Harum Malam

After years of strange visions and hallucinations, an apprentice faith healer and exorcist with a sixth sense is tormented by visions of a malicious spirit wreaking havoc in the apartment complex where he lives forcing him to confront his supernatural gifts to save his family and friends.

There's quite a lot to like with this one. One of the bigger factors going for this one is a rather intriguing storyline that grounds the supernatural action at play within a highly effective humanizing drama. The whole experience is based on his 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 which 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 the film goes for gruesome supernatural action it's incredibly effective. The opening confrontation with the possessed neighbor where we learn of his 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 he 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 with 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 this one gets wrong but there are some prominent issues. The biggest factor to be had here 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 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 done this approach to the format in recent years and manages to take a lot of the impact out of the film without doing much of anything different with this type of material. 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 has a lot of the hallmarks of the other films 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. These overall end up bringing this down in the end.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, and themes of incest.

I am a fan of Malaysian horror and this was right on brand with what I'm familiar with. Many of them tend to lean towards folk horror and this one was in that same vain.

The story was spooky and intriguing but I don't think it needed to be quite as long as it was... although it didn't really drag much surprisingly. It did have a light sense of maybe being geared towards a younger audience but also had some pretty dark and gruesome subject matter.

The special effects and gore were actually pretty cool and gnarly, while the actual monster looked a bit silly most of the time and the flowers looked like play-doh. The acting also appeared to come across quite well to an English speaker at least.

All in all this was a good bit better than I was expecting it to be, while still delivering what I have come to expect from Malaysian horror. Would recommend.

This film had potential but I can't believe they messed it up. The protagonist was so wimpy and girly that it was cringy to see him constantly curled up in fear. He also look as smart as a jar of molasses. Why do they do that to a character they're trying to endear and get the audience to relate to and sympathize with. You don't want to hate the protagonist like you do here. I just think it was poorly written and it looks like it could have been good even with the small budget. The story just looks like it was written on the Fly. So many things happen when it didn't need to, and things didn't happen when it should have. It's hard to explain where this keeps missing and it just looks like it was made by two different groups that did not communicate with one another.

I understand the hate. Most people really hate the plot but I really think it's interesting. Let's say, if you love gore and "The Sixth Sense". But the plot is very messy, but still easy to keep on track. Next is acting. Bront Palarae did a great job at playing this role. Understandable since he got the same role in "Pengabdi Setan". But I got mixed feelings on Idan Aedan, its feels like going down a rollercoaster. Sometimes, Kayu and sometimes good and sometimes okay. But the other cast did a great job. Jumpscare are fine, I'm not complaining. Let's say, if bored and don't know what to watch on Disney+ Hotstar, watch Harum Malam. There's a 50% chance you might hate it, and there's 50% you might like it. Overall 7/10.

Blood Flower is a simple tale of possession, and coming of age film. It's housed in a structure that speaks largely of morality, both good versus evil but also taking responsibilities for one's actions.

Iqbal is an adolescent with supernatural powers, as does his mother. She with the father act as exorcist in Malaysia, and are Muslim. (I mention this only to separate this film from the American assumption of Catholicism/Christianity as the religion for possession films.) It opens with them starting to train Iqbal to become an exorcist as well. But, not all goes well.

The rest of the film is various examples of good versus evil across a spectrum of dimensions of people residing in a large apartment complex, asaumed for lower income families. This tale has many storylines that all intertwine based upon the characters' close proximity. All are simple stories based on that good-bad characteristic and the choices that are made.

Engaging simple story is watchable and overall I was entertained. It was well made, but it's not a complicated film.