Under the Shadow: Another Persian Horror Must-See
By NARA MOHYEDDIN ‘21
Scared of jump-scares and missiles, genies and morality police? Think Persepolis would’ve been just that much more interesting if the Satrapis were being haunted? Alright with reading subtitles during harrowing scenes of a movie?
In 2016, the Farsi-language movie Under the Shadow was released at Sundance. It was director Babak Anvari’s first full-length movie. The movie was released only two years after the release of The Babadook at the same festival, and the similarity between the two films is unmistakable: both feature a mother and her child left by the husband, alone with their thoughts and their haunters. Although The Babadook was incredibly well received, it is not the similarities between the two, but rather the differences between the two films that make Under the Shadow so special (along with the amazing cast, setting, realism, and filmography).
In Under the Shadow, the mother and child are Iranians living in the capital city of Tehran during the American war with Iraq (1980-1988). Amidst constant bombing, the husband, Iraj, is drafted to contribute his doctor skills to the army. Denied from the university because of her political activity in the revolution that preceded the war, the mother, Shideh, is unable to continue her medical studies, and so remains home. Their lives go on as Shideh funnels her stress into contraband exercise videos and restless nights, but soon her daughter, Dorsa, learns about genies (who are usually very evil spirits, despite what Disney’s Aladdin may have taught you) from the boy downstairs. While Shideh is dealing with her mother’s death, the constant threat of war, being a single parent, and the uncertainty of occupational future, she now also has a scared and sick child as well.
But the genies Dorsa sees don’t seem to be feverish hallucinations; as Shideh’s reality and dreamscape mesh together, she sees the same things as her daughter. One night when it has all become too much, Shideh grabs her daughter and runs, only to be arrested for violating the mandatory dress code—her head was uncovered—and returned to her home. Her past political activity and the dress code keep Shideh at home, but she’s not secure there; her home escalates from a place where she is constantly scrutinized in her role as a mother to a full on haunted house.
As a woman in wartime, the uncertainty of her future keeps her up at night, as well as making her sleepwalk and have nightmares. As the war gets worse and worse, Shideh’s mental state deteriorates. While the movie moves slowly, taking its time with quality filmography and steadily building uncertainty, it reaches a terrifying and fast-paced climax. At one point, a cloth tries to eat Shideh and her daughter; is this a symbol for Shideh’s battle with conservatism, manifested in the mandatory dress code? What is great about this movies is that if you want, it can put you onto this deeper, analytical line of questioning, but if you just need to be terrified, it can do this for you as well.
In the beginning of Under the Shadow, some text quickly explains the setting of the movie—a war-struck Tehra is the perfect pressure cooker for fear and anxiety. Later, as Shideh is reading her neighbor’s book on genies, she learns that it is exactly these fear and anxiety, and perhaps the social climate that surrounds them, that attracts evil spirits. This harmonious marriage of horror and social commentary is exactly what modern horror movies need.
