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School students uncover the mysteries of a creepy village in this Tunisian horror
Dachra
Dir/scr. Abdelhamid Bouchnak. Tunisia. 2018. 113mins
It might not completely cast a spell over audiences but, as Dachra follows three journalism students investigating a suspected case of witchcraft, the Tunisian horror effort still bubbles with eerie intrigue and bloody thrills. A composed debut feature from writer, director, producer and editor Abdelhamid Bouchnak, it’s a visually rich and moodily atmospheric film with a keen sense for the unsettling, even if it boils together a mélange of somewhat familiar ingredients.
Bouchnak focuses not only on the macabre, grisly and savage, but on the primal and instinctive as well
Still, with the line between derivation and inspiration always razor-thin in fright-filled cinema, Dachra carves out its own ground somewhere in the middle. Indeed, commonalities with a number of both classic and recent standouts - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Blair Witch Project and Fish & Cat, namely - could help the movie’s prospects after it closes out Venice Critics Week, although further festival play and streaming platforms augur as its likely destinations.
While a gruesome evening ritual makes for an attention-grabbing...