Night-Flowers

Gabriel Walsh, who also wrote the script for this depressing psycho drama, stares along with Jose Perez(‘Short Eyes’) as Tom and Nordi, two Viet vets turned to nut-cases. The two pals share a rundown apartment in NYC, and have crappy jobs and no luck with the ladies! Tom even suffers from traumatic and unpredictable war-flashbacks and have several violent fantasies. The demented duo take one misguided decision after another and make a pathetic attempt to get laid, when they post an announcement stating “Apartment Rental: Girls Only!” at the local super market! Needless to say they don’t get many hits, but finally a cute hippie girl applicate. But then things get ugly, because in the middle of her “interview”, Nordi suddenly loose his temper and rape and murder the girl while Tom passively watch! This scene is shot in one long unedited take that makes it even more gruesome and shocking! But ‘Night Flowers’ is still not that much of a exploitation movie but works out as a drama about a disturbed character in a urban hell hole, often very similar with ‘Taxi Driver’. It is mainly Tom that is in focus, and Gabriel Walsh shines in this role, when he is drifting the streets searching for luck. He clearly got a damaged mind and is rarely able to put together a whole sentence in his long conversations with a pretty blonde woman, his old father, his boss, the bus driver, the landlord and a white-suited disco-hustler. ‘Night Flowers’ is shot in very good locations of New York, including dock areas, back alleys, a massage parlor, a female wrestling match and the yesterday 42nd Street. The folks behind the camera do a slick job and shows talent for zooming into the girls asses as well. Harry Manfredini who later should work on movies like ‘Friday The 13th’ provided the piano score. ‘Night Flowers’ provide a great image of an urban hell-hole and should easily appeal to fans of vintage Scorsese and Ferera.