Djinn

Simply put, this movie was directed by a master of horror. And though everyone is entitled to failures, I feel like this one didn't have to be. This could've been a groundbreaking film for Hooper. Sadly it was the opposite. But not by the fault of Hooper. We can't possibly know what his true vision was, because what we got was a very salient example of the damage a room of executives can cause. Hooper and Djinn never stood a chance.

I happened to come across the 2013 horror movie "Djinn" by random luck. I was instantly drawn to the cover of the movie, which was very interesting and did seem like the movie could prove to be an entertaining one - given the cover design and the title of the movie. So I needed no persuasion to pick up the movie and sit down to watch it.

Storywise then "Djinn" turned out to be adequate. I can't really claim to be familiar with the exact nature of a Djinn in terms of lore and legend, and only do have previous experience from the "Wishmaster" movie franchise. So it was with no expectations or prejudice that I sat down to watch the movie.

The acting in "Djinn" was good, and it was a nice and refreshing touch to have totally new talents to appear on the screen. By that I mean, that this was all actors and actresses that I hadn't seen before. Probably because this was the first Arabic movie that I have ever had the chance to sit down to watch.

The movie jumps back and forth between English and Arabic, which is a bit frustrating, to say the least. So ensure that you have subtitles on while watching "Djinn".

The special effects in "Djinn" were quite good, and there were indeed some very interesting things showcased on the screen. I liked the hand prints effect in the apartment, and also the way that the creature showed on the CCTV camera.

Visually then there were some quite interesting things to witness in this movie. The scene with the stuffed toys on the bed, for example, while it was very simplistic, it was quite effective, especially because they made the eyes of the stuffed animals look somewhat disturbing. The baby with the black eyes was also sort of disturbing. And of course there is the obligatory scene with a long hallway where the lights go out one light bulb at a time, slowly as the dark encroach on the protagonist at the farthest end of the corridor.

Now as for the Djinn itself, well it wasn't all that scary, unless you count a person dressed in black robes, and having wrinkled skin and dirty teeth to be scary. But then again, I don't know what a Djinn is supposed to look like according to its legends and lore, so whom am I to say that this wasn't a good interpretation of its appearance? However, I didn't think that the creature design wasn't particularly scary.

There are some pretty good jump scares throughout the course of this movie, which were incidentally the strongest points of the movie. So if you enjoy a horror movie that thrives more on jump scares than a thoroughly scary storyline, then this is definitely the movie for you.

I didn't know that Tobe Hooper was the director at the helm of "Djinn". I found that out by reading one of the reviews here on IMDb. It was interesting to see him branch out and do something non-American for a change. So how did he fare with this endeavor? Well, I actually think that he did a rather good job.

"Djinn" is a fair horror story, but it wasn't an outstanding movie in comparison to so many other horror movies. Sure, it was good enough for a single viewing, but it is hardly the type of horror movie that warrants multiple viewings.

The ending of the movie was as bland, generic, predictable and stereotypical as it gets for a horror movie. And everything that Tobe Hooper had built up during the movie just fell apart in an instant because of the ending. It was just an atrocious way to end an otherwise adequate horror movie.

Djinn (2013)

* (out of 4)

Emirati couple Salama (Razane Jammal) and Bobby (Paul Luebke) leave America for her homeland a year after the tragic death of their infant son. Once there they move into a new apartment complex where Salama begins to see visions, which might be connected to the Arab legend Djinn.

This film was tied up in some sort of production hell as it was announced, given a release date, disappeared and it finally showed up on American shores but sadly it's pretty much a disaster. Director Tobe Hooper at least delivers a professional looking film but that's about the only kind thing I've got to say about this film, which runs just 82 minutes but it seems three times as long. There are all sorts of problems here but the biggest is just that it's really not all that well-made and it looks incredibly cheap.

Sadly instead of any atmosphere we're instead given a bunch of jump scares that never work and just come across very cheap. Even worse is the really bad CGI effects, which look horrible and especially that of the Djinn. The only good thing about the casting is that they hired actors from the United Arab Emirates but sadly none of them are all that good and that's especially true for the leads who just don't get across that mental strain that the characters are going through.

The negative stuff keeps going as the look of the film is cheap and Hooper just never builds up any sort of atmosphere. There are elements of REPULSION on display here but Hooper just never makes it work and he certainly never builds any tensions or scares. DJINN is a pretty awful movie from a director who has given us some classics but this certainly isn't one of them.

This film was sitting on my Netflix list for quite a while. The only reason I watched it is that it was directed by Tobe Hooper, who's directed some horror classics like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Funhouse," "Poltergeist," and "Lifeforce" (okay not everyone thinks 'Lifeforce" is a classic, but I do) but Hooper has also directed some serious duds like "The Mangler," possibly the worst Stephen King film adaptation. My overall opinion of Hooper is that most of his film are only as good as their scripts. His best films were written by heavyweight writers like Steven Spielberg, Lawrence Block, or g Don Jakoby and Dan O'Bannon. "Dijinn" sadly represents another weak script, but it did have some interesting elements. The story is essentially an old fashioned haunted house tale, but with a twist of being set in the United Arab Emirates, which does bring a fair amount of interesting cultural elements to a fairly well worn horror formula. A young couple returns home to Dubai and moves into a fancy new high rise apartment building. When the wife begins seeing and hearing things that may or may not really be there, the already strained relationship between the couple becomes even more strained. The middle eastern setting goes a long way, as does director Hooper's visually arresting style that focuses on atmosphere and suspense over cheap scares. However, besides the setting, the story is so unoriginal and derivative that it nearly sinks what could have been a much stronger film. Borrowing from everything from "Rosemary's Baby" to "The Others," it's almost impossible to keep up with which films this script is stealing from. The ending seemed particularly unoriginal and clichéd. Despite all that, director Hooper salvages the weak script and makes the film watchable. Overall, this is worth checking out for Tope Hooper fans or for horror fans looking for something slightly different from the norm.

The only reason I give it 4 is because I like both Aiysha Hart and Razane Jammal. Both did the best they could with a poor script and shoddy directing. As for 'horror'?, I didn't see any. Not even remotely. Just a lot of disjointed scenes, no atmosphere, no chemistry, nothing to talk about. I enjoyed Aiysha Hart in her scenes, speaking Arabic; those were high points of the film for me. poor Razane looked at sea most of the time. Shame. Could have been a much better film with more effort from the director, imagination and maybe even a bigger budget...? Most of the story was predictable. There was little emotional content even around the theme of the dead baby. There was no atmosphere to connect the so called 'horror' to any emotional response by the actors. All very disconnected.Worth watching for the Arabic language scenes.