Emirati filmmaker Majid Al Ansari, best known for his breakout debut Zinzana (Rattle the Cage), returns with The Vile, a haunting blend of psychological drama and supernatural horror. Premiering under Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Spooky Pictures’ multi-picture slate, the film marks the first Arabic-language Emirati feature in their lineup and further cements Al Ansari’s role as a trailblazer in regional genre cinema.
At its core, The Vile examines the ripple effects of polygamy, greed, and betrayal through the story of Amani, a wife blindsided when her husband brings home a second wife. As Al Ansari explained in our conversation, the subject matter was deeply personal: “Polygamy was something I grew up around, and I always wondered—what does this do to a family? The film isn’t anti-polygamy, but I wanted to show the emotional impact when it happens without choice.”
To achieve authenticity, the director conducted extensive interviews with women in his community, weaving their voices and experiences into the screenplay. He recalled his mother once framing polygamy through folklore, suggesting a husband had been bewitched into remarrying. That perspective inspired the film’s supernatural thread, where ominous forces mirror Amani’s psychological descent. “I wanted the family drama to drive the horror, not the other way around,” he said.
Casting Bdoor Mohammed as Amani proved pivotal. Al Ansari admitted that her connection to the material was so personal that it took her five readings to finish the script. “It was psychologically very hard for her, but that’s when I knew she was the right person for the role,” he said, praising her performance as the emotional anchor of the film.
Visually, Al Ansari and his team, cinematographer Benjamin Kirk Nielsen and production designer Benedikt Lange, shot on 16mm film to capture a tactile balance between old and new. The choice was risky, requiring film stock to be shipped abroad for processing, but ultimately gave The Vile its unsettling texture.
Influenced by works like Fatal Attraction, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, and Na Hong-jin’s The Wailing, Al Ansari threads together family betrayal, cultural specificity, and creeping terror into a story that feels both local and universal. “That betrayal is something audiences everywhere can understand,” he said.
As for what’s next, Al Ansari teased a shift into bloodier, more experimental territory: “I want to ease up a little, have fun with it, maybe more gore, maybe even comedy. But it will still come from within the community.”
For now, The Vile is proof that horror can be both culturally grounded and globally resonant, an unnerving cinematic experience that lingers long after the lights come up.
Jessie Hobson