HOOD WITCH - Mark Reviews Movies

Hood Witch, Dark Sky Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 20, 2025

The basic plot of co-writer/director Saïd Belktibia's Hood Witch eventually becomes an extended chase sequence. It's a good thing, then, that Belktibia stages it with such dynamism, and it's a very good thing that the director and Louis Penicaut's screenplay offers such a potent and relevant rationale for that chase to happen in the first place.

It's essentially a modern-day witch hunt, taken quite literally in the minds of our protagonist's pursuers and tormentors. See, Nour (Golshifteh Farahani) is something akin to a mystic or a faith-healer, who smuggles exotic animals from Morocco to her home in an economically struggling part of Paris. Many believe such creatures could have healing properties or be used in various religious rituals, and Nour provides in order to make an income for herself and her young son.

That's all it is to our protagonist, though: a matter of business. Nour doesn't believe in magic or rites of any faith, but that doesn't stop her from making money by way of other people's belief in that sort of stuff. That's part of the irony of the film's story, which helps to justify that the plot does amount to a lengthy action sequence with a heavy dose of cynicism about how faith and the belief in otherworldly evil forces can make seemingly ordinary people into unthinking or at least irrational reactionaries.

There's nothing deep or novel in that observation, of course, as centuries and millennia of human existence have proven time and time. Finding something unique or new isn't the point of the film, though, because it is a thriller—and a smartly staged one, at that—first and foremost. It's mostly a bonus that the film also serves a stark and credible reminder about the extremes of religious belief and how easy it can be for society to look for scapegoats for things it cannot or does not want to comprehend.

In this case, a tragic death is the thing that the people of this neighborhood either can't or are unwilling to understand. The screenplay builds to that event gradually, as we get to see Nour in her element. At the airport with her son Amine (Amine Zariouhi) following a trip to Morocco, the pair are stopped by security and have to undergo a search of their belongings. Security can find nothing in the luggage, but that's because Nour knows better than that.

She just doesn't anticipate that a lizard will free itself from one of the many bags strapped to her torso beneath her clothing. Everything is confiscated, save for a pair of poisonous frogs that Nour kept in condoms she swallowed, tying the other end of the string attached to them to the inside of her mouth. Nour's clever and determined, to be sure, and obviously, that will come in handy once an organized mob and random people who learn about her online start hunting her.

That happens for one major reason and is complicated by a couple of others. The significant one comes after Nour arranges an exorcism for the son of a friend. Jules (Denis Lavant) worries about the seizures his son Kevin (Mathieu Espagnet) is having and the expensive cost of medication that could help. Nour suggests the religious ritual as a less-expensive alternative.

All the while, her ex-husband and Amine's father Dylan (Jérémy Ferrari) is becoming increasingly frustrated and even violent about his lack of custody and Nour's insistence that he actually pay both alimony and child support. That leads him to become tangled up with some Muslim mystics, who believe their rites and practices are legitimate and aligned with Islam, while becoming quite disturbed—and maybe a little threatened from a financial perspective—when they learn what Nour has been up to with her little business.

All of this collides after Kevin's exorcism doesn't work, which isn't much of a surprise to Nour, and the young man becomes more aggressive, which is a reason for her to be concerned. The consequences are fatal, and soon enough, people in the neighborhood start literally pointing fingers at Nour for being the cause of an unnecessary tragedy.

From there, the plot enters chase mode and, like Nour's pursers, barely relents. The ways in which the chase progresses, seeing Nour have to run and hide and escape throughout various parts of the neighborhood, are constantly shifting.

There are a few lulls, when Nour does find a way to evade those looking for her (although her home comes under siege in a particularly intense scene), but there's some genuine suspense in the relative novelty of how social media plays its part in this witch hunt. The filmmakers might have some sort of allegorical intent in mind with accusations being thrown about, accepted, and used as fodder for assorted debates, but on a practical level, there's simply nowhere Nour can hide with her newfound infamy and cellphones everywhere.

It is genuinely surprising, though, how vital the setup of Hood Witch is toward making this more than just an exercise in keeping its protagonist on the move, in peril, and, eventually, taking the fight to those responsible for what she has to endure. Farahani makes for an intelligent, determined, and sympathetic target of this hunt, which is important for the material's success. More to the point, though, the film does have something to say beneath the surface of its action—about fervor, prejudice, and hypocrisy of both the religious and everyday varieties. It's a solid thriller that's also cunning in being about more than thrills.

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