Turkish horror that’s too well done till I can’t sleep peacefully for the next few days
Written by Aqil Nasri
The horror genre is filled to the brim with quality films such as The Shining, Hereditary, The Conjuring, and Paranormal Activity. Oh, and not forgetting The Exorcist, the one movie that truly scared the bejesus out of everyone when it first came out, leading to home video versions of the movie getting banned in the UK for a period of 11 years! These movies represent the cream of the crop when it comes to horror. They don’t simply rely on jump scares that much, they don’t use many cheap scares, and they have solid character arcs and storylines that audiences could relate and care about.
But besides that, what one other factor do they have in common with one another?
It’s the fact that most of the critically acclaimed horror movies mentioned above mainly comes from the US and the UK. The stories that they tell mostly relate to the cultural experiences that westerners generally accustom to. The ghosts and cults present in those films, while still being scary as hell, aren’t really being translated well when compared to the Malaysian way of life. I mean, we already have our own Pontianaks and djinns to worry about, thank you.
So, how do you go about properly scaring the hell out of Malaysians (especially Muslims) while still maintaining all the qualities of an amazing film?
Tell them to watch Dabbe: The Possession, that’s how.
An undiscovered gem
I’ll admit, I didn’t search for this title willingly. I stumbled upon this film during a weekly movie night with my friends after scouring endlessly for a single interesting horror flick to watch on Netflix. We’ve never heard of this movie before, we’ve never seen the rest of the movies in the film series (Yes, this one is actually the 4th in the series!), and we have never known the film industry in Turkey to have these sort of horror movies, especially one to land on Netflix!
We honestly thought it’s going to be one of those movies. You know, where you can guess the entire premise of the plot after looking at the poster or the trailer of it?
Welp, we were wrong.
Before viewing the movie, however, we purposely strolled through the web, searching up for any background information that we can find about the movie and its creators. To our surprise, this was not a new film. It came out in Turkey 7 years ago, all the way back to 2013. Directed and written by Hasan Karacadağ, he started out the first Dabbe movie in the series with just a shoestring budget of RM600,000. Since then, his movies have started making waves throughout the Turkey horror scene.
Although Hasan isn’t a household name outside of Turkey yet, I’m pretty sure that he will be one day once horror enthusiasts start discovering his creations.
The Skeptic and the Exorcist
Now, the film follows Dr. Ebru, a psychiatrist who is a skeptic on paranormal beings, and Faruk, who is a local Ustaz (Islamic Preacher) and exorcist. She (Dr. Ebru) wants to make a documentary for her class that proves possessions and exorcisms are a sham. So, in order to prove her claim, she challenges Faruk to cure a girl named Kubra, who became possessed during her wedding day.
Centering around the topic of demonic possessions and evil djinns, the film touches heavily on Islam. You can hear the main characters reciting Quranic verses throughout the movie, which isn’t something to be taken lightly as Quranic verses are usually not meant to be played with.
Dabbe: The Possession does not depend on jump scares. It scares you through its environment, through its storyline, and its style of storytelling. Also, the film was purposely shot like a documentary, making it look like a found footage film which definitely helps in immersing viewers into the horrors of the world.
Excellent storyline with a solid background
From the spine-chillingly haunting intro all the way to the (minor spoilers) freakishly scary ending, Dabbe manages to run all the way to the finish line without stumbling as much as I thought it would. The film does a brilliant job in keeping its pacing smooth enough so that audiences won’t feel like the film is trying to drag its way through its 2-hour runtime.
The film opens up with a possession sequence that left me scared shitless. I mean, I’m a pretty regular horror-movie viewer myself, but the intro made me nervous as heck. Instead of being sat on the edge of my seat, I sank deeper as I realized the possessed human in the intro disappeared without me even realizing it. The dimly lit room turned completely dark, leaving me completely helpless like Faruk was. The level of horror was kept consistently high throughout, searing images into my retinas for a good week.
Personally, for me, the story feels fully fleshed out, as it manages to describe to audiences in excruciating detail on how the curse worked on Kubra to who cursed her in the beginning. Feelings of disbelief will be visibly present to audiences once the credits roll. I won’t spoil it for you guys but there’ll be one truth in the end which will make your blood curl.
Verdict
What I love most about the movie is the fact that Dabbe: The Possession won’t just aim to scare you, instead it purposely commits itself to continuously haunt audiences from the moment the movie starts. The film, albeit being a foreign film to us, manages to feel relatable. More relatable than the average Hollywood horror movie for sure.
9/10
If you want to check out the other movies in the series, check out their YouTube channel here.
