Jinn Netflix Review: Jordan's Arabic-Language Horror Series (2019)

Jinn Netflix review: what the series is and how it plays

Readers who search for Turkish horror movies on Netflix often end up at Jinn, so one fact first: the series is Jordanian, shot in Arabic, and has no connection to Turkish cinema. What the two share is a subject. Jinn, spirits of smokeless fire in Islamic tradition, are a staple of horror across the Middle East and Turkey, and Netflix has carried stories about them from both regions.

Jinn was created by Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya, Elan Dassani and Rajeev Dassani, and produced by Kabreet Productions and Master Key Productions. According to Wikipedia, principal photography began on August 13, 2018, in Amman, with additional filming in Petra and Wadi Rum. The season runs to five episodes of 25 to 47 minutes each, which makes it a quick watch, an evening or two at most.

The central supernatural figure is a jinn called Keras, played by Hamzeh Okab according to Wikipedia's cast list, and the story follows the human characters who cross his path. The cast includes Salma Malhas, Sultan Alkhail, Aysha Shahaltough, Zaid Zoubi, Ban Halaweh, Yasser Al Hadi, Mohammad Nizar and Mohammad Hindieh, among others.

Rough Cut Review's take on the series is negative, and it comes from a reviewer who had been looking forward to it: a horror series with Arab representation in front of and behind the camera, in a genre the reviewer loves in both film and literature. The reasons for the disappointment were specific, and they are worth walking through.

The cast was the best part

The review opens with praise before the criticism, and the praise is sincere. The performers, it says, captured the emotion and dialogue of the region convincingly, and it describes watching them as feeling like being back in the Middle East. It also makes the point that actors in the region receive far less international attention than musical stars, and treats the show as a chance for them to be seen.

That distinction matters for how to read the rest of the verdict. The review never blames the actors. Its complaints are aimed at the script, the pacing and the production decisions made around them.

Suspense never builds

The first criticism is that the plot has no real suspense. The reviewer waited through each episode for a moment that would unsettle or scare, and it never came. The characters are not saintly students or model citizens, but the series gives the audience little reason to care about them, so their deaths register as footnotes instead of losses.

Horror depends on attachment. A viewer who has not formed a bond with a character feels nothing when that character is threatened, and the review argues that Jinn skips the groundwork.

Too much Petra, too little story

The second criticism concerns how the series was made. By the reviewer's estimate, roughly 40 percent of the shots are B-roll of Petra. The reviewer, who studied archaeological sites in graduate school, loves the place, but says that a horror series is not the place for a travelogue. With only five episodes, each filling a short slot, the reviewer reads that much landscape footage as a sign that the script was not developed enough to fill the time.

The camera work gets credit. The shots are described as top-notch and beautifully filmed. The point is that every scene needs a reason to exist, and a lovely view of the site does not supply one. The visual effects draw fire too: a twisting stream of water from a faucet signals the jinn's arrival, and the review asks, not entirely seriously, whether jinn only appear when someone is in the bathroom.

The recommended fix is modest. If the budget does not stretch to effects, the review says, build dread with music, dialogue and lighting instead, and it points to Alfred Hitchcock as proof that a modest budget can still frighten a generation of viewers.

Too many characters for five episodes

The third criticism is that the story has too many characters for such a short run. The central idea, the review concedes, is not bad. The problem is execution: a smaller group developed in depth would give each character a purpose and an internal and external conflict, and would earn the payoffs that horror fans press play hoping to see.

Jinn at a glance

Wikipedia lists a single season and does not record a renewal.

The controversy in Jordan and how Jinn was received

Jinn drew attention at home for reasons that had nothing to do with its horror. Wikipedia reports that critics in Jordan objected to scenes they saw as moral degradation, including two in which Malhas's character kisses two different men, and to the coarse language. Some government agencies threatened censorship, and Jordan's top prosecutor reportedly asked the Ministry of Interior to stop the broadcast.

The review addressed this in a postscript, calling the objections out of proportion for what it described as a barely PG-13 production, and arguing that artists should be left alone. That is the review's stance on the politics, and the criticism of the show's craft stands apart from it.

Critical reception outside Jordan was mixed. Wikipedia quotes Middle East Eye calling the series badly scripted, poorly acted and sloppily directed, and Thrillist describing it as generic, unrealistic and confusing. It also lists an 83 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes from six reviews, with positive notices praising its consistency, intrigue and novelty. A small sample like that says little, and it sits alongside harsher notices without settling the argument.

Turkish horror movies on Netflix: where to look next

For readers who arrived hunting for Turkish horror movies on Netflix, the best-known title is Dabbe: The Possession, a 2013 film that appears in Netflix's own catalog listing as a Turkish horror film. Netflix's description says that shortly before her wedding, a woman named Kübra is taken over by demonic forces, and that after medical tests turn up something worse, a psychiatrist friend attempts an exorcism. The cast listed includes Cansu Kurgun, Irmak Örnek and A. Murat Özgen.

The film also sits in a franchise, and its sequel, D@bbe: Zehr-i Cin (2014), carries the Turkish word for jinn, cin, in its title. That shared subject is the link to Jinn: both put a spirit and the people it afflicts at the center, though one is a feature-length film and the other an episodic series.

Availability is the catch. Netflix catalogs differ by country, and the Dabbe: The Possession page itself reported that the title was not available in the viewer's country when checked for this page. Netflix tags the film under Turkish Horror Films, and browsing that category in your own account is the reliable way to see what is streaming in your region on a given week.

Dabbe: The Possession, as Netflix describes it, builds its story around one woman and the people closest to her. That is the opposite of the sprawl the review criticized in Jinn, and it makes the film a useful comparison for anyone weighing how much a horror story gains from a smaller cast.

Jinn verdict: a promising idea in a rushed package

The verdict from Rough Cut Review is that Jinn is a rushed production that leans on basic horror conventions to get something out the door. The reviewer closes by hoping it is not simply a cash grab, and by wishing more productions would bring in writers and artists from across the globe, Arab or not, to make stories that audiences of different cultures can enjoy together.

For viewers with an interest in Arabic-language genre television, it remains a curiosity: a Jordanian production with a cast that earned praise even from its harshest critic. For viewers who want a real scare, the review suggests looking elsewhere, and the Turkish possession films above are one place to start.

A fair way to approach it is as a short, handsome, uneven first attempt. Five episodes are not a heavy commitment, and the Petra photography is striking. Just expect a travelogue with a ghost, and do not expect to be frightened.

Sources

• Jinn (TV series), Wikipedia — premiere, creators, cast, filming, controversy and reception
• Dabbe: The Possession, Netflix — the Turkish horror film's Netflix listing and synopsis