Munafik

did you know that jinn, anglicised as 'genies', feature prominently in the Quran and Islamic theology? corporeal or spiritual entities created from fire and endowed with free will, the evil ones, sometimes distinguished as 'shaytan-jinn', bear a resemblance to the demons of Christian lore

i found this film in one of IMDb's 'people who liked this also liked...' lists and was intrigued by the prospect of watching a possession story told from an Islamic perspective rather than a Christian one, which are a dime a dozen in US cinema; i found that the two theologies are more alike than different, at least inasmuch as a viewer needs to understand of them to appreciate a good possession horror, sharing beliefs in a One True God, the devil, depicted in hircine fashion, and demons (or in this film, jinn). it recalls The Sixth Sense at points, though not quite as compelling story-wise, begins to drag a bit slowly for my liking around the middle, but overall didn't disappoint. i liked the soundtrack and definitely want to watch this again someday

Story is convoluted, there is no development, just big events during the story. With zero development between events, I didn't care for a single character.

The soundtrack is horrible. It keeps going, it rarely stops, like something big is always happening(due to no downtimes).

There is only one good thing about the movie, the plot twist at the end, and that's it. The main character does a decently good job, but it's impossible to enjoy his performance when the rest of the cast is average at best.

I get that the movie is around religion, but there should've been MORE than religion. Just because a movie like Creed is about boxing, it has more things in the middle.

Don't waste your time.

An initial start to review this movie, I'd like to say this is one of the best horror movies I've ever seen. I'm a cinephile and a horror addict, but don't get me wrong, I'm still in love with The Conjuring, Ju-On, Insidious trilogy, As Above So Below, The Exorcist etc. But this movie is a whole lot of new experience where you can see Syamsul Yusof, the director and actor of Munafik, gave such huge potential to create a shivering amount of fright to the audience.

This is not a typical horror movie which can always be seen in three objective ways; a haunted house, an exorcist and a trip to a haunted location. There's an exorcism part in Munafik but it doesn't pin it as the main story. The movie is basically about Adam who is a medical practitioner in a village, but things start to get dimmed when his wife is met with a car accident. With his frustration, he stops to treat people until he eventually decides to treat Maria, and strange things start to happen in his life.

Nabila Huda, who acted as Maria in the movie, should give a standing ovation. You can never see a Malay actress pulling off her career acting like how she did.

Maybe some of you won't know the meaning of Munafik; Munafik is a person who pretends to be a believer of Islam when he does not.

For those of you who don't know, this movie is at the first spot in Malaysia to being the highest grossing in local history! Polis Evo, Ola Bola, Boboiboy, which some of you have might heard, are now on the second, fourth, and fifth spots respectively.

I gave this movie a full-star mainly due to its rare type of horror. In one of the exorcisms, the devil talked in Arab language which is new to a horror movie. The build-ups of suspense in the story was a huge success. The cinematography was almost perfect and the screen writing was absolutely outstanding! Also, there's a lot of moral values to learn and lie deep within this movie. If you're a Muslim or non- Muslim, you would still get the lessons throughout the whole movie. The climax ending and revelations pulled off to its highest peak, you can never guess the ending to this story. There were just too much of revelations but in a systematic manner.

If you're scared of The Conjuring, this movie will scare the hell out of you in multiple times. Go watch it! I've watched this movie 10 times in the cinemas!

Malaysian entry that centers around the anger felt by a man ("Adam") toward the driver who killed his wife in a car accident. (Adam is played by actor/director Syamsul Yusof) Properly speaking, this is an overtly religious movie that uses horror as the medium for its message. That being said, if you enjoy character dynamics and a moral dimension to your films, this may work for even the more secularly oriented viewer.

While the film is therefore expressly written from an Islamic point of view, the general message here is universal: an exploration of how anger and an inability to forgive blinds and damages one over time (there are two additional important details about the car crash, revealed at the end of the film, that are very much intended to make that point.)

Like other South Asian entries, "Munafik" can tend toward a sort of sprawling, soap-opera style multi-character plot that is sometimes hard to follow via subtitles. However, Yusof mostly succeeds, though it is perhaps a tad long (mostly in the middle). The ending is, in many respects, remarkable for a "horror" movie; and the camera work and lighting were uniformly excellent. Recommended.

Don't waste your time. Storyline is crap. It's not one of those great Asian horror shows.