Jinn (film)

Jinn
Directed by Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad
Produced by Benjamin Dresser
Written by Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad
Starring Ray Park
Serinda Swan
Dominic Rains
William Atherton
Faran Tahir
Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad
Music by Noah Sorota
Cinematography Robert Mehnert
Edited by Justin Hynous
Production
company
Exxodus Pictures
Distributed by Freestyle Releasing
Release date
  • April 4, 2014 (2014-04-04)
Running time
 97 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Urdu
Arabic

Jinn is a 2014 American action-horror-thriller film written and directed by Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad, starring Ray Park, Serinda Swan, Dominic Rains, William Atherton and Faran Tahir.

Synopsis

According to Dread Central, the producers claim the film will "introduce the accurate mythological concept of the jinn to Western audiences".

In the Beginning, Three were Created...

Man made of Clay.

Angels made of Light.

And a Third...made of Fire.

From the beginning, stories of angels and men have captured our imaginations and have been etched into our history crossing all boundaries of culture, religion, and time. These two races have dominated the landscape of modern mythology for countless centuries, almost washing away the evidence that a third ever existed. This third race, born of smokeless fire, was called the jinn. Similar to humans in many ways, the jinn live invisibly among us and only under dire or unusual circumstances do our paths ever cross.

As humans became the dominant force on Earth, contact between man and jinn steadily decreased.

Modern man has all but forgotten the jinn.[1]

Plot

In 1901, a man enters a forest where he encounters an abandon shack with a jinn sitting and waiting on the man. He starts to recite a prayer and the jinn attacks him. The man, Jehamgir Amin, tries to grab the bottle of holy water but drops it and the jinn pulls him into the hole. The man climbs out and as the jinn again attacks him he throws the holy water on it and it retreats. The jinn swears vengeance and curses the man's family down through the generations. The man and the jinn charge at each other and the screen goes to black.

A 113 years later, Shawn and Jasmine are a happy couple living in California. Shawn gets a delivery, an early birthday present of a note and VHS tape. While receiving the tape he looks over to his neighbor's apartment and sees a figure staring out of the window waving at them. Later in the day Shawn tells his wife about how excited he was to design his own car and how his boss was giving him a raise. He tells her that he thinks they're ready to have their first child, but Jasmine tells him that it's impossible for her to have children. Sad over the realization, Shawn leaves to think about it.

Shawn is parked in a parking lot, and trying to decide on whether to say something to Jasmine or not. As he's thinking, he hears sounds and thinks someone is outside. He hears something call his name and tries to call Jasmine but she doesn't answer, so he rushes home. When he gets home he finds his furniture all stacked on top of each other and his wife missing, so he calls the police. As he talks to the police, Jasmine arrives to his relief.

When odd things begin happening at home, there is a mysterious phone call directing Shawn and Jasmine to a cathedral in town, where they meet Father Westhoff and Gabriel, who reveal the issue of jinn. Shawn doesn't believe this and he and Jasmine get ready to leave, but are prompted by Father Westhoff to visit Shawn's adoptive parents. They go to see Shawn's parents, and are surprised to have Father Westhoff's story corroborated. As they are leaving, they are attacked by an unseen force which takes Jasmine. With Gabriel as backup, together they set off to gather information from Ali, Shawn's estranged uncle. He shows him that his wife is pregnant. As they leave, Ali, senses that the jinn have been spying on them and are there to attack him, he warns them to leave. As they are running, Gabe sacrifices himself so that Shawn can live to fulfil his destiny. It is revealed that Gabriel is a jinn, but dies in his fight with the rest of the jinn.

Now relying solely on Father Westhoff for help, Shawn finds out the reason the jinn are after him, so Father Westhoff sends him on a quest to learn how to defeat the jinn. Shawn manages to draw the jinn back to his apartment for their final battle. Surviving, he must now confront the primary jinn from his great-grandfather's clash over 100 years ago. Ali is with him, having passed his own test and leaving the asylum. The two of them fight valiantly but it appears the jinn is only toying with them. Shawn manages to get the last piece of the spirit quest in place and defeats the jinn. Jinns from different dimensions come and ask Shawn for peace but Shawn wants them to leave him alone. He kills one of them as a warning to the others. Still frantic for his wife, Father Westhoff is able to show him Jasmine safe and sound in the church along with the once-dead Gabriel.

A year later, Shawn, Jasmine, and Ali are at the apartment with their new baby boy. As all of them are sitting in the dining room, the baby drops his pacifier. Ali and Shawn both bend down to pick it up, but it moves without being touched from the floor to the baby's mouth. They look at each other knowing that their son has the power to defeat the jinn.

Cast

Production

Development

A car known as the Firebreather was created for the film. The car was unveiled to the public at the Autorama in Detroit on February 26, 2010.[2] Designed by Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad, the Firebreather is based on the fifth generation Chevrolet Camaro made to resemble the second generation Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.[3]

Filming

Shooting began in March 2010, and wrapped in May. Some of the shooting for the film occurred at the University of Michigan Law Quad.[4] The film was released on April 4, 2014.[5]

Reception

Jinn was widely panned by critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 10% based on ten reviews.[6] The film also has a Metacritic score of 24 out of 100, based on five reviews.[7]

Joe Leydon of Variety commented on his review that "This ponderously paced, needlessly convoluted and altogether unexceptional thriller will be fortunate to reach beyond a thin sliver of undiscriminating genre fans with its bogus mythos about ancient evil spirits bent on world domination."[8] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote on his review that "despite the exoticism of its mythology, Jinn proves itself a typically formulaic B-movie exercise that will have little resonance for those unfamiliar with its inspiration."[9] Peter Keough of The Boston Globe wrote: "With its awful acting, terrible dialogue, and laughable special effects, Jinn strains for the hapless genius of Ed Wood, but ends up just another bad movie."[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Ray Park Trades in Dual Lightsaber to Take On a Jinn". Dreadcentral.com. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
  2. ↑ "Ray Park to Breathe Fire in Jinn; Meet Him This Friday in Michigan". Dreadcentral.com. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
  3. ↑ "Firebreather Camaro made for the movie jinn". Chrisescars.com. 2010-03-05. Archived from the original on 2010-12-09. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
  4. ↑ "Movie "Jinn" shoots on U-M campus". Annarbor.com. 2010-04-01. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
  5. ↑ "Jinn (2014)". imdb.com.
  6. ↑ "Jinn". Rotten Tomatoes/Flixster. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  7. ↑ "Jinn Reviews". Metacritic/CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  8. ↑ Leydon, Joe (2014-04-07). "Jinn Review". Variety. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  9. ↑ Scheck, Frank (2014-04-04). "Jinn: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  10. ↑ Keough, Peter (2014-04-07). "Jinn better as though-unintended horror parody". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
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