Dachra review: Tunisia looks to put itself on the horror map with this chilling tale of the occult.
Dachra
Frightfest is a very inclusive film festival. Not only does it champion genre cinema and embrace dark-hearted fiction, it is also happy to include films of all languages from all countries. This willingness to screen foreign language films has led to some truly special films screening at Frightfest over the years, Oldboy and Tigers are Not Afraid being particular highlights. Now a new country, Tunisia, enters the fold with Abdelhamid Bouchnak’s Dachra.
Inspired by true events and the horrifying statistic that hundreds of North African children are victims of witchcraft, Dachra is a slow-burning, blood-chilling tale. Yassmine (Yassmine Dimassi), Walid (Aziz Jbali) and Bilel (Bilel Slatnia) are a trio of journalism students tasked with creating a new and exciting documentary for their latest assignment. After following a lead about a twenty-year mystery involving a strange woman, they find themselves living within a secluded community, one harbouring some terrifying secrets.
I know what you’re thinking – students making a film in the woods, another found footage film for the pile. But no, you’re wrong. This is not a found footage movie at all. It’s shot in the standard way, so no queasy tummy from shaky camerawork and no camera focused only on what the ‘camera person is looking at’. By side-stepping what has become the expected found-footage tropes, Bouchnak opens up the world, allowing the viewer to explore the frames as they wish, rather than being locked onto a fixed point. Another plus is no motion sickness.
Dachra
Camerawork aside though, there are several elements that work together to create an atmosphere similar to that in The Blair Witch Project. There’s also something ever so slightly The Witch – maybe it’s the black goats – so expect to have moments of dread interspersed with instances of panic. As with The Blair Witch Project, there are only a few instances of traditional scares, but they are certainly effective. The most unsettling involves a creepy child donned in a red rain mac, an obvious homage to Don’t Look Now.
Like many films, horror or otherwise, where Dachra falls down is with pacing and its run time. There is nothing wrong with a slow and deliberately drawn-out horror film, but when that goes on for just shy of two hours, it can get a little tedious waiting for something to happen. Were the film to be twenty or so minutes shorter, the air of dread could be maintained, rather that it disintegrating into boredom at times.
Effective, but not quite brilliant, Dachra puts Tunisia on the horror map, just not with quite as strong a stamp as one would hope.
Dachra was reviewed at Arrow Video Frightfest 2019.
