Under the Shadow

This film is very notable to me for being the first – that I am aware of – horror film to come out of a Middle Eastern Islamic country. For this reason alone, Under the Shadow is an interesting movie. Horror films generally work best when there is a sense of mystery to proceedings, the unknown being one of the scariest things there is. This was the reason that the J-Horror films from Japan were so terrifying to western audiences, as the Japanese conception of the supernatural was so different to ours meaning that things happened in those films that were highly unpredictable and unsettling. It's this same reason that a horror film from an Iranian cultural perspective is always going to feel more original in approach. And so it proves, as while there are familiar elements in this ghost story, there are also aspects that are less predictable, resulting in a fascinating movie. A woman and her young child live alone in an apartment in Tehran during the latter years of the Iran-Iraq War when the Iraqi regime were systematically firing missiles into the middle of large populated urban areas. Before long the bombs come crashing around them and just as this starts happening a strange malevolent supernatural force enters their home and begins to terrorise them also.

One of the things that made this one really stand out for me was the historical setting and social context that came with that. While on the one hand this is a claustrophobic apartment-based horror film, there are also very real terrors outside the home too. In fact, the apartment is a haven for the mother in many ways, a place where she does not have to wear restrictive clothing and can work-out to her Jane Fonda video. Beyond this safe sanctuary she has to deal with a repressive regime who may violently punish her if her clothing is not correct or if they even hear she owns a VCR. The restrictive lives of women during the Cultural Revolution is the real life horror that the protagonist experiences out with the home, while the supernatural Djinn entity is the horror she and her daughter endure within the home. At the same time there are the horrors of war constantly occurring without warning and with potential deadly consequences. Even though this film is set in the late 80's, it's quite clear that this latter factor remains horribly pertinent today, given the horrendous bombings of civilians in the Syrian Civil War which continue unabated as I write this. So, this is a movie with quite a lot going on when you think about it. The supernatural horror material escalates as the story progresses and there are some genuine jump moments and some nicely sinister imagery. It never overplays its hand though and does not descend into over-the-top shenanigans, which ultimately is to the film's overall benefit.

Lastly, and certainly not least there are a couple of excellent performances in here underpinning everything. Narges Rashidi is extremely compelling as the mother, while Avin Manshadi puts in a very strong performance as her young daughter. We really do care about these two sympathetic and realistic characters. In the final analysis, I certainly hope that this film leads to a cycle of Iranian horror films, as the horror genre is often a very good one when it comes to examining tough social issues in an accessible way. This film may be the tip of the iceberg.

If there is one thing horror movies do best, it's taking real life, psychological fears and making them as tangible as possible, forcing us to experience the dread that we prefer to push into the back of our minds, yet this is something often traded out for cheap shock in horror movies today. While "Under the Shadow" may miss a few beats in terms of its actual scares, it is an atmospheric and smart film that is about the real oppression that many people had to deal with and how it affects its main character.

It takes place in Iran during the 80s, a very divisive time in the country's history, when Iranians could be bombed by Iraq at any moment. Anyone who didn't follow their strict rules was horribly punished, and one could be discriminated against for their past political views, and the end of the war was nowhere in sight.

The film begins with Shideh attempting to finish her medical studies, but being turned down for her past political views. Her mother has just died, and she always dreamed that Shideh would be a doctor. Her husband, while loving, doesn't seem very supportive, and they get in an argument which details her past, showing that her husband has subtly oppressed her in the past. He leaves for work around a time that rumors begin to surface about Iraq bombings. He insists she take her daughter to his parents' house, and she denies, mostly as a way to prove that she can take care of her daughter.

However, after the first bombing, Shideh begins to lose control of her daughter, who starts to talk to supernatural beings brought on by the anxiety and fear caused by the attacks. Most people begin leaving, and soon she is left alone, desperately clinging to her daughter, but often failing.

The horror is said to be supernatural, but it is mostly brought upon by her fear that she is useless. She fears that since she can't be a doctor, she must be a good mother, but everything around her is telling her she is failing.

As far as the actual scares go, they are executed impressively for the most part. The shots are held just as long as they need to be held in order to build tension, and cuts are made at the right moments. There are a few jump scares that felt predictable (such as the first dream sequence, and moments towards the end), but most are built up perfectly and used just sparingly enough to truly be unaware of what would happen next. A few moments during the climax felt dragged out, as tends to happen with many horror films, good and bad. But what is most striking about this film is its atmosphere. It has a very dream-like atmosphere and some of the imagery is pretty hard to forget.

This is a film about war and its atrocities. The primary goal of the film is obviously not to be a horror film.

During the Iran-Iraq war and especially after Saddam's missiles landed in many parts of Iran, many were affected psychologically. Children who started screaming, adults with PTSD, depression and many many more psychological problems. Imagine fearing any moment that a bomb or a missile could land in your home. It's a hundred times scarier than any supernatural phenomena.

The background of the film is Tehran, Iran in the 80s during the war. The supernatural elements (whether imagined by the main character or supposed to be real) beautifully symbolize the ugliness and squalor of war.

If you are looking to be entertained by a purely horror film, this may not be the best choice, as there is more to it. You may be disappointed as you may tune out of anything non-horror and the rest of the film will seem tedious to watch. However, if you do not expect to be scared the entire time, and just watch it as a film about a family during the war, I guarantee that you will smile, cry and be crept out of your wits a few times. Even though I was paying more attention to the story line rather than waiting to be scared, I had a hard time walking upstairs alone to my bedroom after watching this. I am a horror film fan and I am not easily scared anymore, but I had not been so terrified in years.

I give it a nine because the resolution at the end is not complete. I usually like closure at the end of the film, but again, that could mean that until the war is over, evil has not gone away.

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!

In western culture movies become iconic quickly. For example, entire generations who missed the original Star Wars film can nonetheless recite dialog from it. Horrow films fit the same mold. The tropes, tricks, plot arcs and even to a large degree the SFX become familiar over time because they are part of the overall experience you expect.

But what happens when a horror fan experiences a film from a different culture? Are the building blocks the same ... or different? One of the clearest exponents of this issue is this film, a modern "horror" film produced in an Islamic country that is known neither for its horror films nor really for its interest in films at all.

Which is what makes UNDER THE SHADOW SO REMARKABLE.

It is good enough to stand on its own as a horror piece. In fact, it's only possible failing -- that it builds so slowly and gradually -- can in fact be considered a major strength. It may well be that, in the west, film-makers who lack the skill to "layer" their suspense raise the temperature far too quickly? However when you consider the obvious incorporation of allegory and metaphor to overlay the plight of the heroine in her real life against her plight in the supernatural realm .. the film gets even more intriguing. Not preachy. Just interesting.

Recommended.