Under the Shadow

Under the Shadow (2016) is Babak Anvari's Persian-language horror film, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Tehran, the late 1980s, missiles falling during the Iran-Iraq War. Shideh is left alone in her apartment block with her small daughter.

Her husband is sent to the front and the neighbors flee the city one by one. Then an undetonated missile crashes through the roof, and a superstitious tenant murmurs about djinn — spirits that ride in on the wind. Shideh dismisses it. But little Dorsa starts talking to someone who isn't there, her favorite doll vanishes, and the cracks in the ceiling keep spreading. Narges Rashidi plays a mother boxed in by war outside and dread within her own walls.

Anvari turns a familiar haunted-house setup into a study of a woman trapped under two kinds of siege. The film was the UK's submission for the Best Foreign Language Oscar and swept prizes across the festival circuit. It rewards viewers who prefer slow, tightening fear over cheap jolts — every scare here is earned. Stream Under the Shadow (2016) online on iFILM.