Dabbe: Zehr-i Cin

Classic Turkish jinn horror movies.

Scary but pointless.

After watching Dabbe 3 and Dabbe 4, the director successfully displays his style throughout the series. Dabbe 5 has a similar story to the other films in the series however it differs in its twist, location and scares. In Dabbe 3 and 4 we see a slower progression in the films with the horror usually lying in the ending scenes. This changes in Dabbe: Zehr-i Cin. The film Begins on a horrifying note and is certainly more terrifying than its predecessors. The director of the series definitely evolves throughout the series. The classic Dabbe formula: combining science and religion, modern technology and ancient folklore using a western cinematic style and eastern cultural aspects is apparent in this film. I would recommend this film if the viewer enjoyed Dabbe 3 and 4. Scares: 8/10 Actors: 7/10 Story: 8.5/10 Overall: 8/10

What this film may lack in Hollywood action it makes up for in sheer Turkish focus. A well acted film that is genuinly scarey and well worth a watch. Bit long however...

Didn't realize until after the fact that I was watching the fifth in a series, although I'm not sure it matters. Also, runtime is actually 2 hours and 12 minutes. Someone should probably fix that.

Anyway...

I had no idea what to expect going into this. I have seen a lot of horror films in my day but none from Turkey. Well, it actually is quite familiar in setting, set up, and tone to your average possession film. Swap Anytown, USA for Istanbul and a ghost for a djinn and you basically have this. Except not at all. Because this film is crazy. It toes a line between cheesy, with its overbearing and generic horror score and some OTP camerawork, and genuinely unsettling horror. Seriously, some of the scares in this got me more than anything I have seen in a long time. It conjures a lot of fear at first by teasing out little bits of horror and making your imagination run with it, before shoving the knife in, so to speak, with some disturbing uses of mirrors, dream sequences, and shadows. Some of the monstrous figures in this gave me shivers!

The performances are quite good. They really sell the horror and actually act like real people for the most part. The cinematography, while occasionally showy, is fantastic. The lighting is creative, the use of different lenses and formats to distort the frame and give it a dreamlike quality really add to the disorienting effect that Dilek feels throughout. I'm not sure how all of the visual effects were achieved, though I think a mix of in camera and CGI effects were used. Regardless, the whole thing has a very polished look that sucks you right into the world of the film. The narrative has a tendency to overexplain and the twist at the end felt really unnecessary, but overall was actually pretty damn gripping.

All in all, this was a really pleasant surprise. I might be inclined to check out the others in the series now!

great scenario! A nice job from Turkey in horror genre. I did not expect such a movie from a director in Turkey; but he did his best and he deserves a hooray ;) At the first, the film starts as if you're watching from the middle, but as the time elapse, all of the parts takes their places and form a big picture and at the end, you notice that you just watched a good movie and it was not a waste of time. this film has previous versions too but I've not watched them. but after watching this movie, I would prefer to go for them too, despite I'm not a good fan of a horror movies, specially the ones that is based on paranormal things. for those of you that don't speak Turkish, I wish you could find a subtitle and watch it, as it has a good story behind.