Under the Shadow (2016): Horror Tropes with a Twist

“A woman should be more scared of exposing herself than anything.” – words said to Under the Shadow’s protagonist, Shideh, after she was arrested for running down the streets without a hijab in the middle of the night, her young child in tow.

Shideh narrowly escaped being publicly flogged for her misdemeanour. She was sent back in disgrace to the near-abandoned apartment complex she shared with her daughter. But did anybody question what they were running from?

From IMDb: "As a mother and daughter struggle to cope with the terrors of the post-revolution, war-torn Tehran of the 1980s, a mysterious evil begins to haunt their home."

Set in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, Under the Shadow is prefaced by a statement about the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). We see Shideh, a woman forced to leave her university studies behind for the crime of being ‘politically active’ during a revolution, drive home fully-covered, where she breaks down after realising her dreams of becoming a doctor have been crushed. After tensions rise in her household, her medic husband is stationed in Elam, a place considered to be right in the middle of the fighting. Shideh and their daughter Dorsa are invited to stay with his parents in a safer part of the country, yet Shideh was adamant that they would be fine in the Tehran apartment and resolved to stay. As missiles fall and the rest of the occupants abandon the apartment complex for a better quality of life elsewhere, viewers are made to wonder just what it would take for Shideh to pack up and leave herself. If the wailing war sirens, missile threats, and isolation weren’t bad enough, the sound of the wind, ever present through the gaping cracks in the building, carries foreboding…

Viewers are made to question which is scarier; the harsh, dangerous reality of living in a politically-unstable warzone with nearly no rights at all; or the dark thrill of paranormal suspense?

Unsurprisingly, reality is scarier than fiction. Perhaps this is where Under the Shadow falls flat. Had the focus been placed on the horrors of the Iran-Iraq war, and the impact on family units being broken up for compulsory military services, I believe this film could have been more harrowing – especially for Western, modern-day viewers (myself included) who haven’t had the misfortune of living in a warzone, and therefore haven’t truly acknowledged just how traumatic it can be.

Adding the horror genre to this kind of wartime situation does have its own intrigues, yet once viewers get past the setting and historical context, the horror tropes become just that – an add-on. While forces from both this world and the supernatural world join to make Shideh and Dorsa’s lives miserable, I can’t help but feel like we’ve seen this kind of film play out before. For example, StanleyKubrick’s The Shining; a mother and her child battle the horrors of their everyday lives (an abusive father/husband in place of war), and are faced with paranormal terror, all whilst being trapped in a secluded building they are forced to call home…

The stereotypical horror tropes become numerous and cliché once counted out; family dysfunction, a mother or parent that refuses to leave the situation until the haunting becomes unbearable, children that are ultra-aware of the paranormal, lighting and cinematography to create tension, characters who are trapped, creepy basements and attics, doors slamming or being unable to open, and ghostly aspects that manage to be unnerving but are vastly overdone within the genre (no facial features to the paranormal being, rushing jumpscares, and jerky movements). It’s my opinion that the horror genre needs more innovative plotlines, and jumpscares are too overdone nowadays to really shock viewers of modern-day cinema.

That being said, the link between Shideh being trapped both by her cultural situation and by the Djinn attempting to take control of her daughter, is an aspect which interests me. While it’s my opinion that the paranormal plotline detracts from what really makes Under the Shadow frightening, I appreciate the parallels. After all, it was being arrested for forgetting to wear a hijab which forced Shideh back into to the apartment complex she was running from.

Overall: ★★★☆☆