“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?
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| 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: ★★★☆☆
Overall: ★★★☆☆
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