When Boots Riley made Sorry to Bother You, one of the criticisms he inevitably had to face came from those who felt that he had put every idea he ever had into his first feature on the off chance that he never got to make another one. Regardless of what Riley says, he 100% did that, and in some respects, I wonder if Abdelhamid Bouchnak did something similar here with their first feature Dachra. Respectfully, this feels like not just a first feature, but the first feature.
Largely, this sensation comes from the fact that Bouchnak seems to be throwing every technique at the wall and hoping that some of them stick. This most expressly manifests itself through the rapid-fire editing that defines Dachra. Many scenes are built around editing rhythms, where the cuts rapidly increase to a scare-based climax. But Bouchnark and cinematographer Hatem Nachi also have a penchant to craft truly chilling images. There is at least one image of an institutionalized woman shrouded in expressive shadows that legitimately scared me.
That institutionalized woman is Mongia, whom three journalism students are sent to cover as a school assignment. These three are led by Yasmine (Yasmine Dimassi) who eventually leads them deep into the woods looking for the origin of Mongia’s story. While there, the trio ends up in a small hamlet, a dachra. There, they will be dragged into a world of witchcraft, folk rituals and grave peril.
While Bouchnak’s film feels like a first film, it is also definitely a first horror film. Bouchnak fills Dachra with innumerable references. I counted ones from Psycho, Carrie, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Not to mention that the fact that the film follows a team of journalists filming their journey into the woods seeking answers to an urban legend has clearly been culled from The Blair Witch Project. Clearly, this director loves horror films. I’ve often felt that if I ever wound up making a feature film, I would likely include innumerable references throughout its cours. Many of these would not land, because such films are about more than having seen other films.
The references aren’t really the issue with Dachra though. That has to be the film’s lack of pace. The best thing about The Blair Witch Project is that it’s magnificently paced, clocking in at a taut eighty-one minutes. This film is almost two full hours, which is way to long for a plot this thin. It’s the film’s second half that flags. And I found myself struggling to stay with the film throughout its second half. The biggest rookie mistake Bouchnak makes is right here. This a well-constructed film that really peters out as its drags on. There’s a lot of like here, which suggests that Bouchnak has a bright future ahead of themselves, but this is definitely a first feature.
