One of the great things about the horror genre today is the sheer range and variety of different voices and perspectives that we are exposed to. Of course, a lot of that is happening within English language features – films such as Get Out and His House are prime examples of this. However it cannot be overstated how fantastic it is that we are also able to see so many genre films from across the globe. Sure, if you go back 20 years or so, Asian horror was finding a Western audience and after this we had a wave of French movies too (High Tension, Frontiers, Inside, Martyrs). However things have opened up even more in the last decade or so. We have genre features from Austria (Goodnight Mommy), Iran (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), Argentina (Terrified) and Turkey (AV: The Hunt) to name a few. But you know what continent we don't really have any horror films from? Africa. There are obvious socio-economic reasons for this and there are a couple of exceptions - the South African horror movie 8 was released on Netflix last year. However, there's still good reason to get excited when a Tunisian horror film gets a Shudder release.

Dachra, which received its UK premiere during Frightfest 2019 (ahh those were the days), tells the story of trio of squabbling journalism students who decide to investigate a local tale of a woman locked up in an asylum who is suspected of being a witch by the staff at the facility. Found 20 years ago at the side of the road, this woman (named Mongia) was at death's door but somehow survived her injuries. Although sceptical, their visit is a rather unsettling one but they still decide to head out to locate the place where Mongia was supposedly attacked. They find the spot she was found and head off on foot into the woods and soon stumble across a run-down, grimy compound where the shawled women are silent and creepy kids lurk around every corner. They are invited to stay by the only person that appears to talk in this community, an effusively friendly chap called Saber. As the light fades, they agree to stay the night in an abandoned house inside the tiny village. The students are on edge and unnerved by the situation they now find themselves in. And they have every right to be too...

At nearly two hours long, Dachra is undoubtedly a bit of a bloated feature. It's a slow burn too, with most of the action taking place in a rather frantic final few minutes. However, for the most part it does a solid job in building a rather uniquely oppressive atmosphere throughout most of its running time. First time Director Abdelhamid Bouchnak gives the film a dreary washed out look and although he's guilty of some distractingly (and purposefully) off-kilter framing, the film manages to conjure up some really grisly and macabre imagery. It also handles the mystery elements of its story very well too. We're given enough information to know (and fear) what is going on but not enough to ruin the (rather grim) conclusion. Yes there is a rather obvious plot twist (which I will discuss later) that is a bit too obvious but for the most part it is not the structure or plot itself where Dachra struggles. The film is compared to The Blair Witch Project for obvious reasons but although the central trio in Blair Witch bitched and argued nearly as much as the three here, they weren't anywhere near as infuriatingly stupid. If you can make peace with protagonists who make dumb decision after dumb decision, then you'll probably enjoy this a lot more.