Microplastics and raw milk are no match for a strange fruiting plant on a dead relative’s farm. Eco-horror indie flick Dead Bloom takes the ancestral anguish of one family and from it, sprouts a story of dreaded hunger and death — all thanks to one chemical-laden fruit.
Dead Bloom unfolds as a socially charged horror story about the lingering effects of environmental contamination and corporate denial.
Dead Bloom, Amazon
We start off with a family farming their land when one finds a sweet fruit growing in the ground. They taste it. They like it. Days later, though, the fruit shows its murderous potential and transforms them into oozing monsters hellbent on killing those still unaffected and alive. Cut to present day when consultant Matt (Danny Fehsenfeld), pregnant Jules (Lilith Mesidor), and adult daughter Betsy (Shea Vaughan-Gabor) move into the house after inheriting it from the family at the start of the film. When making improvements to the home, they come across the same fruit — you can guess where this is going. The Dead Bloom in question holds many secrets and dangers that lead the family down the path of destruction.
In a world where everyone is hyper aware of what we put into our bodies, Dead Bloom managed to make something entertaining out of it while still staying on theme of “produce good, chemicals bad.” Eco-horror isn’t something I automatically flock towards because it feels more pressured toward getting the audience to think a certain way, the same thing The Purge does for politics. Dead Bloom, however, went the opposite direction and gave us action, drama, and gore.
And the gore is what I want to focus on because Dead Bloom went from some pretty good practical effects in the beginning, to more drama, and then to an all-out freak fest with limbs being torn off and a home birth from hell. I don’t physically recoil much anymore when I see out-there effects, but Dead Bloom had me screaming more than once. The horrible monsters people become after eating the fruit are similar to zombies or infected people: skin discoloration, incessant drooling (with blood and foam), open sores, etc. But here, we also get two prominent moments of gender-based effects — man and woman. I don’t want to get into it because I want you all to experience the craziness for yourselves. Just know those scenes are wild!
But Dead Bloom can’t be just showing off the wonderful work the effects team did. There is a storyline as well. Unfortunately it will always take second seat to the kills. I will admit that I did have to go back and rewatch some parts because I didn’t quite understand the connection between the chemical waste present in the soil and the generational horrors the families faced. Don’t worry, I got there, it was just a matter of two ideas coming together when one is so much stronger than the other.
Dead Bloom really surprised me with the amount of insane scares it had. I wanted to know more about the fruit — it’s backstory — and I wanted more carnage. With a few funny moments between cousins and some gnarly kill scenes, this movie takes our environment and creates just one more thing to be scared of. It is definitely in a league of its own compared to others in this subgenre, and definitely worth the watch if you want to get into it without being preached to.
Dead Bloom is available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video. For more on the film, visit it on Instagram as well as its website.
