The Man Who Loved Flowers

In Hussey's adaptation of "The Man Who Loved Flowers," a photographer becomes increasingly convinced that she’s being stalked but flowers remain the only physical evidence to support her paranoia. 

In this take, the director wants to explore themes such as the danger of obsession, doing everything right but things still going wrong, paranoia, and trusting your instincts

Samantha Murdock Hussey is a 3rd year RTF and English minor at UT who hopes to pursue directing. This will be the third film written and directed by Hussey following “Downswing (2022)” and “In Vain (2022)”. She is excited to fully venture into her favorite genre, the horror genre, with this project and adapt a piece of work from her favorite author Stephen King.

Kelvin Oliveira is a Brazilian 4th year Radio-Television-Film major at the University of Texas at Austin passionate about story-crafting, worldbuilding, and visual storytelling. This will be his third major project produced, following "Downswing (2022)," his first partnership with Hussey, "Conjurer (2022)," and "Same Day (2023)." He is thrilled to work with this crew to bring yet another great story to life and hopes he can help Hussey to do justice to Stephen King's astonishing tale in the best way possible.

Will Florer is a 3rd year Radio-TV-Film and Plan II Honors student at UT who is pursuing film producing. This will be one of the first projects produced by Florer alongside “Pressure (2023)” and “The Drama Ventriloquist (2023).” He is grateful for the opportunity to adapt a project originally from the legendary mind of Stephen King.

Equipment & Gear – The largest portion of our budget will go towards purchasing equipment and gear for the film. We anticipate needing to rent the majority of our gear, so this money will cover these rental expenses.

Production Design – This project requires a very specific look and detailed environments in order to properly convey the themes of horror and suspense that are at play in the script. So, a significant amount of costs will be directed towards set design and wardrobe.

Craft Services – The film will be shot over several days, and we want this crew to be well-fed during production. These costs will cover a meal per day for each person on set, ensuring that everyone on the team is taken care of and energized for work.

Post-Production – A smaller portion of our budget will be allocated to the composer who will provide an original score for this film. Composing is a unique and time-intensive skill, so intend we intend on compensating our composer for their work.

Festivals – Some funds will be set aside so that our team can submit the finished version of this film to festivals.

Contingency – This covers additional costs that are likely to come up during production, offering us some insurance to handle any problems that may arise.

This project is fortunate enough to have received a grant from Delta Kappa Alpha which is helping us reach our end goal of $4000.

I grew up enthralled by the macabre: in 2nd grade my friends and I would read the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books, in 3rd through 5th grade I was a Goosebumps child, and then in middle school my mom introduced me to Stephen King. I’ve read countless short stories from him and an array of his novels as well as watched many of his story’s film adaptations. The Shining has remained my favorite film for years now and it’s an honor to be adapting one of his stories myself now. 

Stephen King has a program called “The Dollar Baby” in which a film student is able to request the rights to one of his short stories which are not under a movie contract, which is how Hussey obtained the rights to adapt “The Man Who Loved Flowers.”

The short story is 6 pages and follows a man as he goes to buy flowers which he later presents to the woman he inevitably kills. In my adaptation of the film,  we focus on the woman who eventually is killed because I want to highlight how heartbreaking these stories about serial killers actually are and how media often neglects the victim’s story. I take much inspiration from true crime writer Ann Rule as she spends a great deal of her time recounting the victim’s life and showing the reader that this was a person, with dreams and goals and struggles and a life, and they were unfairly robbed of all of that.

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