Gardens of the Night.

"Recovery time is recommended after seeing Gardens of the Night, a harrowing, obliquely told story of kidnapping and forced child prostitution that conjures a world entirely populated by predators and prey." Stephen Holden in the New York Times: "Written and directed by Damian Harris (Deceived, Bad Company), who researched the subject for a decade, Gardens of the Night has a ghastly air of authenticity."

"Ostensibly an exposé of the very real problem of sex slavery and its lifelong consequences for its victims, the film, despite Harris's tasteful elisions of potentially graphic depictions, plays more like a borderline exploitation film, with its young lead, Ryan Simpkins, continually placed in harm's way," writes Andrew Schenker in Slant. "Harris may play coy with explicit provocation, but he strings the viewer along with a series of suggestive details and unsavory situations that everywhere maintain grim interest and invite a certain voyeuristic complicity in the audience."

Updated through 11/8.

In the Voice, Ed Gonzalez finds it "a dubiously long 'Stranger Danger' sketch that pushes way beyond the limits of taste and reason."

For Filmmaker, Nick Dawson talks with Harris "about his long quest to make the movie, his transition into indie filmmaking, and his dream project, Spartans."

Update, 11/8: Harris's "dedication to getting the details right... doesn't save his film from missteps typical to stories about such topics, as the tendency to exploit lurid material for dramatic purposes is something he can't avoid," writes Nick Schager at Cinematical. "Still, as a serious-minded attempt to trace both the literal and psychological means by which abductors carry out their plots, Harris's tale is not wholly without merit and, with regards to its portrait of kid-snatcher Alex (Tom Arnold), occasionally flirts with complexity."

Posted by dwhudson at November 7, 2008 9:45 AM