Today, its very easy to feel a little jaded about the horror scene and its current state. In the mainstream we are bombarded with weak as water haunted house movies or some 100th attempt at found footage (often raising the question of just why anyone would keep filming in such a terrified situation) so this leaves us retreating much deeper, and darker, venturing into the independent, underground, or low budget realm where surely things must be different? And they usually are. The thing is though, while the horror mainstream caters mostly for the casual fan, out with their partner for the night, munching on popcorn, and wanting a few jump scares (and a plot from Amityville in the 1970s Mr Wan) the independent scene caters more for the gorehound which some smart folks like to call "torture porn" as they just haven't got the critical maturity to describe it any other way. Personally I detest this label, but at the same time I'm also quite tired myself of seeing plot less torture and shock in my movies because it reeks of a lack of directional skill or ingenuity, Im sorry but throwing gallons of fake blood and latex at the screen doesn't hide the fact that you sir suck at making movies, and while you may have your little band of followers (hey we were all teenagers once) you probably won't hit the mark for the more mature, seasoned fan who want something a little more artistic, atmospheric and disturbing, which brings me to Flowers.
On sitting down to Flowers I have to say I wasn't expecting much. Over the past few years I've experienced quite a lot of extreme horror films (many lauded as the next big thing around the indie horror forums) and to be honest, most fell foul of what I've mentioned above (gore with nothing else to offer). And true to expectations, Flowers kicks off with a girl locked up in a basement watching some faceless antagonist drag in his next victim from her grimy place of imprisonment under a house - and i thought to myself..... yawn... Here we bloody go again. But, it soon became apparent that this film was doing something very different indeed, something dark, something artful, and something quite disgustingly beautiful. Gone was the dialogue (which usefully eradicates any occasions of bad acting) and in its place were other sounds that conjured up much more dread and much more unsettlement than (the usual) victims screaming. Far off atmospheric sounds whooshed in and out, over the top of squelchy, sloppy, and mucky assaults on the ear holes This was a film that you experienced both aurally and visually as a surreal and messed up journey, not something crassly forced into your face like a motorway car crash. Flowers is claustrophobic, nightmarish, yet depressingly gorgeous in its stinky on screen presence (and from what I've read of what that muck was made from it was stinky for real haha). This film just has to be both seen and heard. I really don't want to give too much more away here, but this is a film for the more discerning horror fan, a film which shows that the low budget scene CAN be innovative and pop something out that's not repetitive scenes of disembowelment or mutilation, rather it strives to show horror can be art.
The constraints of budget here have forced the producers to proverbially think outside the box and not just come up with another tale of rape and torture (though many scenes within are graphic indeed) to me, atmosphere in a film is everything and it takes a true artist to be able to pull that off. I was hooked from start to finish watching Flowers and I didn't look at my phone even once (hey that's the modern grading scale isn't it haha?) so I conclude that this is a damn fine indicator of what it did for me. As it is, up until now this film has only had two quite small release runs so not a lot of people have caught it yet, in October however its getting a full scale retail distribution by Unearthed Films (which are a highly respected label in the indie horror world) and I expect things will really take off then. I wish the people involved all the best of luck with it and hope they continue down the more artistic road of horror they're on. Only time will tell, but for now this will be one of the best horror releases of 2015 for me. Oh, and ps. I have no connection with this film whatsoever, hopefully that's evident from my other reviews on the site.
On sitting down to Flowers I have to say I wasn't expecting much. Over the past few years I've experienced quite a lot of extreme horror films (many lauded as the next big thing around the indie horror forums) and to be honest, most fell foul of what I've mentioned above (gore with nothing else to offer). And true to expectations, Flowers kicks off with a girl locked up in a basement watching some faceless antagonist drag in his next victim from her grimy place of imprisonment under a house - and i thought to myself..... yawn... Here we bloody go again. But, it soon became apparent that this film was doing something very different indeed, something dark, something artful, and something quite disgustingly beautiful. Gone was the dialogue (which usefully eradicates any occasions of bad acting) and in its place were other sounds that conjured up much more dread and much more unsettlement than (the usual) victims screaming. Far off atmospheric sounds whooshed in and out, over the top of squelchy, sloppy, and mucky assaults on the ear holes This was a film that you experienced both aurally and visually as a surreal and messed up journey, not something crassly forced into your face like a motorway car crash. Flowers is claustrophobic, nightmarish, yet depressingly gorgeous in its stinky on screen presence (and from what I've read of what that muck was made from it was stinky for real haha). This film just has to be both seen and heard. I really don't want to give too much more away here, but this is a film for the more discerning horror fan, a film which shows that the low budget scene CAN be innovative and pop something out that's not repetitive scenes of disembowelment or mutilation, rather it strives to show horror can be art.
The constraints of budget here have forced the producers to proverbially think outside the box and not just come up with another tale of rape and torture (though many scenes within are graphic indeed) to me, atmosphere in a film is everything and it takes a true artist to be able to pull that off. I was hooked from start to finish watching Flowers and I didn't look at my phone even once (hey that's the modern grading scale isn't it haha?) so I conclude that this is a damn fine indicator of what it did for me. As it is, up until now this film has only had two quite small release runs so not a lot of people have caught it yet, in October however its getting a full scale retail distribution by Unearthed Films (which are a highly respected label in the indie horror world) and I expect things will really take off then. I wish the people involved all the best of luck with it and hope they continue down the more artistic road of horror they're on. Only time will tell, but for now this will be one of the best horror releases of 2015 for me. Oh, and ps. I have no connection with this film whatsoever, hopefully that's evident from my other reviews on the site.