Blood Flower is an unconventional horror film, though that isn’t necessarily a positive. Structured like a metropolitan highway and consistently underutilizing impressive concepts and effects, the film caps itself for a reason unbeknownst to the audience. Further, the spiritual narrative twist is the opposite of unconventional; it’s a common trope and has been strikingly executed in the genre time and time again, but much like the rest of this film, that element is watered down to near nonexistence. Beyond buzzwords and repeated phrases, it exists as a sense of false depth in the story. Compelling at first, yet quickly exposed.
We follow a family, two of whom have unique supernatural abilities, as they grapple with a malevolent force of mysterious origin. To the film’s credit, the performances are stellar across the board. Idan Aeden as Iqbal in the lead is the heart-wrenching highlight. Despite being only nineteen years old and sporting limited credits thus far (though that is certain to change), he shows no sign of inexperience, reaching all ends of human emotion and never once failing to deliver. His supporting cast all fill their roles fittingly, too, and provide a string of horrors that live up to the admittedly harrowing ideas that spur them. The core family is convincing, with realistic dynamics and interactions that evolve based on experiences (almost always with a monster or demon of some sort). In that manner, the writing excels.
But part of the structural issue is the film’s complete lack of focus, with the family bits being the lone exception. The spooks are a consistent through-line across multiple subplots of varying importance, though all are mostly uninteresting. The film attempts to sprinkle in shocking imagery on occasion to distract from this fact, and once or twice, it almost works. One scene in particular at a dinner table is legitimate nightmare fuel, and regardless of whether or not you like that specific sort of scare, its effectiveness in the moment is undeniable.
Blood Flower’s reliance on practical effects, used wildly in the aforementioned scene, is by far its greatest strength. Of course, using a good to distract from a bad is a problem, but that doesn’t make the good any less, well, good. Even when it struggles to genuinely unsettle, the film can still be marveled at from a technical perspective. It’s a heavy accomplishment in makeup and monster work, with the main monster at hand being reminiscent of the equally effective ghoul in It Lives Inside, which is easily one of the year’s most underrated horror efforts. A comparison to that film is a win in any regard, but especially this one.
Still, though, there is a clear difference between creepy and scary. The visuals and effects are certainly creepy, and the film earns flowers for extensive efforts on that front. But as far as taking full advantage of those things goes, Blood Flower just misses the mark. Rarely is there a horror film that claims its crown with practical effects and then breaks it by making use of them. Yet, here we are. A horror film can only go so far without being horrifying. Blood Flower may reach the full extent of that, but even then, that isn’t a soaring achievement.
Horror heads will definitely find some stuff to love with this one. Director Dain Said gets crafty and does his best with a screenplay that simply doesn’t do the trick. All the pieces of a potentially tantalizing puzzle are present, so it hurts to see them still strewn out all over the place by the time the credits roll. Not a total loss, but a loss nonetheless.
Blood Flower is currently available to stream on Shudder.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfQ4R5iy-rE]
The visuals and effects are certainly creepy, and the film earns flowers for extensive efforts on that front. But as far as taking full advantage of those things goes, Blood Flower just misses the mark. Rarely is there a horror film that claims its crown with practical effects and then breaks it by making use of them. Yet, here we are. A horror film can only go so far without being horrifying. Blood Flower may reach the full extent of that, but even then, that isn’t a soaring achievement.
Movies, long drives, and mint chocolate chip ice cream.
