Reviewed by Ben Lee

This review contains minor spoilers.

From start to finish, you know that Gnomes is meant to be a dark drama. Not a short action flick about cartoon-y animated gnomes, but a fairly lengthy horror movie, about man-killing evil ones. From the first glimpse we have of the forest, you KNOW that this is going to keep you engrossed throughout the whole movie. And I am pleased to say that Mike Storch is a brilliant director and that Andrew James Thomas is a gifted writer. When you download Gnomes and load it up in 3DMM, just prepare to stare at the screen for half an hour, and expect that time to go fast.

The gnomes, although not fully seen until towards the end, make their presence known to us in the opening few minutes. With dark shades of colours, the mood is well set as you hear the gnomes approaching. The black background, the nice dark brown ground, and some not-so-brightly coloured trees intensifies Gnomes. You know something is going to happen. And you know it's not the Easter bunny giving you free chocolate. After a tense opening, we meet Sarah and Henry, both with rather different families, who decide to coincidentally stay in a couple of cabins near the forest for a while. Sarah is usually on screen the most, as the temper of her rather disturbing mother and what happened to her dad are revealed. It's great stuff, the main character actually has some background. I actually felt for Sarah when her controlling mother loses her temper and swears at her. I was pretty horrified at her mother's actions. And yet, when the gnomes enter their house, I had sympathy for the pair of them. It takes a good movie for my feelings to dramatically change in one split second, and Gnomes is one such movie that can.

Henry's family is not covered as much as Sarah's. They seem generally happy and friendly. We don't get to know much about Henry's parents, but it is Henry himself who is the supporting role in Gnomes. You could say he was quite the opposite of Sarah's mother. Light-hearted, sociable, and, well, he doesn't swear. It was very interesting to see Sarah interacting so differently between her mother and Henry. She is defenceless and almost speechless when she angers her mother, and yet with Henry, we see her other side, someone who CAN have fun and who CAN stand up for herself. It is like she has a mask, hiding her real personality, when she is shying away from her mother. And all this makes Sarah seem like a genuine character. How does that affect Gnomes? More sympathy.

The boy, Henry also has another crucial part, apart from bringing out Sarah's true personality. Like a lot of real films, a vulnerable girl usually has a boy to protect her. This is also seen in Gnomes. Here, Henry provides Sarah someone to talk to and to trust, and yes, she really does reveal all to someone she has only known for a couple of days. You may think that Henry is this macho boy, but no. He cries. He actually has real emotions and this makes Henry seem like a genuine character. How does that affect Gnomes? More sympathy. As you can see, Gnomes really does excel in character development.

And then there is the old man who actually knows about the gnomes. The setting of his shelter has been organised really well. Each item, the flickering fire, the fireplace, the photo, is just as important as each other. We first see him as a rather spooky guy, but really, he's just like the two kids. He's just as vulnerable as them, especially with his experience with the frightening gnomes. This is all very good stuff, as we have a third character who we can sympathise with. Towards the end, as Sarah returns to her cabin, and as she goes off to Henry's, it looks like the character development has paid off. The ending was going to be a treat. BUT, I hate that word, but the conclusion was just not as polished as what I would have liked. It was not as tense as it could have been. Sure, it was dramatic, but it didn't have that something to finish Gnomes off in style. All the character development, all the tense atmosphere and all the dark music have just boiled down to, well, not much at all in the end. It was a let down, I'm afraid.

One thing I haven't talked much about in this review of Gnomes is about the gnomes themselves. Throughout the movie, you can hear their scary laughs and you do feel a bit worried for the leading characters. Mike Storch has dramatised Gnomes extremely well with the feeling that they can attack at any time, and this adds to the slight disappointment of the ending. One person I have not given much credit to is Andrew James Thomas, and he deserves a lot. After all, he did write out the script and he helped with a lot of the music to darken the atmosphere. Mike and Andrew make a lethal combination, taking on the task of making gnomes look as scary as hell. Were they successful? Let's just say that I will not look at an ordinary garden gnome the same way as before.

Score: 93/100