Achoura

First horror movie by this guy, perhaps first Maroccan horror movie ever to make it internationally. This alone and the base for the film scores all the way up to 6. (A for the spine to see this project though! ) This film, however, has a really great idea and lots of faults that have not been thought through- both in the story as well as in the timeline and the quality and feel. It feels like the director somehow didn't really trust his idea and so had to drag in random momentums from previous horror films. The movie could be mistaken for a poor filmatisation of a Stephen King novel. The base of the story is SO good it can stand on its own feet- it does NOT need copied scenes from Hollywood movies.

The music is an ambitious high-end orchestral sound track that sadly is composed by someone who doesn't really know anything about classical music and instead copies straight from American classics. My guess is the team that composed the music has no one who's gone through music school and are "self-taught" so to speak... I could be wrong, of course, but the music is not advanced (actually a bit flat and childish) and not original- however, the string section HAS to be original studio recordings- which is great! And played by professional orchestral musicians- THAT is something you can't miss. The fact that the foley is a bit obvious and out of place along with the music being too intense and overpowering leaves very little to the imagination, and sadly steals a lot of the intended creepiness of the movie. (Rule number ONE in horror- the sound is (usually) 80% of the movie!!!)

The child actors are not that great- but better than 90% of Hollywood (which is not much of an achievement). The trowel between the bricks is non existing and so the story, which has many great bricks (points, finesses)- falls apart. The finesses in the story leads to nowhere or are not properly focused on. It's like trying to juggle with 10 balls and catching only 5. Some stereotypical characteristics in characters occur, but that can of course be expected.

I would love this movie to be "re-cut" and with a new soundtrack (I mean, keep the original, just don't shove it in every intense scene) and make more sense in the story (have someone else read it and screen it for people first to get feedback)- and then have someone properly grade it (no "auto-detect" gradient, which at the moment feels like the case). Then the movie would be so much more!

Oh- and Achoura is NOT only a Maroccan celebration. It's an Islamic celebration (which stretches beyond Marocco, for the ones that didn't know). If you write: Ashura in Google- you will find it.

Enjoy the movie! It's worth a watch as, like I wrote, it still is the first horror movie by this guy. (Imagine all the potential)