Join us on October 29, 2026 at 9:00 PM for the first-ever Halaloween collab between the Global Islamic Studies Center and Devil’s Night Detroit™ at the Brooklyn Detroit venue in Corktown, Detroit, for a showing of Muslim horror short films from Morocco and Mauritania, followed by “Those Between Worlds: A Jinn Dreamscape,” a video retrospective of Halaloween by Reginald Thiessen, accompanied by a live musical score by Victor Ghannam!
Devil’s Night Detroit™ is an immersive, multi-arts world shaped by the macabre, the surreal, and the beautifully strange. Cinema, music, movement, live performance, and unexpected encounters unfold throughout the night, appearing and disappearing like fever dreams. This isn’t simply a night you attend. It’s a world you enter.
Schedule:
DJ Wraith 'Nocturnal Transmissions' + Experimental Film Oddities
7:00 PM
Dark Pages Horror Book Club Presents "Silver Nitrate" Discussion
8:00 PM
Dark Pages Horror Book Club Presents "Nocturnal Rituals' An Intimate Q&A w. David J (Bauhaus)
8:15 PM
Halaloween Muslim Horror Festival Presents: Aicha and Enmity Djinn (film shorts)
9:00 PM
Halaloween Muslim Horror Festival Presents: Those Between Worlds (A Jinn Dreamscape) Live Score and Screening
9:30 PM
David J's Grand Guignol 'The Spectral Score' Live Score and Screening
10:00 PM
Mila La Machina's 'The She-Devil of Excess'
10:45 PM
DJ Wraith 'Nocturnal Transmissions'
11:15 PM
The full event begins at 7:00 PM; see the full schedule & more information here.
EVENT 1, SHORT FILMS, 9:00 PM: Aicha (2025) & Enmity Djinn (2023)
Aicha | 2025 | 25 minutes | Darija with English subtitles | Morocco
Directed by: Sanaa El Alaoui
Featuring: Hind Dafer, Manal Bennani, Mohamed Amine Kihal
Film Description: A 17-year-old girl struggles with an emotionally distant mother as her life takes a tragic and violent turn. The mother joins an Amazigh gnawa mystical and musical ceremony to face her grief and the lost bond with her daughter.
Halaloween Horror Rating: 3/5. Very scary. Serious bodily content warnings: sexual violence against and murder of a teen girl, birthing, menstruation, implied violence. The true horror is other human beings, rather than the supernatural. Features folkloric figure Aicha Kandicha, possession, sacrificed animals, and jinn. Religious content includes Islamic prayer and duaa, ghusl of a female body, Qur’an pictured.
Enmity Djinn | 2023 | 19 minutes | Arabic and French with English subtitles | Mauritania
Directed by: Mohamed Echkouna
Featuring: Zeinebou Ahmed, Khadijetou Ely Bakha, Aminetou Brahim
Film Description: An elderly woman is forced to confront a malevolent jinn that once haunted her past.
Halaloween Horror Rating: 2.5/5. Creepy slow burn, but no gore. References to sihr, black magic, jinn; implied killing of women and manipulation of children by jinn. Creepy and ominous feeling. Religious content includes Muslims praying.
EVENT 2. LIVE MUSIC SCORE AND VIDEO RETROSPECTIVE: “Those Between Worlds (A Jinn Dreamscape).” Following the short films.
The Halaloween Muslim Horror Festival and Devil’s Night Detroit™ presents: “Those Between Worlds (A Jinn Dreamscape) Live Score and Screening,” a Halaloween video retrospective by Reginald Thiessen with a live music score by Victor Ghannam.
Following the short films, after 9:30 PM at Devil’s Night Detroit™.
This event is brought to you in collaboration with Reginald Thiessen and Devil’s Night Detroit™.
____
Halaloween Muslim Horror Film Festival Info
Welcome to the 8th annual Halaloween: A Muslim Horror Film Festival 2026!
What is Halaloween? Halaloween screens horror films from across the globe that were made by, for, or about Muslims to understand: “What scares Muslim audiences? Are horror movies halal?”
This year’s Halaloween 2026 film festival is a retrospective that brings back some of our Michigan community’s favorite Muslim horror films from the past few years. As usual, the festival runs throughout October with a different movie screening and/or event every week. In addition to local theater screenings, we are bringing you three community collaborations this year: with the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, with Michigan Medicine and the U-M Medical School, and with the Brooklyn Detroit venue in Corktown!
The 2026 lineup: Halaloween starts off at the Arab American National Museum (AANM) in Dearborn on Thursday, October 8, with a screening of the Saudi found-footage film Madayen (2016). On October 12 and October 20, head to the State Theatre in Ann Arbor for the Iranian film Under the Shadow (2016) and the Malaysian film Tiger Stripes (2023), respectively. On October 27, we are collaborating with the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at Michigan Medicine and the University of Michigan Medical School to bring you an expert medical and film panel on “Fears of the Body: Processing Illness, Death, & Loss with Horror Movies.”
Halaloween officially ends on the evening of October 29 at the Brooklyn Detroit venue in Corktown, Detroit, with a screening of Muslim horror short films from Morocco and Mauritania, followed immediately after by the special event “Those Between Worlds: A Jinn Dreamscape," a Halaloween music video retrospective in collaboration with Reginald Thiessen, Victor Ghannam, and Devil's Night Detroit!
Also check out our streaming Muslim horror films anytime on U-M Kanopy: the Senegalese folk horror film Saloum (2021), the witchy Tunisian film Dachra (2018), and the Iranian “vampire spaghetti Western” film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014).
The festival is mostly in-person and free–but make sure to reserve tickets! In-person screenings will be first-come, first-served, with RSVPs strongly encouraged.
We are inclusive of everyone's film needs: from new horror fans who close their eyes through most scary movies, to those who love the gore–we've got films for everyone! Check the Halaloween Horror Rating in the description of each film for its scariness rating and other details.
The 2026 Halaloween Lineup:
- October 8: Madayen | Saudi Arabia | 2016 | 7:00 PM | Arab American National Museum
- October 13: Under the Shadow | Iran | 2016 | 7:00 PM | State Theatre
- October 20: Tiger Stripes | Malaysia | 2023 | 7:00 PM | State Theatre
- October 27: Halaloween x Michigan Medicine Panel: “Fears of the Body: Processing Illness, Death, and Loss with Horror Movies” | Time & Date TBA
- October 29: “Those Between Worlds: A Jinn Dreamscape": Halaloween Short Films and Panel at Devil's Night Detroit | 7:00 PM | Brooklyn Detroit (Venue)*
*This event is ticketed and not free
RSVP & find out more: watch.eventive.org/halaloween
Sponsors: Halaloween: A Muslim Horror Film Festival is brought to you by the Global Islamic Studies Center and co-sponsored by the Arab American National Museum, Devil’s Night Detroit, and Michigan Medicine.
For more events from the Global Islamic Studies Center at the University of Michigan, please visit ii.umich.edu/islamicstudies. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to islamicstudies@umich.edu.
Join our email newsletter: https://myumi.ch/nbW83
Follow our social media for event updates:
Facebook: UmichGISC
https://www.facebook.com/UmichGISC/
Twitter: @umichgisc
Join us on October 29, 2026 at 9:00 PM for the first-ever Halaloween collab between the Global Islamic Studies Center and Devil’s Night Detroit™ at the Brooklyn Detroit venue in Corktown, Detroit, for a showing of Muslim horror short films from Morocco and Mauritania, followed by “Those Between Worlds: A Jinn Dreamscape,” a video retrospective of Halaloween by Reginald Thiessen, accompanied by a live musical score by Victor Ghannam!
Devil’s Night Detroit™ is an immersive, multi-arts world shaped by the macabre, the surreal, and the beautifully strange. Cinema, music, movement, live performance, and unexpected encounters unfold throughout the night, appearing and disappearing like fever dreams. This isn’t simply a night you attend. It’s a world you enter.
Schedule:
DJ Wraith 'Nocturnal Transmissions' + Experimental Film Oddities
7:00 PM
Dark Pages Horror Book Club Presents "Silver Nitrate" Discussion
8:00 PM
Dark Pages Horror Book Club Presents "Nocturnal Rituals' An Intimate Q&A w. David J (Bauhaus)
8:15 PM
Halaloween Muslim Horror Festival Presents: Aicha and Enmity Djinn (film shorts)
9:00 PM
Halaloween Muslim Horror Festival Presents: Those Between Worlds (A Jinn Dreamscape) Live Score and Screening
9:30 PM
David J's Grand Guignol 'The Spectral Score' Live Score and Screening
10:00 PM
Mila La Machina's 'The She-Devil of Excess'
10:45 PM
DJ Wraith 'Nocturnal Transmissions'
11:15 PM
The full event begins at 7:00 PM; see the full schedule & more information here.
EVENT 1, SHORT FILMS, 9:00 PM: Aicha (2025) & Enmity Djinn (2023)
Aicha | 2025 | 25 minutes | Darija with English subtitles | Morocco
Directed by: Sanaa El Alaoui
Featuring: Hind Dafer, Manal Bennani, Mohamed Amine Kihal
Film Description: A 17-year-old girl struggles with an emotionally distant mother as her life takes a tragic and violent turn. The mother joins an Amazigh gnawa mystical and musical ceremony to face her grief and the lost bond with her daughter.
Halaloween Horror Rating: 3/5. Very scary. Serious bodily content warnings: sexual violence against and murder of a teen girl, birthing, menstruation, implied violence. The true horror is other human beings, rather than the supernatural. Features folkloric figure Aicha Kandicha, possession, sacrificed animals, and jinn. Religious content includes Islamic prayer and duaa, ghusl of a female body, Qur’an pictured.
Enmity Djinn | 2023 | 19 minutes | Arabic and French with English subtitles | Mauritania
Directed by: Mohamed Echkouna
Featuring: Zeinebou Ahmed, Khadijetou Ely Bakha, Aminetou Brahim
Film Description: An elderly woman is forced to confront a malevolent jinn that once haunted her past.
Halaloween Horror Rating: 2.5/5. Creepy slow burn, but no gore. References to sihr, black magic, jinn; implied killing of women and manipulation of children by jinn. Creepy and ominous feeling. Religious content includes Muslims praying.
EVENT 2. LIVE MUSIC SCORE AND VIDEO RETROSPECTIVE: “Those Between Worlds (A Jinn Dreamscape).” Following the short films.
The Halaloween Muslim Horror Festival and Devil’s Night Detroit™ presents: “Those Between Worlds (A Jinn Dreamscape) Live Score and Screening,” a Halaloween video retrospective by Reginald Thiessen with a live music score by Victor Ghannam.
Following the short films, after 9:30 PM at Devil’s Night Detroit™.
This event is brought to you in collaboration with Reginald Thiessen and Devil’s Night Detroit™.
____
Halaloween Muslim Horror Film Festival Info
Welcome to the 8th annual Halaloween: A Muslim Horror Film Festival 2026!
What is Halaloween? Halaloween screens horror films from across the globe that were made by, for, or about Muslims to understand: “What scares Muslim audiences? Are horror movies halal?”
This year’s Halaloween 2026 film festival is a retrospective that brings back some of our Michigan community’s favorite Muslim horror films from the past few years. As usual, the festival runs throughout October with a different movie screening and/or event every week. In addition to local theater screenings, we are bringing you three community collaborations this year: with the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, with Michigan Medicine and the U-M Medical School, and with the Brooklyn Detroit venue in Corktown!
The 2026 lineup: Halaloween starts off at the Arab American National Museum (AANM) in Dearborn on Thursday, October 8, with a screening of the Saudi found-footage film Madayen (2016). On October 12 and October 20, head to the State Theatre in Ann Arbor for the Iranian film Under the Shadow (2016) and the Malaysian film Tiger Stripes (2023), respectively. On October 27, we are collaborating with the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at Michigan Medicine and the University of Michigan Medical School to bring you an expert medical and film panel on “Fears of the Body: Processing Illness, Death, & Loss with Horror Movies.”
Halaloween officially ends on the evening of October 29 at the Brooklyn Detroit venue in Corktown, Detroit, with a screening of Muslim horror short films from Morocco and Mauritania, followed immediately after by the special event “Those Between Worlds: A Jinn Dreamscape," a Halaloween music video retrospective in collaboration with Reginald Thiessen, Victor Ghannam, and Devil's Night Detroit!
Also check out our streaming Muslim horror films anytime on U-M Kanopy: the Senegalese folk horror film Saloum (2021), the witchy Tunisian film Dachra (2018), and the Iranian “vampire spaghetti Western” film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014).
The festival is mostly in-person and free–but make sure to reserve tickets! In-person screenings will be first-come, first-served, with RSVPs strongly encouraged.
We are inclusive of everyone's film needs: from new horror fans who close their eyes through most scary movies, to those who love the gore–we've got films for everyone! Check the Halaloween Horror Rating in the description of each film for its scariness rating and other details.
The 2026 Halaloween Lineup:
- October 8: Madayen | Saudi Arabia | 2016 | 7:00 PM | Arab American National Museum
- October 13: Under the Shadow | Iran | 2016 | 7:00 PM | State Theatre
- October 20: Tiger Stripes | Malaysia | 2023 | 7:00 PM | State Theatre
- October 27: Halaloween x Michigan Medicine Panel: “Fears of the Body: Processing Illness, Death, and Loss with Horror Movies” | Time & Date TBA
- October 29: “Those Between Worlds: A Jinn Dreamscape": Halaloween Short Films and Panel at Devil's Night Detroit | 7:00 PM | Brooklyn Detroit (Venue)*
*This event is ticketed and not free
RSVP & find out more: watch.eventive.org/halaloween
Sponsors: Halaloween: A Muslim Horror Film Festival is brought to you by the Global Islamic Studies Center and co-sponsored by the Arab American National Museum, Devil’s Night Detroit, and Michigan Medicine.
For more events from the Global Islamic Studies Center at the University of Michigan, please visit ii.umich.edu/islamicstudies. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to islamicstudies@umich.edu.
Join our email newsletter: https://myumi.ch/nbW83
Follow our social media for event updates:
Facebook: UmichGISC
https://www.facebook.com/UmichGISC/
Twitter: @umichgisc
