‘She Loved Blossoms More’ review: Enjoy the ride

The evocative world of She Loved Blossoms More is a good reminder that bigger isn’t always better.

Director Yannis Veslemes creates an eerie and unsettling world for a gonzo psychedelic exploration of grief that brims with style and creativity. It’s a distinct vision that’s guaranteed to stick with you long after the film ends, even if narratively and thematically it spins too far out of control.

Veslemes and his co-writer, Dimitris Emmanouilidis, throw simple exposition out the window and instead drop you into the middle of a strange house with three young men working on some type of experiment. Every facet of filmmaking focuses on pulling the viewer into a world that feels familiar yet off-kilter. Shooting the vast majority of the film with a fisheye lens, everything at the edges of the frame is distorted.  It’s a noticeable yet slight effect that you can sometimes overlook when all the action is concentrated in the center of the image. And then it suddenly catches you off guard again as a door is warped when one of the characters walks through it.

Coupled with the unusual visual style is a terrific score that only heightens the unsettling feeling that permeates the film. As the narrative progresses, She Loved Blossoms More introduces sci-fi curiosities, drug-fueled benders, and fantastical creatures that just continue to ratchet up the tension and discomfort that the film loves to exist in.

Taking a DIY approach.

Veslemes and the rest of the crew make incredible use of what is presumably a modest budget to create a setting that feels fully realized, even though it consists only of a house and a garden. The cherry on top is a set of special effects that include marvelous creature effects that are as impressive as they are upsetting.

The impressive world-building quickly puts you in the mindset of the protagonist, Hedgehog. The cluttered home and untended garden signal the level of obsession that has taken over him as he works with his brothers on a strange machine to bring their mother back from the dead. She Loved Blossoms More roots itself firmly in Hedgehog’s point of view. As pressure mounts to complete their experiment, he begins to take larger risks. A drug-fueled hallucination seems to amplify his grief and send him grasping for ways to make their experiment succeed. As he takes more drugs, his grasp on reality slips farther away, and the visuals of the film grow wilder and wilder.

The house and grounds become bathed in green and red light, giving everything an eerie appearance. The experiments with the machine, involving a number of animals and even people, produce fascinating and disturbing reports.

Bizarre, dreamy imagery stands out in the innovative She Loved Blossoms More.

Hedgehog’s father Logo arrives in the middle of the film as a counterpoint to his grief. He’s certainly interested in the experiment succeeding and bringing his wife back. But he clearly isn’t suffering under the same weight that Hedgehog is. His arrival in the film is so late and his presence so minimal that, unfortunately, he ends up being a catalyst for the plot more than an actual character.

The final sequence of She Loved Blossoms More is a culmination of everything the film has presented to the viewer up to this point. Bizarre imagery and frenetic editing create a disorienting experience that ultimately dulls the film’s conclusion. The film makes no effort to reveal whether Hedgehog and his brothers’ surreal adventures were real or drug-induced, and the refusal to even imply one way or another saps some of the emotional punch of the final scenes.

The bottom line.

The brothers appear to have emerged from this experience with a sense of relief, but it’s essential to understand why. She Loved Blossoms More is an astounding display of filmmaking skill and creativity much deserving of the full cinematic experience. The narrative and thematic threads may not tie together neatly, but the overall film is a hell of a ride.

She Loved Blossoms More is now available in select theaters. Watch the trailer below.

Images courtesy of Dark Sky Films. 

Jose Cordova

Jose Cordova is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A lifelong appreciator of film, television, and video games, he can usually be found sitting on his couch desperately trying to make a dent in his watchlist.