Anthology productions are by nature fickle beasts, requiring dramatic vignettes that are narratively separate but connected in tone or atmosphere. This challenge is well realised in two of my favourite Australian anthology productions: Tracey Moffatt’s spooky triptych BeDevil (the first feature directed by an Aboriginal Australian woman) and the long and eclectic Tim Winton adaptation The Turning. It’s also well realised in SBS’s Night Bloomers, a showcase of five short horror films created and directed by Andrew Undi Lee, with each mini-episode exploring different aspects of the Korean-Australian immigration experience.
In premise and execution, this is the sort of production that tends to be described as “elevated horror”, an exclusionary term emerging from that timeless debate surrounding “high” and “low” art. The point of such a description would be to distinguish this experience from the more carnivalesque, collywobbles-creating kind, its messages observable through a thick layer of symbolism, some relatively clear and others likely to go undetected by many – partly because they’re steeped in Korean culture and partly because the scripting can be intentionally oblique, strewn with moments designed not to shock but to make viewers think “hmm … ”
