Jon Peters Reviews: “The Man in the Garage”

As easy as it would be to just rip into ‘The Man in the Garage’, I have to remember that it is a low budget, independent film, probably made with the help of friends. It’s the type of film used to fill a block in a film festival program and will be quickly discarded soon after.

I take it that Robert Luke, the writer and director, was hoping for his film to slowly develop its horror in a more traditional way, than say like ‘Saw’ which goes for the throat immediately after the opening credits stop. Unfortunately, he just couldn’t generate any suspense. I think the main problem is the script. It lacks a fluid rhythm, a tempo which most good or watch able horror films have. It takes too long to develop who or what could be the man in the garage and by the time it reveals itself, well, you’ll just shrug your shoulders or roll your eyes.

A couple moves back into a ranch style house, with dreams of fixing it up and making some money from a garage sale. Soon after, their daughter starts to tell them of a friend she calls the man in the garage. While the parents start to play it off as her imaginary friend, weird stuff starts happening to make them think twice about her imaginary friend.

On paper that sounds like a solid idea to bounce around and make a watch able horror flick. As Luke tries to add moments to make us care about the characters, it comes of flat and sometimes silly. We see the husband at some dead end job that he hates only briefly and he has a conversation with another employee about anime which is quite cheesy. Most of the time there’s a certain silence in between two characters talking which makes the whole film feel amateurish. There’s a beat they need to hit. The editing could’ve been faster too, helping out some of these green actors. There’s plenty more banter likes the couple bitching about money because he wants a big screen TV. This conversation happens nearly towards the climax. It slows down the film, halts the terror, and bores us.

The next big issue and perhaps even more so than the latter paragraph, because average to bad acting and dialogue can be easily overcome by a cool monster or killer, is the titular man in the garage. He comes off as a last ditch effort at creating a plausible villain. He looks like Jesus with a bad wig. He roars and doesn’t talk. He creeps around like a parent trying to scare junior. It’s pretty lame. His origin is messy and his motivation is nil; we never know why he befriends the little girl or why he kills. It just there as we need things to fill 98 minutes. Yes, 98 boring minutes. I can sit through almost anything as long as the villain is kind of cool, but this one is a reject from a high school play. The actor who plays him, ‘Disco’, hams it up instead of bringing menace.

Outside three good gore gags, Robert Luke needed to rethink his idea. Technically the film is pretty decent. Lighting is fine, better than most indie film productions, sound is okay at times, but he needed to add more to the idea. When you have a bum in a robe that whines and roars and kills unlikable and clichéd characters for no reason, well, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Maybe the idea would’ve played better as a short you ask? Well, actually, no. Included on this screener DVD is a short that happens 25 years prior to the film, ‘Boy in he Garage’ looks strangely like its happening today and still a kid bum killing a Goth chick. Even more lame than the 98-minute feature film. Robert Luke has some of the right pieces to make a film, just needs a better idea.