The Iranian answer to The Devil’s Backbone we didn’t know we needed, Under the Shadow is a trim and lyrical ghost story that takes place amid the sociopolitical turmoil of 1980s post-revolution Tehran and its cues from Guillermo del Toro’s minor Spanish Civil War-era masterpiece, with perhaps a glance at Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook for reference. It certainly takes the same economical approach to plot as those movies, following a mother and daughter as they fight a spiritual war on two fronts: the realities of a country in distress on one side, and a supernatural entity on the other. Representing the former is the undetonated missile that crashes into Shideh’s (Narges Rashidi) apartment complex, the significance of which will not be lost on del Toro fans: this is the harsh reality of the world to whose presence some will adapt and others will live in fear. Less blatant, but no less insidious, is the spirit that invades Shideh’s home and tempts her daughter Dorsa (Avin Mashadi), intent on punishing them both for a crime out of their control.
There’s an elegant simplicity to the way Under the Shadow sets up the parallels between these two setpieces, and a gratifying lack of pretension or melodrama in the way they affect the dynamics of Shideh’s home. This is a quiet movie on the whole, given more to introspection than boo-gotcha Conjuring-style horror, but the movie strikes a chord in the way it portrays Shideh and Dorsa’s situation proximal to the Tehranian state of affairs, not to mention to today’s discord in the Middle East, transcending the need for those sorts of scares. There’s plenty scary about Under the Shadow even without the increasingly violent actions of the ghost. This a movie of trauma and repression, of constant anxiety and frequent panic that functions as a snapshot of real-life, on-going horror filtered through the the universal metaphor of the ghost. It makes it easier to process, but the movie never pretends the damage is reversible. When you live Under the Shadow, even the light you make for yourself isn't always enough.
-Brian L.
Archival details
- Original URL
- https://metallifestyle.weebly.com/curtains-movie--tv-reviews/31-nights-of-horror-night-sixteen-under-the-shadow
- Recovery source
- live-weebly
- Recovery date
- 2026-07-22
- Stewardship polish
- 2026-07-22
- Preservation status
- restored
- Missing assets
- None recorded
Preserved by Bloodsoaked Media · The Archives