Onesummer evening, three childhood friends invoke the spirit of Kandisha, a vengeful creature from a Moroccan legend. The game quickly turns into a nightmare when their loved ones begin to disappear.
Mathilde La Musse Samarcande Saadi Suzy Bemba Nassim Lyes Walid Afkir Sandor Funtek Bakary Diombera Flix Glaux-Delporto Dylan Krief Mriem Sarolie Mariam Doumbia Brahim Hadrami Ayekoro Kossou Frdric Nyssen Ondine Stenuit Maria Jos Cazares Godoy Brahim Takioullah Lotfi Yahya Jedidi Delphine Clairice Erico Salamone
For me, Kandisha is a slept-on, underseen, and underappreciated gem. While I don't think that it achieves "greatness," I do think that it possesses some key ingredients for a thoroughly enjoyable horror flick, including:
Essentially a Candyman ripoff from Inside directors Maury and Bustillo. The film focuses on a group of teens that unleash Kandisha - a demon of Moroccan folklore who once summoned needs to kill six men to satisfy her bloodlust. Apparently this story is an actual part of Moroccan folklore, so that's interesting. Rather less interesting are the characters. The first half of the film is littered with banal empty dialogue that mostly doesn't really serve any purpose. The demon itself is definitely the highlight when on screen - a tall topless woman with goat hooves. It gets quite gory in places too, though nothing to rival the brutality of Inside. The runtime is short and the film is fast paced, which is good....but it doesn't add anything new and I preferred Candyman to be honest.
I think I just need to get past the fact that the duo who directed Inside, my favorite horror movie of the 21st century, aren't going to hit that height again. Even in the middle of watching Kandisha I had to readjust my thinking to compare it to other current independent horror films (in which it succeeds) instead of comparing it to Inside (in which it fails).
The story is basically La Llorona meets Candyman. It's fine. The third act gets kinda awesome but also makes you wonder where was this the whole movie. The digital effects are too much. I mean they used digital fx in Inside too, but those were more flashes. This is like long shots of it and it sticks out
Kandisha, is a movie about a bunch of who friends invoke the spirit of Kandisha, a vengeful creature from a Moroccan legend. The game quickly turns into a nightmare when their loved ones begin to disappear.
Above is the summary that is officially given online about this movie but in reality it's a ton of horseshit. The summary is "a girl invokes the spirit of Kandisha moments after she reaches home surviving a sexual assault from her ex boyfriend and literally everyone that knows her has to pay with their life for this shit".
kandisha is a sloppy copy of a classic idea with a hit of moroccan heritage infused into a film that takes forever to get past its setup phase. The first half is largely spent watching a bunch of wannabe gangster kids generally messing around and graffiti'ing up the streets.
A young woman irresponsibly summons a demon after being attacked by her ex boyfriend. Based on Moroccan mythology, this vengeful hoofed demoness has to kill 6 men that the summoner has a bond with. Only way to stop it is if the summoner sacrifices herself...
This has some plotholes for sure but the surprisingly gnarly practical effects, short runtime(84 mins), brutal deaths, and the Moroccan folklore made this an enjoyable for me. The demon, Aicha Kandisha looked menacing in each of her forms. Solid Shudder exclusive imho.
The things I liked about it: fun snapshot of teen life in a diverse french culture. An "exorcism/Possession" movie that wasnt christian based but involving an Islamic demon. Also, the gore, when it was there, was used to great effect. The demon, Kandisha, was kinda cool.
Not so strong: performances weren't the best, these three young women were literally having the men in their life ripped apart and they were kinda in teen denial. It was often predictable at times. And did they really need to do the bunny like that??
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