I have seen thousands of horror films, but I do not recall a single one which begins, in quite a matter-of-fact-way, with the decapitation of a child (not explicitly shown, fortunately). That really got my attention.

A group of three film students visit a mental hospital in order to film a patient who is considered a witch, and based on a clue she provides seek out a remote hamlet. Once there, they find it to be inhabited by very strange residents and end up facing a horror far beyond anything they imagined...

It turns out that DACHRA, evidently Tunisia's first horror film, is very good at amplifying horror by presenting it in a mundane way, yet at the same time it oozes with atmosphere. Judging by the scarcity of horror movies which are successful in their attempts to do that, this is a credit to the film.

Also, I loved the feistiness of the female leader of the group during the interview with the hospital director. Unfortunately, by the end of the movie, her character has undergone an arc for the worse. In fact, the development of the characters and the poor choices they make are the weakest aspects of the movie. They fail to provide critical information to each other, they seem unreasonably unconcerned with the increasingly unsettling events they witness until there is no room left for ambiguity, and shortly before the end there is a twist which seems too implausible because it was not set up properly (for example, the twist contradicts the seeming surprise of one of the characters when he discovers they have been filmed while sleeping).

These flaws do not completely mitigate the strengths of the movie, they just reduce what could have been a great horror film to merely a good one. On a final note, DACHRA feels strongly like a found footage (FF) film without being one. As a FF fan, I appreciated the ambience.

I didn't know anything going in, and I'm not even sure I know anything coming out. To me it seemed like a unique take on Dracula. You got the beast that needs the blood of the young, you got this whole supernatural vibe and whatnot at times. You have the sister wives of the Redfield having bbqs all the time. Only instead of small lives of flies, he eats leftovers or whatever spare parts that can be scavanged.

You got the key figure in the looney bin that sets things in motion. Of course you got your standard protagonist twist. This isn't said to deminish the film. It was a fun fun, and had some moments that definitely felt creepy.

My early thoughts were "well this makes it official. Everywhere in the world has a crazy hillbilly population scaring folk. I was admittedly waiting for someone to make the threat of making someone squeal... It was creepy and off putting; but the weird camera style used to frame certain shots was a bit too much.

You have the exaggerated camera flip while the protagonist screams in realization. Then you got these shots of the old man and you are so close to. His face, I feel like I should have bought him dinner first. I get it's a stylistic thing, and I can make jokes now that I look back, but the telling of the story was still a pretty interesting ride.

Just because we've seen it all before, doesn't mean we can't still enjoy the journey with other characters. At least it isn't a blatant remake of something repackaged for the hundredth time, like we keep getting. Hollywood only wants safe bets, so we look elsewhere to find good stories. It is always interesting to see what new take on an idea someone can come up with.

The concept was good but nothing new, most turkish horror movies rely on the same pattern. A slow pace direction with less stupid characters, might make it worth a watch.