Flowers

A woman crawls through an underfloor space that's been caked and slathered with human decay and excrement by the resident sex killer ... and then another woman continues the journey ... and another ...

For 5 minutes I was thinking, Hmmm - an arty slasher short that stretches out for 80 mins. But I didn't look away from it once, and by the end it put a spell on me.

Not a word of dialogue in this film, and it turns out actresses may be more expressive that way. I've noticed that occasionally - Ms.45 (1981)- but I think there's not even a verbal noise in this baby. How that's possible while maintaining the natural sound synchronicity is beyond me.

Sound and music are excellent. They use freesound for the background radiation, but the editing takes it to another level. And there's a Tom Waits & wife feel to the actual music.

Visuals are very visceral at the start, but they clean up and get more structured as it goes. The dinner party with the suckling pig is outright weird, but every scene is uniquely suited to its actress, and the actress to her scene.

The only thing that took me out of it for a minute was the body suit in the sewing-up scene - not so much Is That Real? as Yeah, That's False. No biggie.

The meaning? Dunno - there's plenty of metaphor if you like, but this is true horror - a mind-blowing observation of the inevitable. Above all, it's sympathetic - not hateful. Enjoy.

Just finished watching it and it was special. Not a single spoken word and a very dirty and art-house feeling to it. But ... felt like a students work and was quite simple. Anyway ... had some very strong scenes and good score. The girls did a good job! If you can (no compare) enjoy movies like Eraserhead - you should watch it. Keep in mind that this one is low budget, so don't expect too much - then you'll have a good time! Before you end up being offended - be aware that it contains some graphic scenes. Want to underline again that the director tries to get into a David Lynch direction. However this is still a long way. Please be aware that the rating reflects that this is an underground / low budget movie. In case you only watch mainstream - please substract at least 2 points. You need some compassion for those kind of movies.

If you don't like this genre, don't watch this movie and please don't boar us with your pointless reviews. I loved this film. Unlike so many "horror" films, this movie actually made me feel something. FLOWERS ranks up there with films like SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY & CUTTING MOMENTS. Phil Stevens will be a force to be reckoned with for years if he follows this pattern.

Phil Stevens Flowers is not your typical horror film. And for good measure this is a refreshing new breath into the genre. It is a disturbing journey through the perspectives of the six female victims who exist in a nightmare world caught between memory and death. I have not been as impressed by a film with such symbolism and attention to visual detail as I have since E. Elias Merhige's Begotten. Flowers is not a movie that everyone can stomach, it hits you deep beneath the surface with the subject matter, and will last long after your viewing. To that extent it may be (and wrongfully so) associated to the August Underground series, however it represents so much more than the ugly nature of man and the violent imagery it conveys - which adds further weight to the stories of each of the characters. This is also not your conventional horror, the lack of dialogue only adds to the tension and further terror that one relives through the haunting display throughout. Not to be missed. If you're a fan of abstract work such as Lodge Kerrigan's Clean, Shaven, David Lynch's Eraserhead or Takashi Miike's Gozu you will appreciate this movie. I look forward to more of Stevens' work, he is a filmmaker to keep your eye on.

This movie is gore for the sake of gore. I understand it's a genre, and while it's not my favorite genre, there's probably some decent films in it that have some kind of deep message about human nature or death or something. This movie does not have that. It's completely disjointed. The girls' stories don't intertwine on any level, and if I hadn't looked up this movie's summary on IMDb, I wouldn't have understood what the plot was at all. And that's because it didn't have a plot. The different girls just provided a way for the writer to write as many sick, gruesome events as possible, as everything that happens to the girls in this movie couldn't have happened to just one girl. She wouldn't have survived it. There's no common thread in this story except excessive gore, and the ending isn't satisfying in any way.

Making an "artsy" gore movie with excessive violence and no dialogue doesn't make your movie good or deep. The only thing good about this movie was the soundtrack, and it wasn't impressive enough to redeem the poorly done story.