Summer’s Blood

Monday 19th October 2009

Dir. Lee Demarbre
Rating: ½*

Back from her success with vampire-romance Twilight, fresh-faced Ashley Greene tries her hand at a grittier role in this straight-to-DVD Canadian horror flick.

Teen rebel Summer (Ashley Greene) is on the road hitching a ride to a rural town called Massey in an attempt to unite with her estranged father – her only clue of his whereabouts in a letter written by him before she was born. When Summer arrives to the small town, a brief run-in with the law leads to her encounter with local handyman Tom Hoxey (Peter Mooney), who offers to hide her in his truck before sending the police on a wild goose-chase. The two quickly hit it off and after a few drinks head to the house Tom shares with his mother for the night. But when Summer gets up to leave the following morning, Tom’s carefree tune suddenly changes and his insistence for her to stay becomes deadly. After being knocked unconscious, Summer wakes up to find herself bound with chains inside a box filled with dirt and surrounded by plants, grow lights, human skulls and a girl, Amber, on the verge of death. Summer soon learns that she is the latest flower in Tom’s ‘human garden’ and must befriend the young sadist and gain his trust in order to escape.

Despite Greene’s unconvincing ‘bad girl’ portrayal, top marks for effort should be awarded to new-time director Lee Demarbre for his attempt in creating an original idea with his ‘human garden’. However, the concept is neither fully explored or explained, and is abandoned halfway into the film when Tom and his ‘daddy issues’ shift into focus. Together with Summer’s plan of escape and a redundant subplot involving Amber’s father, the film frays into too many directions leaving you less and less interested in each character as the film ensues.

All in all, with a bizarre storyline, weak performances and Demarbre’s persistence in introducing twist after twist, Summer’s Moon will no doubt wind up being another teen horror quickly forgotten.

PUBLISHED IN SCREEN JABBER