100
CineVue by Martyn Conterio
Under the Shadow is not only perfectly paced, the storytelling and plotting is emotionally gripping. The director also uses setting and location, composition and framing like a master of horror.
Under the Shadow
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- United Kingdom,
- Jordan,
- Qatar,
- Iran
- 2016
- · 84m
Director
Babak Anvari
Cast
Narges Rashidi,
Avin Manshadi,
Bobby Naderi,
Ray Haratian,
Hamid Djavadan,
Bijan Daneshmand
Genre
Drama,
Horror,
Thriller,
War
After Shideh's building is hit by a missile during the Iran-Iraq War, a superstitious neighbor warns that the missile was cursed and carrying malevolent Middle-Eastern spirits. Gradually, Shideh realizes that some entity is attempting to possess her daughter. Shideh must confront these forces if she is to save her daughter and herself…
Stream Under the Shadow
What are critics saying?
100
Empire by Kim Newman
A quality ghost story with an unusual backdrop and great performances.
100
The Observer (UK) by Mark Kermode
With this terrific feature debut, Anvari lifts the veil on his heroines’ hidden lives and leaves us all dreaming with our eyes wide open.
100
Total Film by Jamie Graham
Full of shivers and subtext, this is scarily good. One of the films – horror or otherwise – of the year.
100
RogerEbert.com by Sheila O'Malley
Under the Shadow, a Farsi-language debut feature written and directed by Babak Anvari, creates a world where reality itself is suspect. In a year filled with great first features, add Under the Shadow to the list.
100
Los Angeles Times by Noel Murray
The movie is first fascinating, then terrifying.
91
Consequence by Michael Roffman
The Iranian filmmaker wisely uses the genre to work through themes of oppression, rebellion, and femininity without ever politicizing the film. This is prestige horror, the kind with tricks and treats that arrive with purpose and linger for years.
91
IndieWire by Eric Kohn
Under the Shadow smartly observes the emotions stirred up by a world defined by restrictions, and the terrifying possibility that they might be inescapable.
91
Consequence of Sound by Michael Roffman
The Iranian filmmaker wisely uses the genre to work through themes of oppression, rebellion, and femininity without ever politicizing the film. This is prestige horror, the kind with tricks and treats that arrive with purpose and linger for years.
90
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
Anvari deftly builds and sustains tension throughout, crafting a horror movie that respects genre conventions...while firmly establishing its own distinctive identity.
83
The Film Stage by John Fink
Under The Shadow is a rare genre film of emotional and political complexity, one that’s well-acted and directed, even if the psychological horror is front and center.
80
Screen Daily by Wendy Ide
The culturally specific elements that Iran-born, British-based first time writer-director Babak Anvari brings to the picture makes this a distinctive spin on a familiar premise.
80
Variety by Justin Chang
Slyly merging a familiar but effective genre exercise with a grim allegory of female oppression, Babak Anvari’s resourceful writing-directing debut grounds its premise in something at once vaguely political and ineluctably sinister.
80
Screen International by Wendy Ide
The culturally specific elements that Iran-born, British-based first time writer-director Babak Anvari brings to the picture makes this a distinctive spin on a familiar premise.
75
The A.V. Club by A.A. Dowd
There’s still something exciting about seeing familiar tropes placed in an unfamiliar context — in this case, a nation ravaged by violent conflict and stifled by fundamentalist law.
75
Slant Magazine by Elise Nakhnikian
The film's horror is spookily and movingly expressive of the tenuous position of women in 1980s Iran.
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