbs upon the arrival of their newborn son; seeking a nanny, as both husband and wife plan on continuing to work, they hire the mysterious Camilla (Jenny Seagrove), a polite Engliish woman who very quickly becomes part of the family— that is, until they discover she's actually a druid Hamadryad who sacrifices newborns to a sacred tree in the woods near their house.When discussing this film, William Friedkin has been quoted as saying that he wanted to "make a fairytale for adults," and I think that's the most appropriate lens under which to view this film— anyone trying to take issue with the film's whimsical nature or its lack of "seriousness" is missing the point here. While "The Guardian" is a flawed film in multiple ways, it seems to get the most flack for its relatively absurdist plot. There's an evil nanny sacrificing babies to a tree, and the tree periodically comes to life to ward off and kill anyone who means harm— I get it, it's a bit out of the realm of reality. At the same time, Friedkin's horror landmark "The Exorcist", filmed seventeen years before, concerns a twelve-year-old possessed girl who vomits green slime, whose head spins around, and who masturbates with a crucifix; granted, I don't know what your daily life is like, but for me, that's just about equally outside the realm of what I call "reality". It's not that I'm equating Friedkin's work on "The Guardian" with that on "The Exorcist"— "The Exorcist" is clearly the better film— but criticizing this film on the grounds of its fantastical plot is not only fallacious— it's hypocritical. Despite what you may or may not make of its plot, the greatest strength that "The Guardian" has is its classy cinematography and striking visuals. There are amazing shots in this film; shadows of the trees on the bedroom ceiling come to life, and Camilla's ventures into the atmospheric forest are beautifully and hauntingly photographed. For what it's worth, "The Guardian" also boasts some impressive "Evil Dead"-esque special effects that still hold up today even, and take center stage at the end of the film. For a film made in 1989, the special effects behind the anthropomorphic tree are especially impressive, and also quite sinister; the faces of infants embossed in tree bark are nothing short of chilling.There are flaws here, however, the most prominent (and surprisingly least discussed) being the underdevelopment of Dwier Brown and Carey Lowell's characters; granted, they are secondary to Camilla, but their vitality to the plot begs for something more, as both of them feel pretty hollow. Jenny Seagrove is the film's highlight as the mysterious and sensuous Camilla— this is her film more than anyone else's, and her turn as a tree-morphing villainess makes the film worth a watch alone. Another obtrusive issue here is the film's sloppy editing, which makes for a somewhat jarring viewing experience at times. The choppiness that seems to arise throughout the film isn't a deliberate stylistic touch either, but rather just a side effect of poor editing. It certainly doesn't kill the film, but it does make it appear a bit unnecessarily rough around the edges.Overall, "The Guardian" is, I think, an unjustly hated film— perhaps even misunderstood in some regard. It's no masterpiece, and is arguably one of Friedkin's weakest films to date, but when you take into consideration its unusual fairytale tinges and the sophisticated cinematography on display, there is something legitimately worthwhile here for genre fans. People call absurdism on this film, but I say nay. Like Friedkin said, it's a fairytale for adults— an uneven, shoddily edited, and perhaps half-baked fairytale, but a fairytale no less. Most memorable moments: the architect neighbor following Camilla to the tree, and the high-speed levitation chase through the forest at the end. 7/10.
The_Film_Cricket
I have a feeling that 'The Guardian' started off as a very different film. I have a feeling that it started off as the story of a beautiful, kindly babysitter who moves into a family unit with the intent on doing harm to the child. That, at least, would have been a good arena to start in but then the idea pops up in the producer's mind that she has to be a Druid who wants to make the babies part of a gnarled old druidic tree.The opening scene of the movie establishes all of this before the second half intersects. Camilla a kindly young governess with a calming British accent takes the job of caring for the infant child of Phil and Kate (Dwier Brown and Cary Lowell). She is a parent's dream, knowing every single detail about children but with no explanation of why she has no children of her own.These scenes give the film a calming heir settling us down before the secret of her true intentions are made clear. But instead the movie turns out to be one of those special effects bloodbaths in which everyone who has a supporting role becomes fodder for the effects technicians who keep coming up with new ways to kill them.Phil and Kate live, conveniently, at the edge of a forest where Camilla's tree resides. This brings about the film's biggest mystery, if Camilla is centuries of years old and so is the tree, how has she toted it around for all these millennia? The movie was directed by William Friedkin apparently on the basis of his credit after having directed 'The Exorcist' but this film has no brain, no patience and no build-up it's just a clatterbox of would-be shocks and needless gore.
Michael_Elliott
The Guardian (1990)* 1/2 (out of 4) A text at the start of the movie tells us how Druids used to scarifies humans to trees. Flash forward to couple Phil (Dwier Brown) and Kate (Carey Lowell) who find themselves to proud parents to a new baby boy. They end up hiring a nanny named Camilla (Jenny Seagrove) not realizing that she's previously stolen babies and fed them to a tree in the woods.William Friedkin finally returned to the horror genre nearly two decades after his ground-breaking film THE EXORCIST. If you're going to watch this movie then it's best that you don't go in expecting another movie at the level of that one because THE GUARDIAN is pretty bad on many different levels. I think the idea of a woman giving babies to a tree for a scarifies is actually a pretty interesting idea but sadly the screenplay here just offers up predictable scene after another and in the end there's just nothing too thrilling here.The biggest problem is the screenplay because it's all quite predictable and I can honestly say that there's not a single thing that happens here that you don't expect. Take the sex scene between the husband and the wife. Don't you just know he's going to open his eyes and see the nanny as the one he's having sex with? There's the fact that the police don't believe the couple after they find out what's going on. These are just two examples of the predictable things that happen throughout.There are a few good moments that keep this from being a complete stinker. I thought Seagrove was very good in the role of the deadly woman. She's very believable as the "good" nanny but she's also quite seductive in the evil parts. Both Brown and Lowell are also good in their parts as is Brad Hall. I'd also say that the music score was quite effective and Friedkin did manage to create one very good sequence dealing with a man trapped inside his house with evil coming to him.The gore effects are also another major plus as they actually managed to get quite a bit past the MPAA. There are a couple memorable death scenes and I would add that the living tree was a very good effect and the scenes of it eating people were effective. Still, THE GUARDIAN just has too many issues with the story and the lack of any real scares really brings it down.
