Pollen (2023)

Pollen (2023). Pollen: Directed by D.W. Medoff. With Ava Rose Kinard, Tyler Buckingham, Leanna Adams, Ashley Ames. After a senior coworker assaults a bright-eyed young woman, her dream job becomes a living nightmare as she tries to keep her career together while being tormented at work, at home, and in her dreams by a mysterious tree monster.

“The usual modern recipe here. Another mediocre dark drama that uses the Horror classification in the hope that it increases itu0026#39;s receipts or to find better distribution. IMDb classification says this is Horror/ Mystery/ Thriller but personally I donu0026#39;t see it in any of these genres. This is a drama with some dark fantasy elements and for me all these movies that come out in the last 2 to 3 years and are said to be u0026quot;Psychological Horroru0026quot; have nothing to do with the Horror genre, plain and simple. POLLEN is a far fetched, naive and preachy drama that shoves women empowerment elements down the vieweru0026#39;s throat, with only redeeming value being the good performance of Ava Rose Kinard at times (I emphasize the u0026quot;at timesu0026quot; part here). Some reviewers said this is an art film, but I personally cannot see it as the whole thing it seems so predictable and formulaic that I could see the u0026quot;surpriseu0026quot; ending coming from the first 20 minutes. The rest is a show of obnoxious characters including the leading lady, annoying and far fetched office bullying minutiae and a disjointed fantasy element that ultimately goes nowhere. Some promises that are given by the script are not explored even in the slightest and the end finds a horror fan like myself wondering why this was made in the first place and who really is itu0026#39;s target audience.”