The joy of being a horror fan comes with endless opportunities to find new scary movies. The Middle East has produced an array of diverse and expansive films. Since 1945's The Ambassador of Hell, directed by Youssef Wahby, there have been countless brilliant horror movies from countries in the Middle East, and despite their frighteningly excellent contributions to the film industry, the Middle Eastern horror genre is sadly underappreciated.
Update September 1, 2023: This article has been updated with even more great Middle East horror films that are worth checking out.
Due to the region's complex history, several Middle Eastern movies reflect on some sociopolitical traumas like threats of war or dictatorship, and many filmmakers use scary movies to explore the fears and struggles that may haunt them. It appears to be working because we are terrified by these fantastic movies, so here are some of the best Middle Eastern horror films ever made.
12 A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
It's hard to think of anything more captivating than a vampire story that's Iranian, black and white, and a feminist twist on the typical vampire sub-genre. With no blood or gore, Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a vampire movie with universal appeal that has been described as a masterpiece in all the cinematic categories. "The Girl," a vampire who attacks abusive men who take advantage of women. creates an eerie mood that didn't necessitate all the vampire action, blood, and guts we're used to seeing.
The intense and quiet moments of dread, with the blend of seductive beauty and creeping terror hypnotizes viewers and gives us goosebumps just as much as the traditional bloody vampires do. This is not only one of the best horror movies from a country in the Middle East, but one of the most original of all time. Ana Lily Amirpour's debut led her to Hollywood, where the Iranian filmmaker will be making the anticipated Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon.
11 Djinn
The 2013 supernatual horror movie Djinn is not technically a Middle-Eastern movie, but it is set in the UAE. Directed by Tobe Hooper, the movie tells us the story of a young married couple who moves back to their home country and into a new apartment building after losing their infant child. But things start to head into a terrifying direction when the couple starts to experience unnerving occurrences. It is revealed that the building that they live in was built on top of an abandoned village whose inhabitants were haunted by the same malevolent spirits that are now haunting the couple. Filled with some great jump scares, this movie earns its place in the great Arabic supernatural horror movie list.
10 Big Bad Wolves
Directors Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales brought an Israeli terror to our screens, with Big Bad Wolves. The story follows a grieving father of a murder victim and a cop, who capture and torture a teacher who they believe was involved in a series of brutal killings, including that of a little girl. Big Bad Wolves was extremely effective in combining horrific gruesomeness with droll, darkly humorous moments. With a brilliant performance from Lior Ashkenazi (the cop), the film grips the audience by creating laughter and nerves simultaneously, and elicits shamefaced but magnetic interest. By employing tense dialogue and action scenes, it earned Quentin Tarantino's approving opinion, when he called it the best movie of 2013.
9 Warda
An Egyptian found-footage horror movie Warda is especially bone chilling because of its realistic nature. The movie tells us about a video blogger, who goes to his old hometown to capture and investigate the paranormal happenings that his family are experiencing. Close in nature to the famous Paranormal Activities movies, Warda is really enjoyable if you enjoy found-footage supernatural horror movies.
8 Baskin
The Salt Company
In what is one of the most disturbing Middle Eastern horror movies, the Turkish movie Baskin, directed by Can Evrenol, disorientates and terrifies its viewers with a sadistic and twisted narrative. Following a group of policemen as they unwillingly find themselves in Hell, the audience witnesses them get punished for their sins in the most gory and disturbing ways, with an intentionally disorientating plot, allowing the audience to get lost with the characters. The sequence of horrific events gives the film an overwhelmingly sinister atmosphere, and for those who don't mind having crazy nightmares, Baskin is a perfect gory horror.
7 The Blue Elephant
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The Blue Elephant is an Egyptian movie that is a mix of psychological horror, mystery, and thriller genres. It tells us the story of a tortured psychiatrist Dr. Yehia Rashed, who drowns himself in alcohol, drugs, and gambling. When he finally returns to work five years later, he is assigned to a place where the patients are not only mentally ill but also criminals.
There, he meets an old friend/ patient of his who is accused of murdering his wife. Yehia then begins an investigation around the case which forces him to face a lot of demons, literal and figurative, along with magic spells, love affairs and much more. There is a sequel to the movie called The Blue Elephant 2. which came out in 2019 and is just as engaging as its predecessor.
5 Under the Shadow
Set in 1988 Tehran, during the Iraq-Iran war, Shideh and Dorsa, a mother and daughter, get stuck in their apartment after a missile plants itself in the roof of their building; quickly, the atmosphere in the building turns sinister, and things aren't all that they seem. The blend from realism to horror in Under the Shadow is subtle, and it eventually becomes impossible to tell what is real and what is not as Shideh is surrounded by supernatural, cultural and societal danger. As anxiety builds in the viewer we are no longer sure in what she is seeing or thinking, and all we can do in this Middle Eastern horror classic is wait for something bad to happen.
4 The Humans and the Jinns
Not technically a scary movie, The Humans and the Jinns is still just as entertaining in its unique flavor. This Egyptian movie starts with a woman named Fatima, who returns to her home country after finishing her doctorate in the USA. Once home, she is targeted by a demon entity or a Jinn, who says that he loves her and wants her to break her engagement off. A weird supernatural romance comedy, this movie is a classic for the Middle-Eastern horror fans.
3 Dabbe: The Possession
Dabbe: The Possession is a Middle Eastern horror in a series of Dabbe scary movies directed by Hasan Karacadag; his movies have become exceedingly popular within the Turkish horror scene. The film follows Dr. Ebru, a psychiatrist and a skeptic on paranormal beings, and Faruk who is a local Islamic preacher and exorcist. In an attempt to prove that paranormal beings are not real, Ebru makes a documentary for her class and challenges Faruk to cure a girl who became possessed on her wedding day.
This movie is particularly terrifying because it doesn't scare you through jump scares like we would expect from our experience with other typical possession/paranormal horrors; instead, it's the storyline, environment, and style of filming that is tense and particularly scary. It is shot like a documentary to give the real-life feel that found-footage scary movies give, which definitely helps frighten us and bring this Middle Eastern story to life.
2 Rabies
An Israeli slasher horror movie that is widely considered to be the first horror movie to come out of the country, Rabies has a lot of layers. It starts as a very normal slasher with a group of teenagers accidentally getting lost in the woods. But turns out, things are much more sinister than they look. This multi-layered horror movie gets much scarier when the audience realizes that there is not just one killer. Twisting the lives of the youngsters, a pair of siblings, a ranger and his dog, and some police officers together, the movie takes a sinister turn that will give you a pretty good scare.
1 ZAR
When a recently married couple travel to the north of Iran for their honeymoon, they find that the villa they are staying in has a past that draws them in for an adventure they didn't ask for, falling victim to a series of paranormal events. ZAR is Persian for "crying", which seems to be very fitting as we witness a creepy and unnerving atmosphere be created. Like all paranormal scary movies, the audience in left in suspense, and it's no doubt that ZAR will leave you with an uneasy feeling that you just can't shake. It's a new Middle Eastern classic.