Thank you for joining our annual Halaloween: A Muslim Film Festival presented by the Global Islamic Studies Center (GISC) at the University of Michigan.

From Oct 13th to the 20th, stream the Turkish horror film Beddua: The Curse | Üç Harfliler: Beddua on demand at watch.eventive.org/halaloween. Pre-order the film anytime, and check out the rest of the months Halaloween Horror selection!

2018 | 90 minutes | Turkish | Turkey

Directed by: Alper Mestçi

Halaloween Horror Rating 2/5 

Rating explanation: Female-centered folk horror and psychological thriller. Contains violence, bullying, misogyny, body horror, and witches. 

Religious content: This film invokes Turkish cultural and gender mores on marriage, relationships, and women that intersect with Islam.

Melek, Burcu, Eda and Ayla are four high school friends. Even though years have passed since their graduation, they are still friends. Their lives will change completely after they meet a shaman woman named Havel, and their lives dramatically change.

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What's Halaloween? In 2019 during the month of October, we launched the first ever Muslim Horror Film Festival: Halaloween. Halaloween screens horror films from across the globe that were made by, for, or about Muslims with the hopes of understanding ‘What scares Muslim audiences? Are horror movies halal?’.  The previous Halaloween Festivals featured A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Dachra, Siccin 4 and more.

This year’s festival will be both in person and online, screening one film a week during the month of October, and ending with an in-person screening at the State Theater, Friday, October 28, 2022 at 7:00 PM.

The festival is free and will come to you wherever you are (though some films may not be available in certain countries). Films will be unlocked online each week of October, and viewers will have the week to watch each film We're also inclusive of everyone's film needs: from new horror fans who close their eyes through most of the films to those who love the gore - we've got films for everyone!

Check the Halaloween Horror Rating in the description of each film for a better sense on how scary each film will be. We'll wrap up the month of October with a live panel discussion on Muslim Horror, the use of Islam and the Quran, and how each region differs in its creation of horror films. Stay tuned for the 2022 lineup of films and an announcement on the Muslim Horror Panel discussion!

Halaloween is brought to you by the Global Islamic Studies Center and cosponsored by the Middle Eastern Studies Department, the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum, the African Studies Center, Department of Communication and Media, The Department of Film, Television, and Media, American Culture, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, the Center for South Asian Studies, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Arab and Muslim American Studies, Asian Languages and Cultures, the Center for Arab American Studies at UM-Dearborn, and Shudder.

Want to hear about similar events from U-M Islamic Studies? Sign up for the GISC Newsletter here! We send out a monthly newsletter in collaboration with the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, and the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum.

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