Semum

Plot

Twenty-seven-year-old Canan (Ayça İnci) and her husband Volkan (Burak Hakkı) have just moved into a large, new house. Life seems to continue on its routine track in the young couple's new house until one day, when Canan starts feeling that strange things are happening to her although she cannot understand what or why. Canan gradually starts turning into an evil creature as a mysterious and malicious being takes control of her body and actions day after day. Semum, the most loyal servant of the devil, has taken control of Canan, leading her toward hell.

Cast

Production

Talking about the film in Today's Zaman the director argues that, "he tried to create a model of a Turco-Islamic horror film and that he would make the world recognize this model, of which he sees Semum as the first example. Semum will be compared with The Exorcist and star Ayça İnci will be compared with Linda Blair, the director told Today's Zaman, noting that the Turkish horror films made so far have been far from satisfactory.

Filming

The film was shot on location in Istanbul, Turkey.

Release

The film opened in 142 screens across Turkey on February 8, 2008 (2008-02-08) at number 1 in the box office chart with an opening weekend gross of $441,665.

Box office

The film was the thirteenth highest grossing Turkish film of 2008 with a total gross of $1,827,047.

Reviews

Todd Brown, writing for Twitch Film, notes that this film, like the director's previous hit Dabbe, once again draws on Islamic mythology and demons as its inspiration, but that, he had a better budget to work with this time and the cinematography is a good bit better while also indulging Turkey's traditional campy edge. Cinematography and design work is dead solid and I do believe I detect notes of both Death Note and Constantine in the demon and hell effects, he adds.

AnthroFred, writing for Slasherpool, wrote, Forgettable Exorcist rip-off which didn't do much for me. It's an okay movie but it's a bit too long and a bit too unoriginal for my taste. It's refreshing to see something different from Turkey though but I just wish that they would stop recycling others scripts and come up with some ideas of their own instead. Worth a watch if you're a fan of The Exorcist.