‘Under The Shadow’ Trailer: 2016’s Tensest Horror Movie Is Creeping Into Theaters
Babak Anvari’sUnder the Shadowpremiered to rave reviews at Sundance this year (including one from yours truly) and has spent the past several months collecting still more praise on the festival circuit,hitting SXSW, Fantasia, and more. Now it’s finally headed to theaters, just in time to get yourself good and terrified for Halloween.
Set in the 1980s during the height of the Iran-Iraq war,Under the Shadowfollows a mother and daughter left to fend for themselves in Tehran after the father is conscripted into military service. Everyday life is nerve-wracking as it is, what with air raid sirens going off at random, political turmoil upending the social order, and religious zealots eager to find and punish anyone who steps out of line. But things go from bad to worse when the mother starts to suspect a djinn is haunting the family.
Watch theUnder the Shadowtrailer below.
The trailer doesn’t quite capture the breathlesstensenessofUnder the Shadow, but then again I don’t know how it possibly could. What makesUnder the Shadowso intense is how slowly and methodically it builds the horror. When I caught the film at Sundance, I didn’t even notice how on-edge I was until I realized I was practically ripping holes into my sweater sleeves.
It’s a brilliant way to capture the horrific stress of life in a war zone, where a missile could drop in through the sky at any second. The 1980s Tehran setting is not incidental. The haunting is a supernatural manifestation of the tension and trauma that bleeds into every single second.Under the Shadowhas drawn frequent comparisons toThe Babadook, in part simply becauseUnder the Shadowis another foreign horror film that came out of seemingly nowhere to dazzle critics and genre fans — but also because they balance horror elements and real-life drama in similar ways.
Under the Shadowarrives in theaters and on VODOctober 7.
Shideh finds herself slowly drawn into the ensuing turmoil, struggling to cling onto what is real and what is not. Searching for answers, she learns from a superstitious neighbor that the cursed missile might have brought with it Djinn – malevolent Middle-Eastern spirits that travel on the wind. Convinced that a supernatural force within the building is attempting to possess Dorsa, Shideh has no choice but to confront these forces if she is to save her daughter and herself.
