Achoura

I surprisingly liked this movie a lot more than I thought I was going to. It was actually really fun and had some solidly spooky aspects. I would say its two biggest downfalls were its lack of originality and the CGI. While the specific subject matter is different and particular to this, this story was very reminiscent of Stephen Kings "IT". It felt different enough for me, but I can also understand people seeing it as derivative.

Also, the quality of the CGI was a bit distracting. What the CGI was actually depicting was actually great, just the quality wasn't at the same level. I really liked the creature design and thought it felt very menacing and original. Overall I found this to be an enjoyable, creepy and almost nostalgic experience. I think this movie deserves a few more flowers than it appears to receive. 6.5 rounding down to a 6, would recommend.

It was bad from the plot to acting performance. And it did look like a comedy not like a horror. It was the first horror I watched without closing my eyes with my hands.

The only great plus here - MUSIC. It was rich, deep, dynamic, and made this film a little bit better. Though the music did not really suit the film again... but we were lucky to enjoy its melodies.

I hope director and the whole cast will have more interesting and better works in the future careers.

I recently watched the Moroccan film 🇲🇦 The Achoura (2018) on Shudder. The storyline initially follows a group of kids who experience some strange events where one of them disappears. Twenty years later the kid emerges and the childhood friends get back together to find out what happened and why...

This picture is directed by Talal Selhami (Mirages) and stars Sofiia Manousha (Beautiful Minds), Younes Bouab (Queen of the Desert), Iván González (The Divide) and Moussa Maaskri (Stillwater).

This is one of those films that had the ingredients to be worthwhile but fails in execution. Some of the elements reminded me of a fairytale and the premise and setup was pretty good. The acting is good enough to want to see what happens next; but unfortunately, the horror elements are a huge letdown. This relies too heavily on CGI for the monster, action scenes, kills and blood. Everything that happens in this film was CGI and a miss. This even becomes hard to watch at times.

In conclusion, Achoura is a movie that had potential but relied way too much on CGI for my liking. I would score this a 3.5-4/10 and recommend skipping it.

With me having the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2018 Moroccan horror movie "Achoura" here in 2022, needless to say that I did so. Of course I did, especially because the movie's cover was actually interesting, and this was, after all, a horror movie that I hadn't already seen.

I had never heard about this 2018 horror movie from writers Jawad Lahlou, Talal Selhami and David Villemin, so I wasn't sure what I was in for here, nor had I seen a trailer or anything. I just picked up the movie, as my attention was caught by the cover. And I gave it a chance.

And I guess that "Achoura" is Moroccan for "boring". I am just kidding here, about the translation, of course. Boy, oh boy, talk about a swing and a miss of a movie from director Talal Selhami. The movie never got off to a flying start, and it was so difficult getting into the groove of the movie or the atmosphere of the movie. Maybe it was because the movie had zero appeal, characters with the appeal of cardboard, dialogue as rigid as wood, or simply because the only thing scary about "Achoura" was how utterly boring it was.

The storyline told in "Achoura" was boring and pointless. So it never caught on with me. And after 32 minutes of sheer and utter boredom, then I was good and ready to call it quits on this movie. Yeah, it was exactly that boring.

I wasn't familiar with a single performer on the cast list, and that is usually something I enjoy when I sit down to watch movies. But for some reason, then not so much with "Achoura". Again, it was because everything was so utterly boring and pointless, from the characters and dialogue to the very events that made up the storyline.

If you enjoy horror movies, do yourself a favor and stay well clear of "Achoura".

My rating of director Talal Selhami's 2018 horror movie "Achoura" lands on a very generous two out of ten stars. It is the special effects alone that prevents the rating of scraping a mere single star.

After a series of strange encounters, a group of childhood friends finds that the attacks are reminiscent of a particular being from an urban legend they encountered when they were kids and must put their limited knowledge to the test in order to stop the rampaging creature once and for all.

Frankly, this was a highly enjoyable and surprising effort. Among the main positive on display here is the rather intriguing storyline that provides the film with a really original take on this type of premise. Focusing on the idea of the kids reuniting to battle a childhood menace, a setup used multiple times over, instead has a rather intriguing feel here with the inclusion of the elements found in Moroccan folklore as that's been so rarely utilized it feels fresh. This is mainly due to the build-up done when they're kids to set-up an intriguing monster, one based on superstition in the area and their own beliefs growing up in the area that meld together into a rather fun backstory here. This intriguing backstory allows the film to feature some rather intriguing action. The first main encounter when it strikes a family about to go to sleep is quite chilling working in the urban legend quite effectively while the short-burst encounters when they were kids running through the abandoned house or the cornfield trying to escape from the creature have some solid moments. Likewise, an encounter in the apartment complex bathroom is quite chilling with how the creature attacks and the ingenuity needed to get away from it, while the sequence of them returning to the fabled farmhouse where they encounter the creature leading into a series of graphic and chilling attacks is a surefire highlight that ties the film up rather nicely. Coupled with the strong creature design and brutal but not gory encounters throughout here, there's a lot to like with this one. However, there are some flaws with this one. One of its main issues is the overall darkness that permeates the film, oftentimes making it nearly impossible to make out what's happening on screen. The opening attack is so dark it's hard to tell what happens even if they were trying to keep it in the shadows, and that format rings true of several other encounters here. The big farmhouse attack is handled in near-total darkness which is a really big missed opportunity to get the creature out and showcase what's going on. Given that this is shot in darkness for most of the film tends to do this a real disservice as there are oftentimes characters fumbling in the dark or just unintelligible blurs of activity and movement happening that are hard to make out at times here. As well, the other big flaw with this one is the sheer lack of answers as to what's going on here. There's no information given about the titular monster at all which is a real shame considering this is most likely the first exposure to such a creature and thus the unfamiliarity with it and why we need to be afraid of it is never given. Seeing as how we shift around constantly to various people and are given their own individual connections to the case, there's never a chance to realize how everyone fits together here and it ends up feeling like a random assortment of people together. That the narrative for this one, going back and forth between them as kids and as adults who are beginning to come to grips with the encounter, doesn't help this any by making plenty of references to events that never came true when they became adults or we find out different relationships that make following the characters quite difficult when we don't know who's who. These issues are what hold this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, mild Language and children-in-jeopardy.