The Shadow



Maryam, the mother of a sick 9-year-old boy, suspects that her son’s various symptoms may be caused by possession. Desperate for some kind of solution to her son’s plight, Maryam goes to visit Mulla Yousuf, a scholar who specializes in strange phenomena. But as the Mulla begins to ask her questions regarding her life and her son’s “illness”, Maryam begins to suspect that something isn’t quite right with this whole situation.



All right, so since Flashback turned out to be a pretty good short, I decided to take a look-see for any more shorts available on Netflix and…. there’s actually more than I thought. So hot-diggity-damn, I guess. Mission accomplished. But there’s not really a “section” for it, so like a lot of good things on Netflix you’ve sorta gotta dig around for them. Because lord knows that their search function ain’t always the best, and unless it’s ‘popular’ that week or one of Netflix’s own shows that they’re endlessly shoving down your throat, then odds are it’s buried somewhere in the endless pit known as their catalog and unless you know the exact name to type in to search for it, in that pit it shall stay. But thankfully The Shadow showed up fairly quickly and I didn’t have to spend half an hour endlessly clicking on titles. So that made me happy. And also thankfully, like Flashback, this short also turned out to be pretty good, which also made me happy. Even though I did end up a smidge confused regarding some of the film’s context.



On a technical level, the film is almost flawless. It can be a bit “talky” in a couple cases, but you shouldn’t have an issue hearing anyone. And the cinematography and atmosphere are lovely, with some downright gorgeous (and creepy) shots and a pervasive, almost gray eeriness that hangs over the whole production that’s just really well done. There were only two small dings I noticed. The first was that there was a tension sting where I didn’t think there really needed to be a tension sting (seriously filmmakers, please stop overusing that). And the second was that because the film is by an Emirati director and was shot in Arabic, it naturally utilizes subtitles, and that those subtitles moved just a bit too fast, and that’s coming from someone who’s fairly used to reading subtitles. But other than those two minor points, I’ve got no complaints.



The plot itself uses its time very well to convey the story it wants to tell and slowly building the dread. It starts off benign enough, with a woman going to seek spiritual advice from someone whom she clearly thinks is of great importance and worthy of respect. So she goes in feeling a little meek and awkward, and that paired with the Mulla’s clear confidence immediately establishes the film’s baseline of tension. And as the film goes the filmmakers expertly expound upon that slow, simmering tension as the Mulla starts asking Maryam accusatory questions and we get some disturbing flashbacks regarding possessions, with of course everything culminating with a big reveal. It’s a technique that may be very simple in theory, and tends to get bungled a lot, so it’s nice to see it working so well here.



My only real issue with the movie is that it’s one of those movies that’s very steeped in the culture in which it comes from. Which is great, and I think that’s something we need a lot more of. The downside to that though, is that if you’re not part of whatever said culture the film is about, then there are likely going to be things that go right over your head. Case in point: The Shadow makes several references to spilling hot water and how that’s a bad thing that can cause possession. Not being Muslim myself, I had no earthly idea what the hell any of that was referencing. So that meant that I had to do a couple minutes of Google-fu after the film, which revealed that you don’t want to spill hot water anywhere because it could accidentally land on an invisible Djinn and burn it. Burning a Djinn (at least without saying bismillah first) will piss it off (as it would anyone, I’d imagine…), and you then run the risk of being possessed by the resulting pissed-off Djinn. So thanks for explaining that to me, internet. It would have been nice to know that particular tidbit of info while I was actually watching the movie instead of after the fact, even though you can still get the gist of everything that’s going on without it. But hey, at least it forced me to learn something, so I can’t complain too much.



So, overall, The Shadow is a lovely short. It’s well acted, very eerie and atmospheric, and it does a great job of building up tension. It does have a couple of cultural hurdles to get through if you’re not Muslim or not familiar enough with their customs, but those possible hurdles don’t really interfere with the overall plot, so not understanding them isn’t a deal breaker. So if you’re looking for something creepy to watch that isn’t going to be too bloody or scary, and you’ve only got about 15 minutes to kill, then feel free to give The Shadow a watch.

The Shadow is available to stream on Netflix.

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