I recently watched the Moroccan film ?? The Achoura (2018) on Shudder. The storyline initially follows a group of kids who experience some strange events where one of them disappears. Twenty years later the kid emerges and the childhood friends get back together to find out what happened and why...

This picture is directed by Talal Selhami (Mirages) and stars Sofiia Manousha (Beautiful Minds), Younes Bouab (Queen of the Desert), Iván González (The Divide) and Moussa Maaskri (Stillwater).

This is one of those films that had the ingredients to be worthwhile but fails in execution. Some of the elements reminded me of a fairytale and the premise and setup was pretty good. The acting is good enough to want to see what happens next; but unfortunately, the horror elements are a huge letdown. This relies too heavily on CGI for the monster, action scenes, kills and blood. Everything that happens in this film was CGI and a miss. This even becomes hard to watch at times.

In conclusion, Achoura is a movie that had potential but relied way too much on CGI for my liking. I would score this a 3.5-4/10 and recommend skipping it.

I surprisingly liked this movie a lot more than I thought I was going to. It was actually really fun and had some solidly spooky aspects. I would say its two biggest downfalls were its lack of originality and the CGI. While the specific subject matter is different and particular to this, this story was very reminiscent of Stephen Kings "IT". It felt different enough for me, but I can also understand people seeing it as derivative.

Also, the quality of the CGI was a bit distracting. What the CGI was actually depicting was actually great, just the quality wasn't at the same level. I really liked the creature design and thought it felt very menacing and original. Overall I found this to be an enjoyable, creepy and almost nostalgic experience. I think this movie deserves a few more flowers than it appears to receive. 6.5 rounding down to a 6, would recommend.

A group of kids defeat a demon years ago. They get back together, now as adults, to fight said demon again, in a dilapidated mansion no less. Some are successful adults, 1 is in a "bad place" and is the "keeper of the evil", a childhood romance is rekindled. The entity goes by different names in different regions..now where have I seen and heard all this before???? Sounds awful familiar, doesn't it? Well, if you guessed Stephen King's IT, you would be correct. This is basically a Moroccan/French IT copycat. 2 pros Ill give it: the creature was legit creepy looking and the music score is grand and rivals scores coming out of Hollywood. Still, can't really recommend this, go see the IT films instead!