User Reviews

"Summers Blood" starts out not too bad... I liked the overall look and the acting, yet there was some technical downsides on the bad dubbing and the editing became atrocious in the end with tons of senseless dissolves. What at first looks like a slow movie with a hidden secret turns into a mess of its own. The movie opens up with a hitchhiking girl ending up captured in a strange family after a pretty unconvincing one night stand. Her psycho lover keeps her in his "garden" in the basement along with another girl who just sits and babbles and then dies.

You wonder about what that garden is supposed to mean, why the mother is acting strange while it plays a fake love story between the girl and her capturer who has a soft spot for her. As soon as the drop that the guys dad is out and coming home and the girl tells her story about how she came to town looking for her father you know everything thats coming up.

And thats the funny thing about the movie... everything that is mysterious is dropped on the sidelines while everything else is predictable about one third in the movie. It all ends up random like they made the plot up on the fly while filming it culminating in one of the most ridiculous movie endings ever. I thought my DVD was broken and skipped a few minutes to the credits but the movie really just end. Stay away from this farce. There is no depth in the characters, their actions are not explained and for a horror movie this one seriously lacks either atmosphere or gore and can't make up for it with the lame incest story and "evil knife loving daddy".

Obnoxious, foul-mouthed teen Summer (Ashley Greene) has a falling out with her drunken mother, runs away from home and hitches her way to a small town looking for the birth father she's never met. After getting caught shoplifting at a gas station, Summer escapes the police with help from a handsome young guy named Tom Hoxey (Peter Mooney). The two go to a bar and then hook up back at his place. The next morning when Summer attempts to leave, she's knocked out and wakes up chained in the basement. Turns out that Tom is a bit on the unhinged side and his favorite pastime is keeping unwilling girls prisoner in his downstairs "garden." Tom is aided by his lonely, miserable mama Gaia (Barbara Niven), who knows all about her son's little hobby but does nothing to help the victims. A little insane herself, Gaia is still a loving mother. Well actually, she's a little too loving if you catch my drift. Meanwhile, Darwin (Peter Michael Dillon) is snooping around town looking for his missing daughter Amber (Danielle Kind), who is also being held prisoner in the Hoxey home. Things take an even stranger turn when Tom's father and Gaia's husband Gant (Stephen McHattie) - a serial killer himself! - returns home for a visit.

Though the premise is pretty ridiculous, it gets off to a rocky start and the whole thing comes off like an R-rated made-for-TV movie, it's fairly entertaining and has some pretty sick content. Most (not all) of the actors do a serviceable job. I was not very familiar with lead actress Greene, since you couldn't force me at gunpoint to sit through a TWILIGHT movie. She was highly abrasive (and thoroughly unlikable) the first half but seemed to do better as her character became more desperate. Mooney did a nice job as the unstable son and Niven and McHattie were both good as the psycho parents. The film is relatively low on gore, though there's some nudity provided by Cinthia Burke, playing a tough biker babe/garage mechanic here.

The Canadian-born director also made three (very clever) HARRY KNUCKLES shorts and several other genre pictures I've yet to see: the memorably titled Troma release Jesus Christ VAMPIRE HUNTER (2001) and the H.G. Lewis-inspired horror-comedy SMASH CUT (2008).

Ashley Greene goes looking for her father, gets abducted, and then finds out her captor is her step-brother. I guess this is categorized as a horror film because the brother keeps women chained in his basement and tortures them, but the story isn't much more than a gory soap opera.

Ashley is highly unlikeable as a teen with an attitude, and there are only about four other characters who matter. The basic outline is that Summer ends up joining her abductor and his mother in they psychotic endeavor, until the father figure shows up. The dad kills the son for trying to protect Summer, then takes her with him for who knows what, but she kills him and escapes. The movie ends with her walking off alone, like the ending of any episode of Bill Bixby's Hulk. Nothing in this movie really pays off. It just kind of happens. So I'm giving it a 1 out of 10 for being badly made AND not being entertaining on top of that.

Although her good looks DID somewhat help lift the movie from a hard zero to a 1/2, Ashley Greene's acting was completely dull, annoying, unrealistic and probably worse than any amateur I've ever seen. Now I understand why Alice never had more than two lines in the twilight saga. The rest of the cast was also so bad that it felt like a torture sitting through this movie. Seriously, can't stress it enough, the acting in this movie is simply quite pathetic. I could not find anything good about this low-budgeted production. The story is also just a pile of predictable crap that we've all seen somewhere before: Girl goes to find her dad but ends up chained in the basement by a family of tormented psychos. Even the blood looks fake! In short, I know a lot of people are gonna be pretty curious about this one but watch it at your own expense. It s a merciless bore-fest!

What a strange movie this is! Is it supposed to be some macabre humor? It seemed to take itself much too serious for that. As a thriller it didn't have enough suspense and the storyline just was too thin. And as a downright horror flick it didn't have enough scares or gore. So the net result was a non-distinct mix of everything and nothing.

On the positive side I have to say that the acting was over-all fine. Maybe Ashley Greene didn't have to stretch her abilities, since she most of the time walks around as a traumatized zombie. But the parents were great, especially Stephen McHattie as the father is very convincing as an intimidating, self-assured but always good-humored psychopath. And Peter Mooney as the deranged son did a terrific job, his acting is a perfect mixture of boyish charm, innocence and hair-raising bursts of sudden violence and unpredictable behaviour.

But then there were all these illogical things that kept amazing me. We're made to believe that the son habitually abducted girls to lock up and torture in the family basement. Why does he do this? And why does mother condone this rather quaint behaviour? It never gets explained. He does this for years and years? Didn't the police or anyone come and search for missing persons? Where did they ditch the bodies? What was the purpose of the "garden"? Did I miss some metaphor here? Or are the (numerous?) bodies buried there? The script never gives any clue. Suddenly the evil father shows up, he out of the blue relentlessly and without a single hesitation kills mother and son on the spot to claim the girl for himself. So what kept him from doing the same thing much earlier, I mean, he apparently made these visits frequently, and he must often have found a locked-up girl there that he fancied for himself.

The ending was an anti-climax, to say the least. When evil daddy leaves the car to chat with an innocent by-standing woman (presumably to inflict some terrible harm on her), our heroine also leaves the car, stabs him in the back and he's dead. That's it, the end. Come-on now, couldn't they have done a little bit better than that!?! I know that many horror movies make the death of the villain/monster etc. a bit too elaborate, with countless miraculous resurrections before the final and most spectacular blow is given. But here everything ends with a dreadful puff. I want my money back!!

Summer (Ashley Greene) has run away from home and is searching for her father who had abandoned her and her mother when she was very young. A policeman catches her red-handed while she is attempting to steal from a store. She escapes from the policeman with the help of stranger, Peter (Tom Hoxey). She hooks up with him for a one-night stand and to her horror, he and his mother happen to be psychopaths. Peter catches young girls off-guard and brings them down to his basement where he has a human garden which is downright horrific. Here he subjects them to inhuman torture if the girls try to escape. Summer tries to escape, but cannot and decides it is better to join them rather than knowingly inflicting harm. During the course of her stay, Peter's father comes home and she finds out he is her father also. But her long awaited fairytale reunion is marred by the cold-hearted father who decides to enjoy her young ripe body, rather than enjoying her presence. Peter is bodily harmed when he decides to intervene. Her father takes her away to a secluded area where there is only a woman, whom he plans to finish off. Can Summer manage to escape her monster of a father?

Ashley Greene did a good job in portraying Summer & Peter as the psycho who makes her a pretty flower in his "Human Garden" with skulls & another girl were pretty disturbing. I liked this film more than I would have as it stars Ashley & I'm a fan of her from Twilight. (Now, that will get me some hate..). She's not the two-goody shoes here & its very fascinating. The film when it starts to slightly drag sees the introduction of Peter's father, who is rather entertaining to us audiences. How could any mother do that with her child? That's just gross. This film, though not awesome stands on its own & you will not get bored. The performances are quite realistic. Give it a chance people. Don't overlook it.

7/10

Rebellious and foul-mouthed Summer Matthews (Ashley Greene of Twilight fame) goes on a road trip in search of her long lost father. This brings her to a semi remote town, where she meets Tom Hoxey (Peter Mooney). After being rather helpful Summer ends up at Tom's home, where they spend a passionate night together (with Tom's mother listening in intently). The following morning as Summer is ready to leave and continue her venture Tom turns out not to be the nice guy she believed he was. Summer ends up chained in Tom's garden as a precious treasure (together with another women for that matter). Tom's mom, Gaia Hoxey (Barbara Niven), is fully complaint with her son's hobby. Something he got from his dear old papa Gant (Stephen McNatty)...

In theory this sounds somewhat promising, even if reeks of a 'House of 1000 corpses" ripoff. But this theory doesn't help to cover up some of the nonsensical segments of the script. The whole psychology of the murderous family is rather dodgy and the garden is never satisfyingly explained. Even worse are the discussions between the unwilling captive and Tom, who don't really make much sense with one key scene, where an already chained-up Summer casually talks about why she went on this little road-trip in the first place (terribly acting by Greene for long parts of the movie). To some extent it almost makes this movie feel like a gory soap-opera. Even the key sequences of the movie feel somewhat livid and don't pack any emotional wallop as would be required for this movie to work.

To make matters worse the so-called shock twist is apparent from miles away and about one-third into the movie you already know what's going to happen. Actually if you focus one minute or so on the title of the movie you can guess the plot twist before turning on the movie.

On the plus side I think the whole threesome creating the dysfunctional Hoxey family did a bang-up job and they are really a guilty pleasure to watch. Nonetheless it not that brilliant and you really have no need for seconds. Thankfully the whole Hoxey family gets killed off before the end credits, so I don't think we'll be getting a sequel.

I have just watched Summers Moon tonight, and i thought that it was a good film. It is about A teenage girl called Summer (Ashley Green, Twilight) who is on the road looking to try and find her father. Her only clue where to find where he may be is a letter from a rural community called Massey. Once Summer arrives in town she is rescued from a hit and run with the police, by a man called Tom(Peter Mooney), both of them seem to get on well together so they head back to Tom's house which her shares with his mum Gaia,(Barbera Niven). But on arrival at the house she is knocked unconscious by the demented family, Summer is bound with chains inside a box that is filled with dirt. She is also surrounded by by plants and human skulls and another girl who is almost dying. What she does not know she is the latest flower in Tom's ''Human Garden''. I found it to be quite disturbing at times because of the sexual violence in it. 5/10

Girl gets picked up by a nice young man. Ends up abducted and chained in his basement where she is given to join him and his killer family or well...you know the drill.

Good cast and crew make something out of a well worn plot line. You've been here before, the question is do you want to go here again since the material isn't anything special, even if the performances are very good. This is one of the increasing number of movies that are taking well worn ideas, spicing them up with a great cast and then getting a weak script. It ends up wasting everyones time.

I vote take a pass.

Summer travels to the small town of Massey, where she hopes to connect with her long lost father. After shoplifting in a convenience store where a cop is, the cop gives chase. Tom helps her escape the cop, and she goes home with him and has a one night stand. The next morning, though, Tom lets her know that she's not leaving. Tom's mother Gaia hits her over the head with a blunt object to drive the point home.

When Summer wakes up from the head blow, she's staked, all four limbs, to a gardening bed full of exposed soil. She's not alone; there's another captive woman not far away. One version of the title is "Summer's Blood," and we can guess the origin.

Darwin, Summer's putative father, gets out of jail, and comes looking for Summer. The Sheriff listens, but Summer has not left an impression that keeps his interest. He makes a few inquiries; Gaia is the first one whom he asks. Gaia tries to talk Tom into abandoning his 'gardening' and setting the girls free to avoid trouble with the law.

Tom does some reading, which he shares with Gaia. They set Summer free, but keep her in their orbit. Soon after, Gant Hoxey calls, and there are a series of revelations.

Then the emotional fireworks start. Who survives the gore fest? -----Scores------

Cinematography: 5/10 On the dark side for the interiors, with better than VHS quality, but not by much. The colour palettes were often ugly to the point of looking like 1970s video shown during late night. The exteriors, fewer in number, were better, but still had the low-budget look to them.

Sound: 5/10 For a Canadian film done in English, the actors seem to be lip-synching. Perhaps that's a Netflix problem, sound versus video. Music did not seem to be an asset.

Acting: 4/10 Peter Michael Hilton and Paul Whitney were just horrible. Even as little as ten hours practicing reading lines might have helped. On the other hand, veterans Stephen McHattie and Barbara Niven were very good. Peter Mooney and Ashley Greene were just all over the map, occasionally believable, usually terrible.

Screenplay: 2/10 The film is fairly open about incest, real or intended (Gaia and Tom, Tom and Summer, Gant and Summer), but does not seem to even try to capitalise on the shock value. The gardens did not make any sense. Was Tom just practicing protracted torture, or was there something to be gained from the plants? Referring to the original title, was blood actually involved there? What did the young women before Summer actually die from?

This was a movie that was predictable by description, but the journey to get to her meeting her father is interesting. Summer is a tough girl who is on a journey to find her father, who was told that she had been miscarried. The only thing she had to lead her to him was a picture and a card he had sent her mother. She hitches rides to the town that the letter came from. While running from a police officer for shoplifting, she meets a young man that hides her and takes her home. She has a great night with him, but when she gets up in the morning and tries to leave, she ends up in the basement as a victim. As the movie progresses, she gets more liberties in the house and stays locked there with her captor and his mother. The father of the family is on the road all of the time, but once he hears about Summer, he comes home to see the new captive. Then the movie progresses as I would expect it to. It was a movie worth watching. Ashley Greene is not the sweet girl from Twilight, but a tough girl with a will to survive.

First up, anyone reading this should be well aware that this movie is nothing but trash. And yet, there are degrees of trash. I'd rather fall in compost than rotting diapers. The acting is uneven, especially for our female lead, the camera work is dubious with its sort of floating grayness, and much of the dialogue is unnecessary, repetitive, at times inane, and narratively much is left to the imagination. The film did however hold my interest, purely because it so overtly dealt with perhaps the greatest modern taboo; incest.

As other reviewers have mentioned, "Summer's Moon" walks the line between horror and thriller, but never quite commits to either making for a somewhat bland presentation. The best thing the film had going for itself was its bold and unapologetic prevalence of incest. Whereas a shock factor such as this should've been pushed to the extreme, evoking all sorts of disturbing and grotesque feelings, it's left on the backburner as sort of the "oh no!" of the movie. The implications of incest are what are so shocking and disgusting to people. These characters however are somewhat immune to it. Not ignorant of or oblivious to, but immune to. It never impacts any of the characters in the way that it would impact an audience. The implications of mother/son, father/daughter, and brother/sister are more than enough to have the film banned in several countries. "Summer's Moon" never exploits the atrocity the way it should have being that incest is such a focal point of the plot and indeed it would seem one or more characters' sole motivational force.

I wish I could say that what the film passed up in the realm of psychological mayhem was made up for in gratuitous gore, but what little blood is shown isn't even as grisly as most prime time TV shows. There's never really any sense of dread or tension; certainly the script is to blame but the actors also had a very hard time emoting anything other than childish fear with such a whopping dose of abject curiosity thrown in that none of the characters are particularly convincing in their respective roles. Summer is just a little too nonchalant about being a prisoner, and Tom and Mom are just a little too aloof about keeping captives. There's just no indication that the characters themselves have any motivation, as if they had sprouted up in a vacuum and were plopped into this bizarre situation.

Finally, initially significant portions of the film end up stuck with no context. The "garden" was at first a bit eerie, mysterious, weird enough I thought there might be some half-decent reveal later on, but Tom's revolving door of girl-slaves gets shoved aside with no explanation about any of it or its relevance to Summer, who is clearly serving another purpose. And while psycho-Dad was easily the best actor of the lot, what exactly was the mechanism of his lunacy? Did he methodically plan out this whole scenario just to rape his teenage daughter ad infinitum? What did ANY of the film have to do with him killing random women? What purpose did the kidnapping of the last girl play at all? So many incidents are isolated that it can be tough to piece together the arrow of causality.

So, "Summer's Moon," you get a bit of a nod for diving right down into the incest, but somehow you got lost focusing on the murky reflection of the water rather than embracing it's depth and terror.