The experimental atmospheric horror on Tubi is unbearably intense
Pa Robert Succi
| Published
Every now and then I come across a low-budget film that has mixed reviews, and I want to know if I’m the kind of person who’s willing to appreciate the project for what it is, or if I’m just going to tear it apart like I can do something better ( spoiler: I can’t). When Reddit user u/IamGodHimself2 boldly announced that in 2017 Flow it was the scariest movie they’d ever seen, I had my doubts, especially when I read every comment calling the movie a condescending, low-budget student project with shoddy cinematography and very little profit.
The skeptics aren’t necessarily wrong in their assessment, but you can’t look at movies made for about $3,000 through the same lens that you look at higher-budget horror movies, because experimental movies like Flow there are obvious limitations you have to work around that larger productions and their audiences take for granted.
If I had to describe Flow in one phrase I would say: “It’s the atmosphere.”
Not so much
Flow spends most of his time in Stephanie’s (Brittany Dunk) apartment, and through radio broadcasts we’ve gotten most of the exposition we need to know. In a long shot following Stephanie through her home, the radio reports that her boyfriend, David, recently committed suicide by stabbing himself dozens of times and gouging out his own eyes. According to the broadcast, there is no foul play.
After creating an isolated atmosphere, Flow introduces Sarah (Gloria Bueno) who visits her, worrying about her best friend. Through some of the film’s only dialogue, it’s clear that Stephanie’s grief has made her a recluse, causing her to lose her job and cut off most of her close relationships while she tries to come to terms with her boyfriend’s death. During this brief exchange, Stephanie reveals to Sarah that David began acting like a completely different person after becoming obsessed with a live feed of a man lying in a coffin before his untimely and gruesome death.
Making the situation more disturbing, Stephanie reveals to Sarah that she has been receiving voicemails from David despite the fact that she turned off his phone a few days ago.
A seemingly endless loop
Showing his namesake, Flow takes Stephanie and Sarah to David’s office, where the live broadcast is still going on. David’s notes suggest that he cannot stop watching the stream or the man in the coffin will come for him. Sarah has a seizure and locks herself in the bathroom in a panic after she recovers. When Stephanie knocks on the bathroom door, her doorbell rings, and she finds Sarah at the front door as if nothing had happened.
Stephanie finds herself trapped in a terrifying time loop involving David’s corpse haunting her and archival footage from the stream that leaves her with subtle hints about his origins.
A nasty, bare-bones story
Look, I’ll be the first to tell you Flow it’s basically an hour-long amateur film – not counting the excruciatingly long 15-minute post-credits sequence, the film is literally an hour long, and writer/director Isaac Rodriguez (best known for No Sleep YouTube channel) clearly didn’t have a lot of resources to bring this film to life. Despite the film’s limitations, the long tracking camera shots that make up most of the film get under your skin as the color palette constantly shifts from normal to an ominous bright red, to a deep blue that occupies your field of vision like a demon, or demons run amok in Stephanie’s apartment.
Integrity Flow it looks as if there is an unknown entity behind the camera watching Stephanie’s every move until she is completely unaware of his presence. It feels more like a series of creepy vignettes stitched together in an attempt to tell a a ghost storyI would call Flow a solid proof of concept from an up-and-coming horror director with an innate ability to take a less-is-more approach while delivering a form of existential terror that the Paranormal franchise failed to replicate after its first film was a runaway success, despite increasing production budgets with each subsequent series.
I’m not saying that Flow it’s the best horror movie I’ve ever seen, but I have to give it credit for having some really creepy sequences and jump scares that made me go “ugh!” more than once.
As of this writing, you can watch Flow free on Tubi, the one service I keep coming back to for a catalog of reckless and experimental content I can’t find on any paid streaming service.
English