Blood Flower
It’s a gift which runs in the family, Iqbal bin Salim a healer like his mother Dina, his father Norman and younger sister Ilya spared what the two of them must witness, walking as a family through the misty forest at night to a household where Dina has been asked to expel an al-hinnu, a malicious djinn possessing the daughter, mother and son both of them aware of the tall, distorted figures which lurk behind the trees, dark inhuman shadows following them which they try to ignore.
The exorcism going badly, Dina dies in the attempt; grieving, Norman seeks to bind his son’s powers to prevent himself from going down the same path and placing himself in danger, but it is already present; neighbour Jamil abroad, he has asked Norman to take care of his precious exotic carnivorous plant collection, but amongst them in a room sealed by padlocks and a paper blessing is an even more dangerous spirit seeking to escape.
Taking its name from most precious possession Jamil (Remy Ishak) has in his life, more important to him than his wife or unwanted daughter Nurul (Arnie Shasha), the Sumatran Amorphophallus titanum which blooms only once every eight years, Blood Flower (Harum Malam, 血忌) is equally rare, a horror film produced in Malaysia and drawing upon the beliefs and practices of that predominantly Sunni Islam nation.
Directed by Dain Said from a script co-written with Ben Omar and Nandita Solomon, the opening scenes are evocative, capturing the sense of a land where the presence of spirits is endemic and accepted, Dina and Iqbal (Nadiya Nissa and Idan Aedan) resigned to their roles and never at peace with a constant awareness of the other realm while Norman (Bront Palarae) tries to support them while maintaining a front that all is normal, oblivious to the suffering all around him.
The plot built around the two families and their relationships, they are conveyed as poorly as the police conduct their investigations into the bodies of Iqbal’s teenage friends and Jamil’s drug dealer brother Rahim (Joey Daud) which pile up in and around the apartment block, never sealing off the crime scene or conducting anything which could be regarded as a follow-up even when long-decayed human remains are found in the soil of the planters.
Aiming to shock with desecrations of flesh and violations of taboo, the visual effects vary from grotesquely realised to what appears to be basic stop-motion animation, but shifting from atmospheric dread to endless scenes of screaming possession the stink of decaying flesh generated by the blooming Blood Flower becomes oversaturated, trying too hard when staying grounded and focused would have borne richer fruits.
Blood Flower is available on Shudder now
