The Science Fiction Horror and Fantasy Film Review
Islam is one of the world’s key religions. It emerged around the 7th Century in the Arabic world. It holds that Muhammed is the prophet of God or Allah and that the Qu’ran/Koran is its holy book. Like Christianity, there are numerous different flavours of Islam. Key to Islamic beliefs are a series of moral codes and strictures regarding diet, clothing, prayer, pilgrimage and the place of women in society. The religion also entails the notion of jihad, a holy war against unbelievers.
Outside of cliches about fundamentalist extremism and terrorism (which should be heavily emphasised does not comprise all of Islam), Islamic beliefs and mythology only occasionally enter into fantastic cinema.
Islamic ideas underlie much of the fantasy tales of Arabian Nights, although most of these are Westernised depictions. One of the key elements of Islamic mythology that has appealed to many is the idea of the djinn – something that leads to the Genie – although the original form is as a desert spirit, that is less cute and cuddly and can often take on demonic form.
A faith-based film that comes with a great hook where a time-traveller seeks to go back and kill Jesus, eliminating Christianity from history
The world’s first Islamic horror film? A film filled with a constant profusion of weird imagery but otherwise baffllingly incomprehensible
Tobe Hooper’s career since 1990 felt like a slide down into talentless amateurism. In his last film, Hooper tries to create an Islamic horror film, shooting and casting in the Middle East but slips into hackwork
Directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury made the brutally extreme Inside. Here they return with what feels like an unofficial copy of Candyman about a vengeful boogeywoman
A modestly effective Iranian horror film where a married couple become trapped in a hotel of shifting realities. One of the few films that favourably compares to the mood of The Shining
The co-director of The Blair Witch Project makes a film about soldiers lost in the desert encountering mysterious lights in the sky. Essentially Blair Witch but with lost soldiers facing UFO phenomena
Essentially a variation on The Keep updated to the contemporary US occupation of Afghanistan. A film that one watches with no high expectation but proves to be a slow burner that eventually develops an eerie atmosphere
A strong contender for Worst Film Ever. Rather than create any effects, it has simply uplifted footage from Star Wars, while the score is a mismash taken from popular films of the era. The dialogue is so bizarrely surreal it makes the brain hurt trying to understand it
I was intrigued a few years ago about whether such a thing as the Islamic horror film existed and shortly after we had A Girl Walks Alone at Night. This could be considered an Iranian version of The Babadook and is a spooky and well made show about a woman slowly descending into fear and superstition