Director William Friedkin made plenty of great films but his auteur status will always be equated to The French Connection and The Exorcist, two enduring classics of the 1970s that redefined their respective genres. As his career went on, Friedkin would revisit the terrain with tethered films, returning to The French Connection vibe in the 1980s with To Live And Die In L.A., which has now been reclaimed and reappreciated as a great movie after not blowing up the box office upon release. The Guardian (1990), in comparison, does not have such a reputation, and was Friedkin’s return to horror, and without any major stars in the film, this was part of its marketing (“From The Director Of The Exorcist”). Growing up, I distinctly remember the poster (mimicking The Exorcist iconic poster art) and reading reviews of The Guardian, so have always been curious about this forgotten title in Friedkin’s career.
Apparently, Sam Riami was involved in the production and left to make Darkman (it’s hard not to think of him with The Guardian’s tree-and-chainsaw climax), and Friedkin came on board because the producer was previously his agent and instrumental to the early part of his career. This is basically a “Nanny from Hell” yuppie thriller with a supernatural twist. A young couple (Dwier Brown and Carey Lowell) from Chicago with a new born baby look for a nanny due to both working to afford their new home in L.A. Bad luck though as their new British nanny (Jenny Seagrove) is a “guardian” to an ancient, powerful tree that is cyclically fed with a new baby, and is biding her time before kidnapping theirs to satisfy her tree-God. Look, this can’t compare to the slow-burn, docu-drama intensity of The Exorcist, and Friedkin’s approach was to treat everything as “a contemporary fairy tale.” The results are quite trashy and fun, featuring some effective scary sequences with old-school in-camera effects. The Guardian feels more like an Italian horror movie from the 1980s, with a few airless soap opera type scenes that eventually give way to bloody, surreal mayhem. The film never wastes too much time explaining what’s going on, and just gives you carnivorous coyotes, limb-ripping trees and a bark-covered druid witch. Seagrove is great as the seductive and strange Nanny, and reliable character actors show up like Miguel Ferrer and Xander Berkeley. There’s even a big part for Mr. Julia Louis-Dreyfus/creator of The Single Guy, Brad Grey. Note: the big close-up of the Stephen King It novel at one point.
Unexpected Boorloo/Perth connection. When the husband character is up late, working on some ad copy sketches, he’s listening to late night radio and the DJ comes on: “And now we’re going to take a track from a band all the way from Perth, Australia. This is The Triffids with David McCombs with ‘Wide Open Road…’” And then an earthquake interrupts proceedings, so we don’t get to hear the song soundtrack another nightmare about a druid tree-cult unfortunately. I also thought the moody piano tinkling was familiar, and yes, Jack Hues from Wang Chung is on scoring duty after working with Friedkin on To Live And Die In L.A.
Watched a 320p upload on YouTube. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 