Djinn

Saw this movie few years back on a DVD. The movie is one time watch for horror fans. Apart from decent direction by Hooper, the film is atmospheric n creepy. I am surprised at the films bad vfx considering that the production company behind this film is Image Nation, a leading production company from UAE. Honestly, the effects were really bad. It ruined the film. The movie is about a middle eastern couple residing in New York. After the death of their new born kid, they r advised by their mysterious psychiatrist to relocate to their native place, Abu Dhabi. The couple move into an apartment in a building which was built on a haunted ruins. The road towards the bldg is empty n the constant fog surrounding the building n the road is kinda creepy. Silent Hill style. Now the building is nearly empty. The door man n the neighbors are creepy. The wife keeps hearing strange voices. Ther is appearance of ghostly shadows lurking around the corridors. Grudge style. The couple meet a bizarre, black-clad, hot neighbor. All this leads to a decent twist in the end.

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.

I saw Djinn, the 1st Horror thriller shot in UAE. and featuring Lebanese , Egyptian and Emiraty and Saudi actors.

Beside the scenes of classic "jumpy" feelin, the acting is very bad. Chemistry between the actors is practically inexistent, the story is revealed in the 1st scene. and there is no build up. I have to say that the Saudi Actress, Aiysha Hart who did a great job! Some effects are good, but borrowed from other movies, such as "scene of birds bumping into windows...or the crawling "Um Al dwais" weak cinematography. Dubai has much better scenes than shown. We need to compare the movie to international standards, especially with the amount of money spent on it. and the full access to all needed materials and actors. and hence why the movie rating is 3, in my opinion.

The name of director Tobe Hooper will forever remain associated with the horror classic "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". This is somewhat unjustified and disadvantageous, because he also made many other memorable films in the genre, such as "Eaten Alive", "LifeForce", "The Funhouse", and "The Mangler". On the other hand, it may also be a blessing, because everyone forgot that his last films - and more specifically his very last one, "Djinn" - were incredibly bad.

"Djinn" is unbelievably boring. There may be a few good ideas and potentially controversial elements in the script, but they never come to the surface because Hooper doesn't have the courage to genuinely shock his audience. The story is about a New York couple who return to the United Arab Emirates - where their roots are - after losing their newborn baby. This is especially against the will of the wife, Salama, because she has no job there, and then she is also becomes haunted with the myth of the djinn; a monstrous creature hiding in the body of a baby looking for its "mother".

"Djinn" dethrones "Morturary" as the worst Tobe Hooper movie I've seen so far. As far as I'm concerned, the "The Toolbox Murders" remake from 2004 remains his last glorious piece of work. There's zero action, suspense or horror-worthy special effects/make-up in "Djinn". You don't feel any empathy for the characters, and there is endless talking in English and Arabic.

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.