Kandisha

It's a very generic cookie cutter supernatural teen slasher film. Overused horror tropes. Swap out Christianity demons for Islamic Jinns in a ouija board style film, add a feminist spin on it, you have Kandisha. The girl summons a Jinn by calling its name five times after drawing a pentagram with her blood, not understanding the implications of a Evil Jinn that seeks to kill males. It's never scary, although it does have some decent gore. For a 2020 film, the special effects are pedestrian. I am surprised this was made by the same people as the French original "Inside" which is an amazing film.

I think this one just barley hit the mark above average. I tend to be a little biased towards folk horror as it is my favorite, but also many of the kills/effects along with the monster design pushed it over the edge for me.

Other than that this movie was pretty basic. Simple cause and effect storyline that generally felt like it was geared towards a younger audience. The movie looked nice but was still pretty run of the mill as far as design and shots go for movies in the past 5 years. Acting seemed fine/good across the board (as an English speaker).

There are definitely some cool aspects to this one but it is not reinventing the wheel by any means. 5.5 rounding up to a 6, would recommend.

Well never heard of her? Me neither ... well I have now and so have you in a way (even if it is only by reading this). But it seems like she is someone you can call upon. And I was thinking about rating it a bit higher ... not becauser of how the character act and react to certain things, but how it works without compromise and takes no prisoners ... something the characters seem not to entirely care about at times ... and then really care about.

But then came the ending ... and that I did not like at all ... it sort of makes sense, but it also makes no sense at all. It may well break the movie for you. It is nice to see a female cast in the main roles and them going at it. That may also be an issue for some I reckon, but it would be a shame and you'd be missing out on some really horrific (great) special effects too ...

I love a good demon or creature feature, and seeing demons from different parts of the world and from different cultural legends is always enjoyable. Kandisha isn't particularly scary, or unique. But it's worth a watch. Some of the kills were fun and gory, but a lot was CGI which is a shame.

I especially liked how the demon is perceived by different characters at different moments. A lot of the movie is predictable, but it's not so predictable that it's off-putting. Good ending, but there are some plot holes and unexplained events. Plus some weird editing and transitions that mess with the pacing.

All in all, it's not bad. Similar movies Antlers (2021), The Canal (2014), Pumpkinhead (1988), and His House (2020). But to be honest, all of those movies are better than this one.

Maybe it could have ended 3 minutes before, maybe it's sometimes predictable and not that innovative.

But when this film works...oh boy, it really works! There is a particular scene (1:09) that is absolutely fantastic, not only in terms of horror (probably the best death scene of the year, even better than that one on Fear Street) but also technically with a dolly zoom shots done with an efficiency that I don't remember in horror since Jaws.

Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury are, again, very good building young characters - like they did in Among The Living -, feels credible, feels realistic and you have a good background story with some social themes on it.

They are also masters of gore. No doubt about that. When they don't show you a death on screen, you know that the next one will compensate that and they definitely did that here.

I liked the entity, it's creepy, it's different, doesn't tell/show you more than the necessary and also loved the scenario, reminding a lot - as the legend itself - Candyman.