| The Guardian | |
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Promotional film poster |
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| Directed by | William Friedkin |
| Produced by | Joe Wizan |
| Written by | Stephen Volk William Friedkin |
| Starring | Jenny Seagrove Dwier Brown Carey Lowell |
| Music by | Jack Hues |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 27, 1990 |
| Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $17,037,887 |
The Guardian is a 1990 American horror film directed by William Friedkin and starring Jenny Seagrove, Dwier Brown and Carey Lowell. A cable television version of the film was credited to "Alan Von Smithee", indicating that Friedkin wished to disassociate himself from its release.
This ended up as Friedkin's last theatrical film not to be distributed by Paramount Pictures until 2007's Bug, distributed by Lionsgate.
Contents |
The opening cards explain that ancient druids worshiped trees, sometimes offering them human sacrifices. While most of these trees were thought to have good spirits, some were connected with evil.
At the lovely Sheridan home, parents Allan and Molly are packing for a trip, while their young son reads the story Hansel and Gretel to his baby sister. Molly and Allan head out the door, leaving their two children in the care of nanny, Diane. Once alone and with the children sleeping, Diane tucks the son into bed, and then goes to the crib where the baby is sleeping, and takes the child. In the car, Molly realizes she left her glasses at the house, and the couple return to the house. Molly goes inside and gets her glasses from the bathroom. On the way out, she stops by her children's room to check on them. Seeing her son asleep in bed, she approaches the now empty crib, her eyes growing wide upon seeing it. She then runs from the house screaming Allan's name as she pounds on the windshield of the car. We then see a woman, draped in flowing gauze, wandering though the forest, carrying the baby wrapped in a blanket. She approaches an giant, old, gnarled tree, and holds up the baby, which then disappears from her hands. The roots of the tree show the baby's face, as it has been sacrificed to keep the tree alive. As the woman sits on the ground near a pool of water, her reflection can be seen on the water's surface. Suddenly her reflection disappears, leaving that of a growling wolf.
Three months later, Phil and Kate have just moved to Los Angeles, after Phil secures a job with an advertising agency in the area. While wrapped in a blanket in their newly rented house, Kate reveals to Phil that she is pregnant. They soon have a baby boy, who they name Jake. Shortly after, they decide it is time to hire a nanny, so that both parents can continue to work. They interview a number of candidates recommended to them through an Agency called Guardian Angel. Two of the candidates seem most fitting, one, and young woman named Arlene Russell, who is going to night school to become a physical education teacher, and another, a caring British woman named Camilla, who seems quite knowledgeable about infants. They decide to write down the name of the nanny they each want. Immediately, Arlene is shown riding her bike down a winding, hill side road. Suddenly, she hits a pothole in the road, and out of control, flies off her bike, violently rolling down the hill and lands, bloodied and dead on a giant plant at the bottom.
Kate then opens the door of her home to Camilla, who they have hired as the new nanny. Camilla quickly becomes a wonderful addition to the family, going above and beyond to care for baby Jake, as well as helping out the young parents with other responsibilities around the house. However, one night, Phil soon has a nightmare where he sees himself running through a creek, trying to find his baby. The baby is lying on the ground, and a wolf appears above it, snarling and baring its teeth. He then awakes with a start, finding himself at his drawing table, and realizes it was only a dream. Later, during the day, Camilla and the Jake are sitting in a field, lying on a blanket while she talks to him. Two drunken men approach her, and after chasing her into the forest, are joined by a third man. After knocking Camilla to the forest floor, the third man slits her stomach, and as she screams in pain, the tree behind him begins to rumble and move. Suddenly a branch flies out and hits one of the men in the head with such force, his head explodes. A second branch wraps itself around another man and tightens its grip, pulling him into the tree, which has opened a hole looking somewhat like a roughly formed mouth, which swallows him, severing his arms and killing him. The third man, who had slit Camilla, is then pulled to the ground after a branch wraps around his ankles and pulls him towards the tree, eventually severing his leg from his body. Camilla is then shown lounging on a large branch above the ground, cradling the baby, while wolves devour the remains of the decapitated victim. She suddenly sits erect, looking at the now one-legged victim, who has a giant spike burst up from the ground through his body, before instantly becoming engulfed in flames.
Kate and Phil throw a dinner party, and host Ned, their neighbor and the architect of the house they live in, and Phil's bosses from work. During dinner, the conversation turns to Camilla, and how wonderful she is to have around. Kate confesses that, as wonderful as Camilla is, she actually was not their first choice. Phil's boss then jokes that if she was not their first choice, he wants the number for the girl who was. Later in the evening, Ned, who has taken a liking to Camilla, and invites her over to his house the following evening. She politely declines, but says perhaps another time. That night, Phil gets into bed, and as he starts to fall asleep, Kate begins to undress him. They are soon having sex, and as Phil opens his eyes and looks up, he sees it is actually Camilla on top of him, not Kate. He begins to yell, and awakens to find himself in bed with Kate, asleep by his side. The following night, Kate helps Camilla get dressed up, as she says she is walking into town to do some window shopping. Soon after she leaves, Ned arrives at Phil and Kate's house looking for Camilla, with a bouquet of flowers in his hands. Kate says she just left, and Ned decides to go home, but Kate encourages him to catch up to Camilla, as she just left and is walking, so he should have no trouble finding her. Ned hops into his truck and driving down the road, sees Camilla in the distance. She is a good distance ahead of him, and turns off the road, wandering through a field towards the forest. Ned pulls over and begins to follow her, and eventually finds her standing in the creek, bathing in the water. Suddenly she vanishes, reappearing on the giant tree nearby. As she lies naked on a branch, she begins to transform into wood, clearly connected to the tree. As Ned witnesses all this happening, he is discovered by the pack of wolves, and runs back to his house, falling and getting battered in his hasty attempt to escape the wolves. While trying to call the police, his phone cuts out. After running to shut and lock the doors, he manages to call Phil and Kate, and leave a vague message about what he just witnessed in the forest. The wolves break into the house, and chase him. He runs through the house and eventually sees Camilla, who is sitting on the hearth, naked and ashen. She look at him and says "You shouldn't have followed me." Ned then runs into the basement, where the wolves attack and tear him apart. Camilla then waves her hand over the bloodied telephone receiver Ned used to make his calls, and the blood disappears. The she drags Ned's body away, and the trail of blood left behind also vanishes.
At Phil and Kate's house, Phil wakes up in the night and sees the answering machine beeping. The first message is from a woman he does not know; Molly Sheridan. She got his number from the Guardian Angel agency. She sounds desperate and emotional, and leaving her phone number, says that it is urgent she and Phil speak. As Phil begins to hear the message from Ned, Camilla enters and tells Phil he needs to look at Jake. Upon seeing him, Camilla points out that the baby looks pale, and Phil insists they call the doctor, despite protest from Camilla, who says he probably simply needs fresh air. The following day, Phil arrives at the Sheridan house, and after meeting Molly and her son Scotty, Molly describes the disappearance of her baby and how the police cannot seem to find the nanny Diane, nor any evidence that she even exists. She begs Phil to arrange for her to see Camilla, judging her reaction to Molly to determine whether she is the same woman who stole the Sheridan's baby. Returning home, Phil searches the house for Camilla. Finding no one, he listens again to the message Ned left on the answering machine, warning Phil and Kate not to let Camilla back into their house. Phil rushes over to Ned's house, and finds the door wide open, but no one inside. Returning to his house, he finds Camilla sitting on the couch with the baby, and asks her where she was. Saying she had taken the baby to the zoo, Phil becomes enraged and asks why she had not taken Jake to the doctor like he had asked. Kate enters the room and asks what is going on, so Phil plays the telephone message Ned left, and begins to confront Camilla about with all the mysterious facts surrounding her. He tells her that he tried calling her references, none of which exist, and that he met Molly Sheridan whose baby was abducted a year ago by a woman from the same agency Camilla is from. He also checked with the Guardian Angel agency, only to find out that while Camilla is registered with them, she was not recommended for this position. When he asks her how she found out about this job, she says that she heard about it through a friend of hers, Arlene Russel. Phil accuses her of making that up as well, and then fires her. In the middle of throwing all of Camilla's things into her trunk, Kate enters the room saying that there is something wrong with the baby. They take him to the doctor, who tells them of all the reasons which could cause his coma-like symptoms. Later, at the hospital, Jake suddenly stirs awake, and Phil rushes off to find the doctor while Kate stays with Jake. Slowly, Kate turns around and sees Camilla standing there. She tells Kate that the baby needs her, and she needs him too. She then takes the disconnects the electrodes monitoring Jake's vital signs, and tries to leave with the baby, when Phil blocks her path. He takes the baby, and hits Camilla so hard she is knocked to the ground. He and Kate then take Jake and leave the hospital. Upon arriving at their house, they find a wolf inside standing guard. As they slam the door shut, more wolves surround them outside. As a wolf chases them around the back of the house, Kate and Phil become separated when she Phil, who is carrying Jake, makes her slam the gate behind her, protecting her from the wild animal. Kate screams to Phil that they want the baby, and for him to meet her at the entrance to the woods. Kate gets into her Jeep, and becomes trapped by all the wolves, who begin to smash the windows trying to get in. She drives off, running over one of the wolves in the process. Phil, who has taken Jake and hidden in the woods, is then followed by Camilla. He sees her, and begins to run, as Camilla rises into the air and floats after him. Kate drives the jeep to the forest, smashing through a chain link fence. As she drives through the forest terrain, she spies Phil nearby, running from Camilla. Just as Phil finds his path blocked by a giant tree, Camilla lands behind him about to strike. Seeing this, Kate slams her jeep into Camilla, sending her flying, just as Phil leaps sideways, saving himself and baby Jake. As he stands up to see Camilla's body lying, bloodied and lifeless, on the tree, he sees all the faces of previous babies which have been sacrificed to the tree.
The next day, Kate and Phil go to the police and try to tell them about what happened, but the police are unable to find anything other than jeep tracks and carvings in the tree. Kate and Phil leave, planning on packing their things and leaving. Once home, Kate stays at the house with the baby, and Phil takes a chainsaw and finds the tree in the woods. Back at the house, Kate suddenly hears something. Checking the closet, she finds nothing, only to turn around and see Camilla standing in the corner, part tree, part human. She chases Kate, who runs through the house with Jake, trying to escape from Camilla. As Phil approaches the tree, it wraps a branch around his leg. Using the chainsaw, he slices the branch, which begins to bleed. Camilla chases Kate onto the stairs, and grabs her ankle, causing Kate to fall forward onto the landing where Jake lands. Once free from the branch around his leg, Phil begins attacking the tree itself, hacking into it. As he does so, a part of Camilla's flesh flies off her face. As he continues, strips from her side, thigh, and other cheek fly off as well. Camilla pulls Kate down the stairs by her ankle, throwing her into the living room wall. Finally, as Camilla approaches the unguarded baby, Phil succeeds in chopping off a large branch from the tree, causing Camilla's entire leg to sever from her body. Kate, seeing this, takes advantage of the opportunity and rushes up the stairs, knocking Camilla out the window. As she falls towards the ground, the tree which Phil has now chopped with the chainsaw begins to fall and explodes before landing, killing Camilla as well. Phil arrives back at the house, and finds Kate holding Jake, who is safe in her arms. The three of them stand on the landing, looking out the window.
The film has two different endings.
The film was shown on TV where Phil and Kate went home with their baby while Camilla is alive and naked at the tree.
In the video and DVD is shown that Camilla shows up in her true form and tries to take the baby from Kate, but Phil cuts down the tree thus killing the tree and Camilla. Phil and Kate save their baby.
Music for this film was written by Jack Hues of Wang Chung fame, and is his second collaboration with director Friedkin after 1985's To Live and Die in L.A..
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