The Creeping Garden Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

The Creeping Garden Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 28, 2017

Was there a pitch meeting for The Creeping Garden? Did the film’s co-directors Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp secure a meeting with some studio bigwig and tell him (or her), “Hey! We have a fantastic idea for a documentary: slime molds.” Slime molds (also spelled moulds, as they are in the subtitles on this release) may not be a subject that jumps to the top of most people’s “must see” lists in terms of potential cinematic subject matter, but perhaps completely unexpectedly, The Creeping Garden turns out to be a weirdly fascinating enterprise, especially for film fans who have a certain fondness for science fiction outings like The Blob (or The Blob or Beware! The Blob). Kind of like the “silly stuff” that creeps through those efforts, slime moulds are seemingly sentient beings that seem to be kind of a gelatinous goo, but which (perhaps frighteningly) can move, and which have been shown to respond to various stimuli, like an honest to goodness conscious organism.

The Creeping Garden begins with some fun archival newcasts from 1973, including one from NBC Nightly News anchor John Chancellor talking about something ooey and gooey that had popped up in suburban backyards and was causing people to think they were living a real life Invasion of the Body Snatchers. At the end of The Creeping Garden, Chancellor is back with another report putting fears to ease, but at that point the audience will have sat through all sorts of data points that perhaps subliminally suggest that slime moulds aren’t as “innocent” (or at the very least, as stationary) as they might first appear.

Some of The Creeping Garden is unavoidably “scientific”, documenting some of the biological aspects of these organisms, as well as getting into some of the controversy over how they should be properly classified (animal? mineral? vegetable?, so to speak). The film follows amateur sleuth Mark Pragnell as he forages through some forested environments on the hunt for the little beings, and it’s rather interesting to see the slime moulds that he discovers, many of which are in various stages of “evolution”.

There are a number of really interesting elements detailed throughout The Creeping Garden, and some of the footage of slime moulds kind of slowly marauding over surfaces or seeming to respond to external stimuli are a little disturbing. The single most fascinating segment in the film for me personally was one documenting a totally wacky but mesmerizing experiment whereby a musical conversation of sorts is set up between a composer and various slime moulds, in what might be thought of as a slightly sticky jam session.

The Creeping Garden Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Creeping Garden is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. As is often the case with documentaries featuring source elements culled from a wide variety of material, there's a certain heterogenous quality here, especially with regard to the archival news footage from the seventies. There's a more subtle but still noticeable difference in sharpness, clarity and detail levels between some of the outdoor contemporary footage and talking head or demonstration footage that takes place inside. Some of the time lapse photography of the slime moulds enacting the "it's aliiiive!" moment from Frankenstein can show minor signs of flicker, as tends to be the case with this technology. Generally speaking, though, detail levels are high and the palette looks natural. While some archival video has built in anomalies like ghosting, there are no outright issues with the transfer.

The Creeping Garden Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Creeping Garden features a really interesting sounding LPCM 2.0 track. While the standard issue explanatory talking segments are here in abundance, there are also a number of more unusual sequences, including several outdoor forays to track down slime moulds, where at least some ambient environmental information is imparted, and also the truly amazing sequence documenting the musical "conversation" that one scientist is working on. Throughout the film is the appropriately oozing score, which also gets another treatment on the bonus CD enclosed in this package as a supplement. The track offers an excellent recreation of all these elements.

The Creeping Garden Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Biocomputer Music (1080p; 6:06) is an absolutely fascinating follow up to one of the segments in the film itself, showing the results of the incredible musical "conversation" that the efforts of Eduardo Miranda and Ed Braund resulted in.


• Return to the Fungarium (1080p; 3:03) features more of Bryn Dentiger's adventures at Kew Gardens.


• Feeding Habits of Physarum (1080p; 2:19) features Professor Adam Adamatzky discussing slime moulds' meal preferences. This has optional English subtitles to help with the good professor's pretty thick accent.


• cinema iloobia Short Films

  Milk (1080p; 1:12)

  Rotten (1080p; 1:16)

  Paramusical Ensemble (1080p; 9:43) is a really compelling documentary that I won't spoil other than to say have your handkerchiefs ready.

• Angela Mele's Animated Slime Moulds (1080p; 2:48) offer the gorgeous illustrations that underlie the film's closing credits in a textless environment. There's some biographical data about Mele at the beginning of this supplement.


• Gallery (1080p) offers only a Manual Advance option.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 00:35)


• Audio Commentary by Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp


• Bonus CD features the (as the notes call it) "rearranged soundtrack" by Jim O'Rourke. This is really interesting stuff, combining electronic and almost organic sounding elements with occasionally more tonal intrusions that almost get close to trance territory. The CD offers only two fairly lengthy tracks.

As is typical with Arrow (and Arrow Academy) releases, a nicely appointed insert booklet rounds out the supplements.

The Creeping Garden Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's no getting around the fact that The Creeping Garden is kind of one big "WTF" documentary. Not only is the main subject, well, unusual, the way several scientists are examining and even interacting with slime moulds proves to be unexpectedly fascinating. Technical merits are fine, and the supplemental package is outstanding. Believe me, no one is more shocked than I am to tell you that The Creeping Garden comes Highly recommended.