PLOT: Following a cataclysmic nuclear holocaust, a family of three sets out to find refuge. When they enlist the help of a rogue soldier, they follow his lead to a secure bunker full of food and supplies. However, the soldier has ulterior motives up his sleeve that threaten to undermine the family’s lasting bond.
REVIEW: Irradiating from High Octane Pictures via Shudder on February 13th is ATOMIC APOCALYPSE, better yet BLACK FLOWERS, a sprawling yet over-striving episodic outdoor-set nuclear holocaust movie made on the cheap from British director Martin Gooch (THE GATEHOUSE). While the performances and dialogue cast a whiff of rank amateurism across the board, there’s still plenty to enjoy about a movie this ambitious made with such dire little resources. The laudability begins with the two strong female leads, played by Krista DeMille and Andrea Sweeney-Blanco, and carries over to an unpredictably plotted story that goes in directions we do not expect from a flick of this ilk. While it may take a minute to get over the movie’s glaring technical and aesthetic shortcomings, not to mention gauche doses of misplaced humor, anyone interested in checking out the chintzy but entertaining lovechild of BEYOND THUNDERDOME and SyFy’s Z-Nation, or C-Nation if the zombies were swapped for cannibals, by all means ought to take the risk of sniffing BLACK FLOWERS come this Valentine’s Day. It won’t kill you!
An idyllic beachfront vacation grabs our attention as a family of three – Kate (Krista DeMile), Sam (Ron Rogge) and Suzy (Andrea Sweeney-Blanco) – enjoy a little R&R off the coast of England. Soon a trio of distant mushroom clouds changes their lives forever. We cut 660 odd days ahead, as Earth has been reduced to a nuclear wasteland. Electricity is gone, gasoline is scarce, food, water, and medical supplies are rationed. Most curious is the proliferation of black flowers, which contain lethal doses of radiation. And yet, somehow the family of three retains an optimistic outlook and sense of humor that drastically differs from the dreary and depressing countenance most post-apocalyptic movie characters hew to. However, they’re a bit too blithe, particularly Sam and his soft and eupeptic soul. Soon Suzy accidentally shoots a sole wander in the woods, a soldier named Joe (Jesus Lloveras), who claims he knows the way to a secret bunker full of food, water, booze, and medicine. The trio agrees to follow the man, despite his unearned trust. I’ll tell you upfront, this Joe cat is one of the most loathsome characters in recent memory. I really hated this guy. When Joe concocts a scheme to put Sam out of the picture and manipulate the two women for his own greedy benefit, we root for the women to overcome his dastardly deeds just as much as we root for their survival amid an unforgiving landscape.
What thrusts the narrative along in engaging ways is the episodic nature of Kate and Suzy’s survivalistic sojourn. As they traverse the hardscrabble wasteland, they encounter a series of bizarre, semi-humorous aides and assailants. At one point the girls stumble on a whacked-out cabal of worshippers who bow with reverence to the equally loony “stair-queen” called The Icon (Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, yes Martin’s daughter). The drama ratchets up when, due to additionally detonated bombs, Kate and Suzy become separated in the impenetrable fog. Kate encounters another loopy weirdo known as The Ranger (Neil Dickson) who offers little more than absurd humor to counter Kate’s growing desperation. The movie really finds a groove, however, when Kate stumbles upon an End of the World Party, spearheaded by DJ Apocalypso (Swamp Thing’s William Mark McCullough). In addition to instantly elevating the performances, DJ tries to convince Kate and Suzy (who soon arrives as well) to stay put, where they have enough food, booze, drugs, and medicine to survive roughly five more years. To her credit, Kate wants more for her daughter then drinking and smoking her life away.
The real strength of the movie lies in the unbreakable bond between mother and daughter. DeMille and Sweeney-Blanco do an admirable job of forging a believable bond as family members doing whatever it takes to ensure one another’s salvation. DeMille in specific really owns her role and commands the character of Kate with authority, whether she’s tasked with grueling physical combat or taxing emotional release. While she too is saddled with some thankless, eye-rolling dialogue at times, she overcomes whatever deficiencies lie on the page and makes the character her own. When allied with Suzy, there’s a refreshing female empowerment to the proceedings that feel timely and topical, without being preachy or forced.
But the biggest downturn the film faces is the lack of time and money Gooch had at his disposal. The movie was made inexpensively in a relatively short period of time. As such, there is an inevitable parade of technical and aesthetic inferiorities which may take few moments to adjust to. Once you do, however, provided you’re able, the movie ought to reward you for the reasons mentioned above. At the bare minimum, the movie impresses as one set almost entirely outdoors, which must have presented unimaginable production problems in terms of continuity (sunlight, shadow, fog, matching weather, etc). Gooch overcomes those production challenges and delivers an entertaining enough low-budget-grand-scale end-of-days-thriller!