Release Date: 11/19/19; DVD (Original Release – 2018)
Genre: Thriller
Rating: NR
Director: Mark A. Samuels
Studio(s): MBS Media Group, Maverick Entertainment
Running Time: 100 mins. (DVD)
Cast: Giovanni Hogu, Thomas Rusley, Kennedi Jones.
Story: Murder Gardens is the story of Chase Washington, a 19-year-old young man whose world has been turned upside down after he leaves a comfortable home provided by his foster father for a life of crime and corruption that he’s introduced to by his older brother Rell Washington. Chase ends up in the middle of a war between a notorious crew of drug dealers, corrupt politicians and local law enforcement. Determined to survive and prove that the brain is mightier than the gun, Chase finds a way to outsmart his new found enemies and keep him and his brother Rell out of prison and a graveyard. Source: Maverick Entertainment.
Trailer:
The town’s dead, led by Melissa’s great-great-great-great-grandmother Lucinda Cavender, a witch who was put to death 300 years earlier, rise up from their graves and roam the town. As Melissa, Vinnie, Mitch, and Mary enjoy themselves at their annual Halloween costume party, Phil encounters a mysterious girl, named Sandra “Sandy” Matthews, dressed in a vintage 1950’s cheerleader outfit, who warns him that the whole town is in danger.
When the local police do not take Phil and Sandy’s warning seriously, Phil manages to get his father’s hunting rifle to make silver bullets from his father’s silver coins. When the couple ventures to the Halloween party, they discover everyone turned into undead zombies, vampires, witches or other evil beings. Phil manages to get the Grenville Spirit Ring from the zombie Vinnie. Phil and Sandy drive back to the town’s cemetery to break into Grenville’s crypt to take his remains to use to seal the scroll just as Lucinda and a horde of undead arrive and attack. Cornered in Phil’s car, he and Sandy manage to use candle wax to seal the parchment scroll and in a flash, Sandy and all of the undead vanish, plus the wounds that Phil sustains during this event disappear and the damage to his car is also gone as if the entire event never happened.
Phil finds himself all alone in the cemetery where he finds Sandy’s grave and finally learns that she has been one of the undead too, but that restoring the damage done has also made Sandy disappear too. As the time turns twelve midnight, Phil begins to drive back to town when he hears a music dedication on his car radio from ‘Sandy’ in devoting a song to him implying that she will always be looking after him from beyond the grave.
In the Philippines during World War II, nurses Lena Arruza and Francisca gather medicinal herbs in the jungle. Inside a cave, Movini, a firebrand cobra bearing a red triangle on its chest, bites Lena, who collapses, the red triangle appearing on her neck and her face becoming mask-like. When she regains consciousness it is as if she has never been bitten, and she carries the cobra outside, crooning to it. There, she finds Francisca, who has been raped and shot by a Japanese soldier. With the snake’s venom, Lena heals her friend instantly.
Twenty-seven years later, young scientist Joanna is in Manila to conduct field research in developing an anti-venom to cure snake bites. Her mentor, Dr. Tezon, explains to his students that an ancient Philippine theory postulates that a snakebite’s deadliness arises not from the venom but from the snake’s anger, causing a release of fatal enzymes. Although Tezon attempts to dissuade Joanna from studying the fabled firebrand cobra, rumored to possess its victims’ souls and keep them forever young, Joanna remains adamant, and Tezon informs her that Lena, rumored to own a firebrand, lives in a nearby jungle.
Later, Duff finds Lena in the cave before an altar, where she apologizes for Movini’s actions. Soon, Francisca arrives with Joanna and Dirk. Joanna enters the house and, spotting a vial of venom, pockets it. Lena takes an immediate dislike to Joanna and refuses to allow her to see Duff. While Joanna leaves and whispers to Francisca outside, Lena realizes she has stolen the venom, and sends Movini out to bite her. However, the snake accidentally falls upon Francisca, killing her. Joanna backs away in terror from the advancing cobra and manages to open Dirk’s cage. After a protracted fight, Lena watches in horror as Dirk kills Movini. Joanna races away as Lena collapses, her face transforming again into a mask.
Afterward, he realizes that he is rapidly growing old and has been infected by the act of making love, but she informs him that Movini’s venom counteracts the aging process, keeping her young for decades, and that there are a few drops left in the house. After injecting Duff, instantly restoring his youth, Lena tells him he must retrieve the venom that Joanna has stolen. They go to the city, where Duff, again aging, sneaks into Joanna’s lab. When he places the venom vial on the counter, the caged monkey spills it, and Duff is forced to flee as he hears Joanna entering. Meanwhile, Lena is slowly transforming into a snake, a triangle appearing on her neck and her skin turning to scales. She immediately targets a local man with whom to make love, knowing this will restore her youth temporarily, although it leaves the man instantly withered and old.
Duff enters and, seeing Lena in her snake form, flees to Joanna’s house. As Lena murders Dr. Tezon to curtail his experiments, Duff makes love to Joanna. He awakens, however, to find Lena in snake form curled up on the bed, and she hypnotizes him into returning with her to her cave altar. There, she prays to her deity to be freed from her human form. Before transforming into a snake again, Lena informs Duff that he will always be safe and young as long as he protects her, and when she dies, he will merge with her for eternity. Unwilling to be bound to her, he vacillates, allowing Lopé enough time to burst in and attack Lena. 
Although he chops her snake body into five pieces, she rejuvenates as five snakes and kills him. As his body falls into the altar pyre, the cave bursts into flames. Duff flees into the jungle, followed by Lena’s five snake entities. Just then, Joanna returns to the jungle and is soon surrounded by the five Lenas. Upon hearing her scream, Duff, deteriorating rapidly, entreats Lena to take him instead of Joanna. Joanna wants to stay to help him, but he insists she leave, then submits to Lena’s bite. As he awakens, young and healthy, he strokes Lena.
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