Movie Review: The Djinn scares audiences with a uniquely modern take on the classic be-careful-what-you-wish-for tale.

_{By Aremy O.}

The Djinn is a new Horror movie that was released on May 14, 2021. It’s definitely a different approach to horror movies. Taking place in an apartment throughout the entirety of the movie, and having a mute boy as the main character, I wouldn’t categorize it as a traditional movie. The story follows the main character through a treacherous night after having done a sinister ritual. Many elements combine together to make this into the suspenseful horror movie it is.

Horror 

Every horror movie fanatic is different, but at the end of the day we just want a good scare. Although there were many potential moments in the movie for a good scare, I do think they were quite predictable. Considering these moments with other elements like music and lighting my total rating from a 1-5 scale would be a 4. The only thing holding me back from giving it a 5/5 is that looking back at the movie, some of these moments were more suspenseful than scary.

Plot (SPOILER ALERT & Trigger Warning)

The plot for the movie was, dare I say, phenomenal. The plot mostly revolved around focusing on what you have. With the character being a mute boy, when he performed the sinister ritual, he wished for a voice, but this came with the consequence of having to survive the night with the sinister creature he wished with. This creature came into the mortal world and could switch appearances to those of the dead. One of my favorite elements about the plot is the boy’s mother. Throughout the movie we get little snips of the boy’s mother, and what looks like the moment he saw her unexpected death. I would say more but I don’t want to spoil everything, overall I rate the plot a 5/5.

Special Effects

While watching this movie I noticed one thing, a demonic-like creature. Now usually I have a pet peeve with these in horror movies because of how unrealistic and non-scary the costume looks, but not this one. I’m not sure what it was but it was well done and did not trigger the same “bleh” reaction I have to other horror movies with similar costumes. The special effects and makeup through this movie were consistent and well done. I didn’;t have a moment where I was like “Oh, that looks so fake”, I’m not sure if it’s because the movie did well with distracting me with other elements, but everything looked coherently well. So, for special effects, I give a 4.5/5.

Overall, I highly recommend this movie to any horror fan out there. It’ll definitely have you at the edge of your seat and yelling at the screen. It’s realistic scenarios and setting makes it all the more believable. If you’re looking for something to keep you on your toes, I definitely recommend this movie.