Blood Flower review.
Shudder offers up an original possession story that ends up in the same place that they almost always do. It’s interesting enough to warrant a watch…but you’ll know where it’s heading the entire time.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Blood Flower
Directed by Dain Said
Written by Ben Omar, Dain Said and Nandita Solomon
Starring Idan Aedan, Bront Palarae, Remy Ishak, Nadiya Nissa, Nabila Huda, Eriza Allya, Amanda Ang and Pearlly Chua
Blood Flower Review
Another week…another possession movie. It must be the subgenre of horror with the most installments and least innovation. Specifically, possession stories that end in exorcism. That’s exactly what Blood Flower does…though it does its best to disguise that during a more interesting than usual second act. We’ve reached the point where exorcism climaxes have become so routine that they elicit an eyeroll instead of peaking the demon story we watched unfold. An exorcist will be tested…evil will try to shock from inside its human host…the battle is as it ever was.
We can’t blame The Exorcist for doing its job so well. We can, however, lament the fifty years that movies have spent repeating the story. It gets a fresh coat of paint every now and again. At times a filmmaker will figure out a way to change the notes a bit. But it’s usually the same song. Blood Flower dresses it up better than most. That’s why its finale is more frustrating than usual. It hasn’t been playing a new tune. It’s been playing the usual with a little jazz break in the middle.
Perhaps that’s enough to be thankful for. It shouldn’t be…but Blood Flower does, at least, feel new for a while. We should suspect from the start that it will end up being what it is. We’re introduced to a family of exorcists (or…healers, here). While that’s new-ish…it does point us in the story’s direction. Iqbal (Idan Aedan) is our lead. Like his mother…Iqbal has a supernatural connection to the demon world. His father doesn’t. Which makes his place as the lead of the exorcist clan dubious at best.
The opening of Blood Flower sees Iqbal and his parents on assignment. A demon possesses a girl in town. They walk through a forest to their destination. Iqbal can see spirits walking all around them. It’s an effective scene to convey his supernatural sensitivity…and to layer in some fine creepy factor. Iqbal loses his mother while they attempt to heal the girl. It’s an important moment that sets up both the interesting second act of the story…and its unoriginal third.
Iqbal’s hatred of his gifts is the most interesting aspect of Blood Flower. He resents being unable to help his mother. He doesn’t want to see the world as he does. His father is empathetic to the point of helping him suppress his powers. Unfortunately, that only results in Iqbal being unable to combat the evil all around him. He still sees it everywhere.
Specifically, the evil is coming from a makeshift greenhouse inside is apartment building. You have to accept a lot of coincidence in Blood Flower. Iqbal’s father works for a man who keeps a garden of carnivorous plants in an apartment in the building. That man happens to be the estranged father of Iqbal’s friend Nurul (Arnie Shasha). Nurul’s older sister went missing years earlier. The father hasn’t seen his family in years…despite having an apartment he goes to every day in the same building. It all ties together, of course. What’s the point of introducing a half dozen conveniences if not to conveniently utilize them?
Iqbal’s father is tasked with caring for the plants for two weeks while Nurul’s father is away on business. He explicitly tells Iqbal not to go in the greenhouse…which he, of course, promptly ignores. Iqbal takes his friends into the apartment, and they accidentally unleash a demon. People start dying and Iqbal is powerless to stop it. Being haunted by visions of inevitable death and standing unable to act gives Blood Flower something interesting to play with.
The story moves a tad slow…but the middle part of it works. The police pop in to investigate what’s going on…but it never adds up to more than an inconvenience for anyone. A necessary way to both ground the world into a recognizable one and give exposition on Nurul’s missing sister case. It’s only when everything turns towards the expected that Blood Flower loses steam. We’ve seen what it has to offer before. A good set-up can only make up for so much.
That’s not to say that Blood Flower makes the wrong choices. Planted seeds need to sprout. Set-ups need pay-offs. It’s just that those conclusions are so steeped in what’s expected of the subgenre they’re impossible to get excited about.
Scare Value
We’re at a bit of a crossroads with demon/possession/exorcism movies. Sure…we see genuinely unique takes on it on occasion. Mostly though…we get the same concept redressed in new clothes. Blood Flower is firmly in the latter group. It does a good job spinning an original feel for as long as it can…but it winds up with same third act we’ve seen time and time again. If you like those movies…this is a decent one.
2.5/5
Blood Flower Link
Streaming on Shudder
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