Director: Majid Al Ansari
Year: 2025
Country: USA/United Arab Emirates
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After her husband brings in a second wife, a woman and her daughter try to accommodate the change in the household, which soon makes the first wife start to believe the new wife is trying to overthrow everything for her own gain, and tries to start a supernatural cause of everything.
Review:
This was a fairly solid and enjoyable enough genre outing. Among the better features here is the highly effective setup that manages to bring about all manner of intriguing possibilities to come once it plays itself out. Starting with the new wife being introduced to the family on a random night and not expecting to be given this news who are now forced to deal with the tensions within the house of an unwanted and unexpected visitor that is a part of their family against their will or input, it all makes for a strong starting point to the kind of family drama that this one plays out as. As the wife becomes increasingly paranoid about the intentions and behavior of the new woman based on the odd interactions and remarks she has, getting closer to her daughter, and the unintended effects of trying to make peace only for it to slowly seem like the new wife is trying to usurp her way into the family manage to provide the type of thrilling family drama that gets everything in motion.
The second half becomes a rather fun, if somewhat one-note setup, where it simply furthers the paranoia the first wife feels as the new wife worms her way into the family. Offering up some traditional scenes of the daughter becoming more attracted to the lifestyle and philosophy of the new wife who helps her with her school bullies or other activities, there’s some rather fun moments here as we see the influence she has involving how the change is tied directly to the new wife helps to bring about the desire to get to the bottom of her intentions with the family. That comes about nicely with the revelations that come about in the finale, where the supernatural intentions are brought to the fore, which manages to highlight the eternal struggle of accepting the voices in your head telling you to stand up for yourself, based on the different parts of the plan coming together rather nicely, giving this a lot to like.
There are a few small factors holding it back. The main issue here is that the film doesn’t make any kind of overt threats about the intention of the new wife and why she worms her way into the family. It seems to come about with several different potential ideas for what she’s doing, taking over the household, from instigating the split between the mother and daughter, the revenge on the husband for being unfaithful, the need for delivering a demonic baby, and the whole storyline about the way she comes about into their lives makes little sense. It seems to come about through several different factors and never seems to settle on a specific purpose for why she’s there, and it does leave the whole thing quite underwhelming before it starts in on some of the commonly-utilized tropes of the storyline. Very little of the interactions here try to denote how much she’s introducing family life through familiar and generally expected tactics, making the first half a small struggle to get through, and being the issues that hold it down.
Overview: ***.5/5
A rather fun and enjoyable genre effort, there’s a lot to like here, even with a few minor issues in how the whole thing comes together being the main drawback that holds it down. Those with an interest in the subject matter, who are curious about this one, or who aren’t bothered by the issues on display, will have a lot to like here, while most others might want to heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment