A conversation at a gym in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, led to the country’s first horror film. That’s where director Ayman Tamano and Saudi actor Hakeem Joma were discussing movies in the Kingdom, which Tamano points out, are focused on social and political commentary.
“We wanted to create a movie that was purely about entertaining people. Growing up in Saudi Arabia, you hear stories, urban legends, about Mada’in Saleh. And everyone in Saudi Arabia knows how haunted it is,” Tamano said.
The ancient ruins located in the northwest part of the country were the inspiration behind Madayen, the 2016 found-footage horror that follows a group of friends on a journey to the site to learn about its archaeological majesty.
The Cursed Ruins of Mada’in Saleh
Mada’in Saleh is a relic from the Nabatean civilization. The Nabatean empire spanned from northwest Saudi Arabia to Jordan around the 4th century BCE. Its people left behind rock-cut mausoleums, the most famous one located in Petra, Jordan. Today, Mada’in Saleh holds the distinction of being Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized for its 111 monumental tombs.
While Petra is usually bustling with tourists, many locals avoid Mada’in Saleh. They point out that the Nabateans erred in their ways, facing the wrath of God, cursing the city.
“Hakeem wrote a book about [Mada’in Saleh] and we had a discussion on talking about converting it into film,” Tamano said.
Chasing a Blair Witch in the Arabian Desert
After watching Blair Witch Project, the 90s found-footage film that follows a group of filmmakers coming to grips with an urban legend about a witch, Tamano wanted to create something similar. But instead of the Maryland woods, the setting for his film is the Arabian desert.
“There is this sort of heavy feeling that you get, I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s all the stories that people have that play with your head, when you’re in Mada’in Saleh,” Tamano said.
While camping on set, Tamano describes some strange occurrences. “The best way to describe it is it’s supernatural. Our car doors were left open when there was no one around. And there was this weird sound of a gong going on all night.”
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Why the Desert Makes the Perfect Horror Setting
The Arabian desert works well as a horror-film setting. The endless miles of golden sand dunes can spark a sense of madness amongst the most stoic. The desert’s deafening silence and isolation offers horror filmmakers an array of story ideas to work with.
Saudi Arabia’s landscape and history twinned with its young-skewing demographic offers potential for a horror film market. Horror films tend to target a younger audience. That works in favour of budding horror film directors in Saudi Arabia, where nearly 60 per cent of the population was under the age of 30 in 2017, according to the Kingdom’s General Authority for Statistics.
A Growing Market for Saudi Arabian Horror
When Madayen was released, it bagged multiple awards and was showcased at the Arab Film Festival in Los Angeles, the longest-running independent Arab film festival in North America. It put the country on the map as a potential powerhouse of horror films.
Tamano sees potential for the horror genre to grow in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East.
“Before the pandemic I used to sit out in the cafes, and I ran into a lot of people. They would come up to me with a script for a film. People talk about horror stories in Jiddah. As long as we are giving people the right opportunities, I think there is bound to be a lot of horror films that are going to be filmed here in the future,” he says.
