Blood Flower (Harum Malam)

Family secrets and diabolic Djinns are the main ingredients in Dain Said’s stay dingy apartment block horror, co-written with Ben Omar and Nandita Solomon.

Born to be a spiritual healer and exorcist Iqbal (Idan Aedan) like his mother, he has to miss out on fun with his friends. To compound this the rundown apartment block of flats he lives in is full of ghastly apparitions that only he can see and it’s frying his mind.

To relive him of this pressure - and his duties - he asks his father Norman (Bront Palarae) to bind his powers which he does through a local mystic.

This is poor timing as Norman has been tasked by Jamil (Remy Ishak) to look after his valuable collection of exotic plants (most of which appear to be carnivorous) while he’s away. Inevitably Iqbal and friends find a way into the room, and ignoring a warning, unleash a demon that merrily possess and kills the kids and family. As panic ensues and the police get involved long buried family secrets start to come to light.

What Blood Flower doesn’t lack is blood and horror with some quite horrible images that will linger in the mind. Which is just as well because little else will in this dull possession and exorcism story.

The acting for the most part is unremarkable with Aedan being particularly weak. Granted he’s given a role that requires him to wimp out of his birthright but the wild eyes and panic at every situation begin to grate, and he's poorly served here.

At its heart there is a family drama, poor parenting and abuse that could have been strengthened at the expense of the blood and guts, which may have justified its running length that while not over long, could have lost some ten minutes. As it is, Blood Flower is a chore for the viewer, there’s precious little tension to grip and the plot becomes more jumbled and frustrating as it goes on.

Blood Flower is exclusively available on Shudder.