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Under the Shadow

(Babak Anvari, 2016)

And so we have the latest in the recent movement of golden age horror. Under the Shadow is a movie reminiscent of things like The Babadook, or Rosemary’s Baby, of psychological horror films grounded entirely in real world feelings, real world terrors that it then amplifies via the supernatural.

Graduating for the first time from short films to features, writer-director Babak Anvari’s film effortlessly, seamlessly blends social drama, historical drama, and the horror genre in an incredible fashion given that it lasts only an hour and twenty four minutes.

Setting his story during a period in which he grew up himself you can’t help but feel there’s an element of the autobiographical that lends the film a certain amount of insight when it comes to the outlook of the child (wonderfully, naturally, effectively, powerfully played by Avin Manshadi. Take note people that cast The Babadook) around which so much revolves. Yet primarily it’s a film concerned with the experience of a woman in a mans world, a woman in a world without options, being societally suffocated. It’s at once a film entirely about Iran, and yet broad enough in scope to be more universally applicable to anybody under the thumb of oppression.

It’s the horror movie stylings of the film that will stand the best chance of opening it up to widest possible audience, and truly tremendous they are. Kit Fraser’s ever more eerie photography, his use of framing, and angles does an excellent job at visually encapsulating the ever more agitated, psychological deterioration of its central character. It’s aided in its effectiveness by Chris Barwell’s editing, which admittedly makes (incredible) use of jump cuts, but thankfully never relies upon them. For as effective as this movie is at being a straight horror film, ratcheting up tension, and trying to get you to jump out of your seat, it is never overwhelmed by that. Indeed, if the jump scare horror will gain the movie its widest audience, its the psychological nature of it that shall ensure its greatness.

Anvari’s lean screenplay is soaked in everyday human fears, there is a palpable sense of dread running through the movie from the very beginning as the walls, as the world of this character begin to close in on her, as her control over her life, and the safety of her child begin to slip out of her grasp, as all those around her that she can trust, and rely on disappear one by one. At the centre of it all, Narges Rashidi’s restrained turn is key to the whole thing being as effective as it is. She lets the writing, and the filmmaking do the heavy lifting, never making it about herself, not calling attention to herself, and never phony for a single second.

That authenticity is probably the movies single greatest asset. That it feels entirely of the real world, like it could play out entirely as social drama and nothing else ensures it has a grounding to build everything else on top of. That’s kind of key to any film in any genre working, and when you can blend incredible genre work with incredible dramatic storytelling it’s kind of a recipe for absolute success. That someone as inexperienced as Anvari should be able to execute all sides as flawlessly as he does is pretty remarkable, and ensures that this is a film that can stand up with the best as horror, drama, history, psychologically distressing, or more simply spine tingling. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to put it up there with the best the genre has ever had to offer.