In “The Guardian,” although the director William Friedkin tries his best, a thin storyline and uninteresting characters drag the film down.
The film opens with a married couple, Molly (Natalia Nogulich) and Allan Sheridan (Gary Swanson), leaving their two young children in the care of a Nanny, who takes the youngest one into the forest and sacrifices it to a tree as part of a human sacrifice to sustain its life. The Nanny is revealed to be a Hamadryad, an ancient entity whose whole existence depends on the continued existence of the tree from which it was born. Three months later, Phil (Dwier Brown) and Kate Sterling (Carey Lowell) relocate from Chicago to Los Angeles after Phil lands a lucrative advertising position. Almost immediately after settling into their new home in a remote Los Angeles canyon, Kate becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son, Jake. They decide to hire a Nanny, and after their first choice is found dead, they settle on a beautiful young British woman named Camila Grandier (Jenny Seagrove). Camila instantly bonds with Jake, and the couple is charmed by her loving demeanor and expertise with newborn babies. Ned Runchie (Brad Hall), a neighbor and friend of the Sterlings who also designed their house, takes a shine to Camila and decides to pursue her. He follows her into the woods, where he discovers her dark secret before attempting to warn Phil that she is not who she seems to be and that his family is in danger. Will the Sterling family survive in the end?
The Guardian’s storyline is flat and uninteresting, lacking the depth and substance required for this film to succeed. Camila’s motivation for kidnapping and sacrificing children to a tree for the sole purpose of prolonging the tree’s and, by extension, her own life was laughable, and the film needed to be more than that. In a 2007 interview with The Guardian, Jenny Seagrove stated, “I begged Universal to make it about a real Nanny who kidnaps babies.” Frankly, that concept would have worked better because it would have led to a more in-depth exploration of Camila’s character and motivations, potentially making her more sinister and unpredictable, thus increasing the film’s impact. If not, the film could have at least maintained suspense around Camila’s true identity. We learn in the first scene that the Nanny working for the Sheridans is Hamadryad, and while her face isn’t revealed right away, it is very evident that she is the same Nanny who subsequently starts working for Phil and Kate. The film might have benefited from concealing her identity for as long as possible.
Nonetheless, Friedkin manages to pull off a couple of incredibly suspenseful and terrifying scenes throughout the film. There is a scene in which Camila takes Jake for a picnic, where she is ambushed by three men who try to rape her. She rushes through the woods, holding the baby, while the guys pursue her. Camila leads them to the tree, which surprisingly comes to life and mercilessly kills the three of them. It was a brilliantly executed scene, full of insane gore and excellent visual effects. Additionally, the climax is easily the best sequence in the film, with the astute use of cross-cutting heightening the tension. These two scenes work exceptionally well because they effectively instill in viewers a genuine and palpable sense of danger for Jake’s safety.
William Friedkin returned to the horror genre with “The Guardian,” 17 years after directing one of the best horror films of all time, The Exorcist (1973). It’s understandable that audiences had high expectations and were disappointed by this film, which isn’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination but certainly doesn’t measure up to the quality of his 1973 masterpiece.
The Guardian movie link: IMDB
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