By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Alexandre Bustillo | Julien Maury
Starring: Bakary Diombera | Mathilde Lamusse | Mériem Sarolie | Nassim Lyes | Sandor Funtek | Walid Afker
Country: france
Year: 2021
Running time: 85
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11058930/reference
Brett says: “KANDISHA is another in a long line of recent folk horror spectre/demon films that dip into legends from underrepresented cultures. In this case, the concept is the summoning of a Moroccan half jinn/half woman/half ‘devil’ (that’s a disproportionate amount of halves, appropriate for a disproportioned film) named Aicha Kandisha who sticks it to the patriarchy once someone summons her Candyman-style through a blood-drawn pentagram. While the premise of giving attention to customs and lore to underrepresented groups is encouraging on the surface, a film like this feels way more about exotic exploitation and novelty than proper homage and care.
“This is not the first KANDISHA film that’s been made, but this one just goes straight for the cheap scare lane. Everything about this story feels uninspired and plays out like it was written from the recent horror folk legend template.
“The characters are extremely flat, actually to the point of being annoying rather than drawing any sort of sympathy. The story leaps into a baseless violent relationship scene, which prompts a young female to summon Kandisha after conveniently discovering some graffiti and having the concept explained to her by her friend of Moroccan descent. Of course, at that point, the beast is unleashed and the series of arbitrary kill scenes can ensue. As is predictable, the girl and friends try to figure out a way to put the demon back in its cage. The film actually has the gall to detail some of the remedy for this creature of the night via a simple internet search, as if Kandisha is a regular phenomenon that everyone knows about, except these young people who just found out about her the day before of course.
“There are one or two inventive kill scenes, and the metamorphosis of the demon is visually interesting, but the thrill of the scare is killed by the sloppiness of the plot and character assembly. A color-by-numbers La Llorona-esque romp. 1 cat
“Screened at the Chattanooga Film Festival“