Jinn (2014)

Director : Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad.
Starring : Ray Park, Serinda Swan, Dominic Rains, William Atherton, Faran Tahi. USA. 1h 39m

I made a tragic mistake of leaving this for a “good time movie afternoon” and then I totally ignored all the warnings.. Because at the end of the day I can only really rely on my own opinion and that’s why I end up watching a lot of shit movies.
This film claims to introduce Jinn to western cinema, so fuck Wishmaster, Long Time Dead (2002), Red Sands (2009) and Djinn (2014) among other films hey..

So this horror starts as a fantasy, a long man preps and goes to war with the Jinn after someone who isn’t John Hurt does the One Ring to Bind them intro.

In the Beginning, Three were Created…
Man made of Clay.
Angels made of Light.
And a Third…made of Fire.

So after this history lesson the movie struggles to detail the life of Shawn (Dominic Rains), and his dorky wife who receives a bizarre video from his real father telling him he’s about to embark on a dangerous journey and to trust in something and be brave or some shit, then eventually after meeting up with a priest and some dude called Gabriel his visits his parents, who second what the priest says so he goes back to him then prepares to fight the Jinn.

Most of the time this film is a uneasy and incoherent flashy trailer for itself, when it’s not being tediously boring with shoddy acting, poor dialogue and scares that are signposted a mile off, it’s a combination of strange starry eyed slow motion sparkly fight scenes.
The strangest aspect of this film is that the cast can act, Rains was spectacular in A Girl who walks home alone at night, Park is a great fighter but could have come into his own here, but failed miserable, and Atherton seemed really tired and not bothered. Overall the film is clunky and non engaging it seems to start about 15 times, and fumbles over it’s own plot again and again.

Not really knowing if it wants to be an action movie or a horror, the switching between the two stages doesn’t help the plot that fails to get off the ground. I really wanted to like this movie, but I don’t think the lack of love here is due to over hyping it up. Maybe a sequel will bring better things but apart from one over the top slow mo fighting scene with more glowing lights than Manumission it’s really boring.

Rating 2/10

R –  Wishmaster (1997), Long Time Dead (2002), Red Sands (2009) and Djinn (2014)
L – Jinn Movies, Mythological films
A – Substance over Style?
5s – Ray Park, William Atherton
Vs – Jinn vs Djinn
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