THE DJINN (2021)

‘Djinn,’ an Mid-East Spirit (think ‘Genie’) whose favors come at a terrible price, lends a mystical aura to this low-budget fright pic.  Here, our favor seeker is a one-parent mute kid whose dad leaves him overnight in a new home haunted by his own feverish dreams.  Written & directed by David Charbonier & Justin Powell, the film is half chamber horror/half art house Home Alone . . . and all hooey.  Attempting Old-School chills thru shock edits, snake-like tracking shots and carefully framed ‘reveals’ for our scared-out-of-his-wits/yet resourceful boy who first wanders, then runs from evil ecotoplasmic terrors; the film eventually succumbs to various CGI-laden effects once the monsters and his deceased mother appear.  And the boy always has a backup defense weapon just in reach.  Soon enough, it all feels like a cheat . . . or a film school project.  A book of ancient spells conveniently left over from the home’s previous owner?  Knowing where the fuse box is in a brand new home?  Heck, knowing how to use a fuse box.  Might as well discover an AR-47 automatic rifle hidden under the bed.  With the audience not trusted to work things out for itself, we suffocate under insistent voice-of-authority narration to fill us in.  Maybe Charbonier & Powell show up at screenings to hand out footnotes.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: Classic Old-School Hollywood chills (mild, but honest) for another mute victim in jeopardy on THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE/’45.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/03/spiral-staircase-1945.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: The DVD has three or four IFC Midnight trailers, all indistinguishable from each other, right down to their bump-in-the-night music cues.  Who finances these things?  Who watches them?