Under the Shadow

I saw this at the Phoenix Film Festival. I'd say this is tied for my favourite horror movie from that festival (with Eyes of my Mother...also amazing).

Ghost movies are really the only horror films that stand of chance of scaring me these days. There were a few times during this film that I was completely tense, and a few times, absolutely on the verge of terror as to what was going to happen next. The film was just so well done in terms of pacing.

Unfortunately, ghost movies also suffer from poor endings, quite frequently. This ending was better than most, but something about it didn't sit right with me, and that's all I'll say to prevent spoilers. You may disagree entirely. I'm a tough one on endings.

I really hope this gets a wide distribution, because if you're at all a fan of ghost movies, this movie is just fantastic. A definite must see!

Ingeniously carving a ghost story on top of its grim setting, Under the Shadow is a smartly crafted, patiently narrated & brilliantly performed Persian horror that makes excellent use of its foreboding atmosphere to deliver the chills, and remains a highly gripping & deeply uncomfortable experience from start to finish.

Set in 1980s Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war, the story of Under the Shadow follows a mother & her daughter who find themselves being haunted by a mysterious entity in their house after refusing to leave the war-torn city. As more residents leave the building, the paranormal incidents only intensifies inside their apartment.

Written & directed by Babak Anvari in what's his directional debut, Under the Shadow is a fusion of family drama & haunted house horror, with former focusing on its character's struggle to cope with the aftereffects of Iranian revolution while the latter coming to life on its own amidst the disturbing & troubled era of Iran.

Its timeline & setting play a vital role in establishing a sinister environment where evil can flourish, and Anvari takes ample time to familiarise the audience with the protagonist's predicament before letting the supernatural entity make its presence felt. And further amplifying its eerie vibe n tone is its fluid camera-work, tight editing & stellar use of sound.

Spearheading the acting department is Narges Rashidi in the role of the mother who's still reeling from the revolution's impact on her life, which only worsens when a series of inexplicable activities begin unfolding in her apartment. And supporting her all the way through is Avin Manshadi who is in as her daughter and both of them play their part convincingly.

On an overall scale, Under the Shadow is a confidently directed, deftly written & exquisitely paced chiller that's encapsulated with an ominous atmosphere and packs genuinely effective moments of suspense over the course of its 84 minutes runtime. Haunting, thought-provoking & brimming with the undercurrent of post-revolution effect on everyday life, this Persian horror is definitely worth your time & money.

"Under the Shadow" was such a wonderful surprise for me. I had already read some reviews and everybody was speechless about it. I didn't really expect something THAT good when I started watching it.

The film takes place in Iran somewhere in the 80's when the Iran-Iraq war was on. Shideh and Dorsa, a mother and a daughter, find themselves "abandoned and unprotected" after the father has to leave in order to give his services as a doctor in the war zone. This is when they start realizing that something evil haunts them in their apartment, and there is not much they can do to escape since it's dangerous to leave their home.

Many compare it to 2014's "Babadook". I can see why but at the same time I don't see so many relations to each other. The only thing that I know is that there were moments that I seriously considered turning the lights on for a while... Sometimes the graphics were not that great, definitely not disappointing but seriously, I didn't mind at all. Narges Rashidi's acting is a huge plus for the movie as long as the direction.

Scary, touching, simple though powerful, "Under the Shadow" is a pleasant surprise not only for the horror genre but for cinema in general.

In the 80's, during the war between the Islamic post-revolutionary Iran and Iraq, the former leftist medical student Shideh (Narges Rashidi) tries to return to the university but is barred by the dean. The upset Shideh returns home and when her husband Dr. Iraj (Bobby Naderi) is assigned to work in a war zone, she refuses to move to his parent's house with their daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi). Shideh prefers to stay in her apartment with Dorsa, who loves her doll Kimia and has constant fever. Dorsa is afraid of demoniac Djinns and when Shideh asks who told her about the legend, she tells that her friend that lives downstairs. Shideh visits her neighbor and asks his mother to tell her son to not tell horror stories to Dorsa and she learns that the boy is mute. Then Kimia and Shideh's Jane Fonda workout tape disappear. When a missile strikes their building, the neighbors decide to leave Tehran, but Shideh stays in the apartment with Dorsa, who is increasingly disturbed. Soon Shideh reads about Djinns and finds that there is an evil entity in the apartment. Further she must find Kimia; otherwise Dorsa will be in danger since the Djinn will be attached to her.

"Under the Shadow" is an atmospheric and spooky ghost story in an unusual environment – Tehran in the 80's. The difference to the Western cultures is another attraction of this film, such as punishment of the woman for not wearing headscarf or for having a videocassette at home. The story has elements from "The Babadook" but is better than the 2014 film. The conclusion is open for a sequel, like most of the films of this genre. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.

I had been following the recent festival news regarding "Under the Shadow", and shortly after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival it was promptly acquired by Netflix.

The fact that Netflix snagged it right away from other major distributors should be a real indicator of how much of a winner this movie really is.

Most people will dismiss "Under the Shadow" right away after seeing the PG-13 rating. Don't. Give it a chance, and you won't regret it. This movie doesn't rely on cheap jump scares. The way the movie is paced, it actually lets the tension and intensity accumulate, little by little, and the scares that it delivers, although few in number, are guaranteed to leave a mark.

In one particular instance, everyone in the room screamed and almost jumped out of their seats, and I do mean *everyone*, and that goes to show how well the movie does in pulling everyone in.

Even though the story is set in the 1980s, a lot of themes are, coincidentally, a big deal nowadays, such as the usage of the veil by women, and how they're actually perceived/treated as inferior to and by men, when in reality they happen to be extremely strong characters on their own, driven by what they want to do and what they want to be, and not by what others expect of them.

The Djinn, the so-called "monster" in this movie, is nothing short of amazing given the story and the context, and he's not something you're likely to forget any time soon. I will, however, do the same thing that other reviewers and critics have done before me, and I won't say anything further on this "entity", besides the fact that it's an extremely refreshing, new and interesting concept for the whole "monster movie". Go see the movie, and hopefully you'll not only be surprised and amazed, but also equally terrified.

Narges Rashidi, who plays the mother (Shideh), has a strong and gripping role, but in my humble opinion it was actually Avin Manshadi who plays her daughter, Dorsa, the one who stole the show.

In general, people think of kids (in horror movies) as annoying, and all-around bad actors who just don't have it in them to actually act the part in what's supposed to be a scary, horrifying film. In a nutshell, Avin Manshadi blew me away. The way she delivered her lines, how she acted, the very different ways she looked at her mother given the context, how she looked at her surroundings, and the fact that her gaze also never looked at the "camera" or anything of the sort, that certainly elevated the movie to something else entirely.

It made the whole thing *actually* believable, which isn't always the case when you have a kid as a main protagonist. For an underage kid, and for her first role in anything EVER (according to IMDb), I can't begin to tell you how extremely HUGE her performance actually is.

In short, this movie has very strong performances, a believable dilemma set in a very real period of our history, and a plot that doesn't leave you hanging with even more questions by the end or a twist-ending, like how many/most films usually do nowadays.

Babak Anvari (Director) is definitely on my list of people to keep an eye out for, especially when you consider that this was his first feature film. Extremely impressive, and there's no doubt in my mind that this young director has a lot to offer to the world of filmmaking in general, although I'd very much like to see him tackle some more horror projects.

If you want to see a horror movie riddled with cheap jump scares that provide easy chuckles and giggles, this movie is not for you.

If you want to see a horror movie with lots of deaths, blood and violence, this movie is definitely not for you.

If, however, you are a true fan of the genre and are looking for something new, if you can actually look past the language barrier and want to see an actual plot that gradually evolves in a slow-burn kind of way (as opposed to watching the kind of horror movies where you can just "turn your brain off" and enjoy the mindless fun without giving it a second thought), then you should give this movie a chance, by all means.

If possible, you should watch this in theaters to really get the "experience", otherwise watching it at home won't probably pack the same kind of punch, but I guess everyone is different in that aspect. Just be sure to actually invest all of your senses when watching it!

Like I said, don't go expecting a gore-filled horror fest. This is a movie that actually aims to do justice to the Horror genre and the scares it delivers... and boy, do they!