Desperate to put the traumatic loss of their infant child behind them, newlywed couple Khalid and Salama return to their home in the United Arab Emirates. Unknown to the couple, their new luxury apartment block, Al Hamra, was built on the site of an old abandoned fishing village of the same name. Legend has it the village was abandoned after malevolent beings haunted its inhabitants. Unsettled by her new surroundings and the eerie hallways of Al Hamra, Khalid worries his wife is failing to battle her personal demons – but could it be something far more sinister?
Production
Al Hamra tower: a gleaming prison where wealth meets ancestral sin.
Direction
Hooper's last bow—polished but missing his Texas Chain Saw chaos.
Director
Tobe Hooper
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tobe Hooper died in 2017; this was his final theatrical feature. The film was shot in 2011 but shelved until 2013, reportedly due to disputes over the UAE setting and religious sensitivity.
The djinn in Islamic tradition are sentient beings of smokeless fire, neither purely good nor evil—capable of salvation. The film flattens this into standard demon horror, a choice some Muslim critics found reductive.
AE
