On the heels of numerous highly-received titles in recent years, the international horror scene has rightfully turned to Asian cinema with the likes of Japanese, Korean, and even Indonesian titles achieving acclaim and accolades across the globe. This has led to other countries following suit as Thailand has produced a slew of noteworthy efforts recently and other places like Cambodia, Mongolia, and especially Malaysia offering their choices for international recognition. Now, after the success of his earlier film “Dukun,” Malaysian director Dain Said returns to the forefront with this gruesome new supernatural chiller “Blood Flower” now available to stream on the Shudder service.
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AIqbal (Idan Aedan), an apprentice faith healer and exorcist with a sixth sense, is tormented by visions of the dead and spirits from other dimensions after years of suppressing these abilities so he can fit in with other kids. When a malicious spirit begins to wreak havoc in the apartment complex where he lives and torments those around him, Iqbal is forced to confront his supernatural gifts to save his family and friends.
There's quite a lot to like with “Blood Flower.” One of the biggest factors going for this one is a rather intriguing storyline from writers Ben Omar, Nandita Solomon and director Said that grounds the supernatural action at play within a highly effective humanizing drama. The whole experience is based around Iqbal's reluctance to use his paranormal powers and trying to defeat the evil spirits that emerge around him which is quite effectively contrasted with the need for a normal life. Seeing how he interacts with his friends at the apartment who are the same age and unbothered by what's going on with him and his family, creates a genuinely sympathetic lead throughout the first half. The inability to get over what happened with his mother continually interrupts his attempts at making friends which eventually brings them into contact with the figure kept behind the locked greenhouse door that soon starts terrorizing everyone around the building. This ends up generating the discovery of the dark secrets at play in his family's history as the need to use them grows over time. It's an overall intriguing enough story that sets everything in motion rather nicely while serving to provide the necessary grounding of the characters we're following.
As a result of this, when “Blood Flower” goes for gruesome supernatural action it's incredibly effective. The opening confrontation with the possessed neighbor where we learn of Iqbal's powers for the first time is quite enjoyable, with some rather dark action at the forefront as the spirit targets the group there to confront them. The scene where Iqbal and his friends free the spirit from the greenhouse room is immensely chilling as everyone blows past frequent red flags to continually act as rebellious youths doing something they shouldn't, and the resulting scares that follow are quite effective. With the demon now free and able to torment the other residents in the apartment, the series of accidents and freak deaths that occur, where the vision of a demonic figure surrounding the victim controlling them to perform the gruesome action, makes for a chilling series of scenes. The series of demonic possessions that follow his friends leads into the wholly over-the-top exorcism sequences that take place in the finale. While overly familiar for the type of genre fare this turns out to be, everything here still manages to be twisted enough with its on-screen action and what it reveals to be quite a fun time, as the visuals are enjoyable enough to keep this entertaining overall.
There's not much “Blood Flower” gets wrong but there are some prominent issues. The biggest factor is the overwhelming sense of familiarity that runs rampant throughout the film with it featuring a slew of features from other genre fare. Most of this is due to the typical Southeast Asian style of how it treats possession and demonic influence, with the victim appearing as a hyper-rabid, glowing-eyed ravenous force acting out of control until put under a controlling spell. An innumerable amount of films have implemented this approach to the format in recent years, and manages to take a lot of the impact out. Moreover, the same overall look of the possessed individuals is achieved so that the look and behavior both come across as something viewers have seen many times over without change so it's not all that original. The other issue with this one is the somewhat goofy and silly-looking CGI used for the final form of the creatures which also has a lot of the hallmarks of the other titles in the genre which feature this type of material. The out-of-place scenes are quite obvious with all the supernatural flair and enhancements that look completely laughable at the attempt to mix it into a more grounded affair, with the goofiness of the sequences contrasting with these more natural sequences. The demons are especially bad at this, especially when they control one of his friends in an otherwise chilling sequence in the family's house where the stiff, blocky creature comes off as laughable rather than terrifying and ends up being a slight disappointment.
A generally effective if slightly problematic feature, “Blood Flower” has a lot to like even though its engative factors are quite present and do end up lowering the film level quite a bit. Viewers with a taste for this kind of genre fare or are fans of the modern Asian horror movement will have plenty to like with this one.
