Director Tobe Hooper can easily be called the Orson Welles of the Horror genre. He terrified everyone with Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974 and has yet to achieve that level of success since. Though, Lifeforce is a pretty sweet movie.
Well, Hooper’s latest project, a supernatural horror called Djinn has found it’s lead actors. Khalid Laith (The Devil’s Double) and Arab actress Razane Jammai (Carlos) will star in the film currently filming in the United Arab Emirates.
Written by David Tully, Djinn is the story about a young Emirati couple who return from the U.S. to discover that their new home is an apartment in a luxury high-rise which happens to have been built on the site of an abandoned fishing village. It was also the home to the malevolent beings known as djinn.
Mentioned frequently in the the Qur-an, the Djinn are said to be made of smokeless flame or “the fire of a scorching wind” and like humans, they can be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent.
Call this the Arabian version of Poltergeist, which he co-directed with Steven Spielberg.
Shooting begins this week and is scheduled for locations including Dubai and other locations throughout the UAE.
Known supporting actors include Aiysha Hart, Carole Abboud, Paul Luebke and May El Calamawy.
Hooper’s films have been very hit or miss over the years however, despite retreading old territory here, this seems like it has the potential to be a very entertaining and terrifying horror film.
What is your favorite Tobe Hooper film?
