HOOD WITCH REVIEW
“A surprisingly solid thriller driven by the idea of an actual real-world witch hunt.”
Those looking for a different, kind of less Disneyfied witch this weekend have another option. Of course, there have already been dozens and dozens of horror movies set in the world of exorcisms and witchcraft, but Saïd Belktibia moves that into a very different arena with his first full-length feature film, set in the world of Muslim witchcraft, known as “roqya.” The Roqya is also the original name for his film, from when it was first released in France.
We meet Golshifteh Farahani’s Nour as she’s being stopped at airport customs, caught smuggling in illegal substances. In her case, she has hidden all sorts of exotic lizards and reptiles under her outer clothes, which she will use in her rituals and sell to others in her field. Although her contraband creatures are confiscated, she’s also swallowed two poisonous toads as one might a condom filled with narcotics. Nour is accompanied everywhere by her son Amine (Amine Zariouhi), who is her everything, but she’s also been dealing with a toxic husband named Dylan (Jérémy Ferrari). An older Muslim man has been begging Nour to help his son Daniel, who he believes is possessed. Nour’s treatment leads to the boy’s death, and she becomes the victim of a literal witch hunt as social media drives her French neighbors into a frenzy.
The first thing that makes Belktibia’s film so intriguing is the fact that it’s set in France, but also that it’s set in that country’s Muslim society, which immediately gives Hood Witch a distinct tone and flavor unlike the normal movies in this horror subgenre. Maybe that’s because we’ve become so inured to Protestant Christians going after the witches and Catholic priests acting as exorcists that Hood Witch immediately stands out as something quite novel and unique. From the opening moments where we first witness Nour’s literal menagerie, we know that we’re going to be getting something quite different and unique.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that I’ve been a fan of French-Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani going back to Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, though I’ve seen her in many great roles. Nour is a very different type of role and movie for her, especially for those who only know her from the “Extraction” movies. It isn’t necessarily horror with a capital H (as I frequently say about comedies), but more of a dramatic thriller with intense sequences where Nour and/or Amine are in terrible danger. Because Farahani makes her character so relatable, you immediately are siding with her and abolishing any negative connotations you might have about witchcraft. Nour uses her knowledge and skills to help people, working in a difficult realm where not everyone believes in what she does and others believe that her witchcraft is indeed evil.
Belktibia uses social media in a similar way to how news broadcasts are often used in film and television to show how others react to what is happening in the story. The movie might lean a bit too heavily on these TikTok testimonials at times, as they do start to get a little tiring, but it’s another thing that informs us that Hood Witch is taking place in the present day, where one doesn’t often see witchcraft mentioned on a regular basis.
Eventually, the movie becomes a race for Nour to retrieve Amine, who has been taken away from her by another Muslim witch doctor of sorts, trying to rid the boy of the evil brought on by his mother. It’s a satisfying conclusion to a movie that generally works, only running into a few problems along the way.
Hood Witch was a surprisingly solid thriller, driven by the idea of an actual real-world witch hunt, with Golshifteh Farahani holding it down with her fantastic performance.
Rating: 7.5/10
Hood Witch will be released in theaters and on digital on March 21. If you live in New York City, there’s a special preview screening of Hood Witch at the Roxy Cinema with an intro by the filmmaker on Weds. night, March 19.