Rating: B-
Dir: Alper Mestçi
Star: Mirza Metin, Yasemin Kurttekin, Sebahat Adalar, Merve Ates
The fourth entry drops any subtitle, and also takes a slightly different approach. There’s no direct concept of a “curse” here; the lesson to be learned here is simply not meddling in occult practices. The Yilmaz family are almost entirely innocent victims here. The business belonging to its father Halil (Metin) is struggling, forcing them to move into his mother’s house. [Can’t say I’m surprised by its problems, since we never see him doing any actual work at it] His mother became bedridden and almost catatonic after the death of his father, who is buried in the backyard because that is apparently a thing in Turkey. Her needs are tended to by housekeeper Rahime (Adalar).
Meanwhile, son Omer hardly speaks either, after a traumatic incident, while daughter Hilal (Ates) keeps a diary, recording the increasingly unsettling events. Interestingly, Ates also played a role in the first franchise entry, though her character here is a different one. I’m wondering if Mestçi is going for an American Horror Story troupe, or if there are just a limited number of candidates. Other elements here feel almost Fulci-esque, such as the mysteriously locked boiler-room, or the charms and wards Omer finds behind an electrical socket. For it turns out, the house had become a gateway, through which otherworldly creatures can pass. Rahime knows rather more about the situation than she’s initially willing to admit, waving away the charms with, “I know what they are. I’ll tell you later.” I’d have been, “No. Now…”, but that’s just me apparently.
Turns out Omer is particularly susceptible to these entities: “Some little children have their doors open. They can hear darkness and the other realm without any effort. Yet the danger is, they are weak in that realm of darkness.” Though we have already discovered, everyone in the family starts having their own, very realistic and convincing nightmares, in which Grandpa returns from the his grave in the garden, for example. These give Mestçi the opportunity for his beloved jump scares, which remain fun, even if the audience does realize quite quickly that what’s happening is very likely the stuff of dreams. They’re unquestionably well-executed, and the effects here are effective in generating a sense of rotting decay, pushing its way into our world.
Things get more complicated after Halil discovers that the spirits are capable of imitating perfectly the inhabitants of the house, though like Omer’s sensitivity, this is an angle which doesn’t receive the exploration it deserves. The ending feels a little confusing and stretched credibility somewhat too, with Halil suddenly turning into Father Merrin and carrying out an exorcism. I dunno, maybe that business of his was countering demonic possessions? Turns out all you need to do to vanquish evil is yell faith-based epithets at the ifrits, along the line of “Nothing will happen but God’s will!”, which leaves the spirits feeling kinda weedy in the final analysis. But up until that point, this has been another creepy and worthwhile entry in the series.