Starring: Panos Papadopoulos, Juli Katsis and Aris Balis
Directed by: Yannis Veslemes
Rated: NR
Running Time: 88 minutes
Dark Sky Films
Our Score: 3 out of 5 Stars
Lovecraftian. Horny. Bizarre. Carnal. Those are probably the four most prominent words that popped up in my mind during “She Loved Blossoms More,” a time-travel fever dream filled with vaginal-looking creatures, Freudian brothers, drugs, and enough “what the hell am I watching?” moments to last the rest of the year. Writer-director Yannis Veslemes takes a deceptively simple premise and goes absolutely hog wild with it for 88 minutes. Throughout its runtime, Veslemes refuses to tell you what’s going on while daring you to look away.
The plot, if you can call it that, revolves around three oddly-named brothers: Hedgehog (Panos Papadopoulos), Dummy (Juli Katsis) and Paris (Aris Balis). They’re attempting to bring their mother back-to-life with a time machine. Of course, we pick up towards the tail end of their experimentations, which involve a lot of unfortunate livestock. They live together in what feels like a gothic mausoleum of maternal obsession. The time machine? Looks like they borrowed design tips from “The Fly.”
But what actually happens in this movie? A lot of inexplicable imagery is treated as disturbingly normal. One brother chats with a vulva snake. Another has sex while his sibling fingers a chicken (and not in the way you think). I’m not spelling cherrypicking out of context scenes either, the whole movie feels like this. If I gave any more examples, I’d be accused of watching a serial killer’s wet dream laced with mommy issues.
Is that what the film is ultimately about? Mommy issues? Maybe. “She Loved Blossoms More” doesn’t hand over answers easily. It demands your sharpest attention and maybe multiple viewings, but ironically, the shock of the visuals is also what makes it hard to revisit. Once that novelty wears off, you’re left hoping the film had given you more narrative breadcrumbs the first time around.
That’s my biggest gripe: Veslemes keeps you at arm’s length, withholding just enough to frustrate. Maybe there are culturally specific metaphors or symbols I’m missing as an American viewer. At one point, a trollish goblin pops up that looks like something out of Epcot’s Norway Pavilion. Does it mean anything? Is it just another weird detour? Who knows.
If I had to gamble (which I wouldn’t because this movie’s too chaotic to bet on), I’d say the message is that life is a deliriously silly thing to be enjoyed before it overwhelms us with grief. These brothers are trapped in memory loops, maybe even false ones fed to them by their father, who might be the brains behind the time machine. The boys aren’t remembering their mother. They’re recreating someone else’s haunted idea of her. They make off hand remarks like, “She loved horror movies.” That’s about as deep as her characterization goes, yet the boys appear to be hungry for something more tangible.
Still, for viewers looking for a cinematic challenge that aren’t afraid of grotesque sexual imagery, “She Loved Blossoms More” is a delight. It’s proudly alienating, arguably clever, and defiantly uninterested in mainstream attitudes, even the horror conventions that it’s clearly marketing to. It doesn’t care whether you like it or understand it; and that’s kind of the point. It feels like Veslemes is trying to decode his own nonsensical dream while letting you watch, gape-jawed.