Panic Fest 2021: THE DJINN Review–A Boy and His Djinn
The Djinn stars Ezra Dewey and Rob Brownstein
Written by David Charbonier, Justin Powell
Directed by David Charbonier and Justin Powell
What’s done cannot be undone. From W.W. Jacob’s The Monkey’s Paw and campfire tales dating even further back, it’s long been established, colloquially speaking, to be careful what you wish for. Far too often, those wishes are perverted and twisted by the ghoulish hands of fate, or in the case of David Charbonier and Justin Powell’s The Djinn, something even more sinister.
Ezra Dewey stars as Dylan, a mute twelve-year-old who has just moved with his father, Michael (Rob Brownstein) to a sequestered duplex following the death of his mother. On a quiet summer night in 1989, with dad away to work the graveyard DJ shift, Dylan stumbles across an old grimoire, and after replicating the instructions to make one’s heart’s deepest desire come true, inadvertently (though not really, since it’s made explicit in the book’s content) summons a Djinn, an ancient spirit, sometimes benevolent, sometimes malicious.
Dylan and his father collectively, in the early goings, are mining the well for the worst horror movie decisions ever. For starters, they move into a quiet– too quiet– neighborhood with few, if any, neighbors around. Moreover, it’s the site of another man’s death, and while it bears no considerable impact on the plot, it’s enough to give most horror fans pause– it is never wise to move into a dead man’s house. Then dad leaves his mute, adolescent son alone overnight, on the first night, in their new abode. Dylan, too– not heeding the sage advice of Sam Raimi– reads from the book and summons his nocturnal tormenter.
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Fortunately, The Djinn is thoroughly terrifying, a stripped-down, almost deliberately sparse cat-and-mouse pursuit. Constricted to a single location and featuring little dialogue beyond dad’s non-diegetic, Brothers Grimm voiceover narration, it’s simply a boy and his evil Djinn, a nightlong fight for survival. Dylan, despite his lack of foresight in inciting the entire ordeal, is more than capable of defending himself, making quick use of domestic tools, utilizing toilet tanks, bug spray, and trimming scissors as weapons to ward off the titular Djinn’s attacks. Dylan is wiser than most adolescents, but not so much it strains credulity. Kevin McCallister this is not.
David Charbonier and Justin Powell make fantastic use of their limited space (and budget). They exhibit the kind of skill and prowess that’s almost certainly going to be poached. And then squandered, by a larger studio. The eighties setting and synth music prove as engaging window-dressing. They suggest a larger world and higher stakes beyond Dylan’s two-bedroom apartment.
Where The Djinn stumbles, however, is in its repetition. Though understandably limited in resources, there are only so many quick escapes an audience can endure. Too often, particularly in its middle half, The Djinn settles into a formula. Dylan creeps around his apartment and encounters the Djinn. He narrowly escapes before locking himself in another room to decompress and reevaluate. The directors stage these scenes well. But informed a bit too much by the Djinn’s of horror past. When pinned by the demon, the knife is just out of reach. And the supposedly dead demon is, as always, not quite dead. Several of the jolts are effective. But they’re borrowed templates. The kinds of scares audiences have seen too many times before.
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Familiarity, though, doesn’t always detract, and The Djinn generates enough goodwill with an engaging central performance from Dewey. Plus a nimble-witted use of limited resources to stand out. A contemporary campfire tale, The Djinn, I suspect, will generate considerable word-of-mouth after IFC Midnight releases it next month. Though the scares are ephemeral– there’s little in the way of truly haunting material packed within its scant 80-minute runtime– it’s enough fun. And scary enough, while it lasts. The Djinn is a remarkable movie monster. So close your curtains, turn down the lights, and lock yourself in with The Djinn.
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THE DJINN
Summary
The Djinn is a modern, stripped-down fable with ample scares and a terrifying central monster.
