Dark Spells (2004) User Reviews

Plain and not scary at all !

[kuzgunsovalyesi · 4/10 · 6 December 2005]

Büyü ("Magic" in English but the meaning is more associated with black magic) was filmed in a small village in Turkey with a handful of actors/actresses, it does not make much use of CG; so, to sum up this is a low-budget movie. It has a lot of problems; first of all, the scenario is not original and is slow-pacing. Dialogs are very straightforward and unsuccessful; this is one of the biggest problems about the movie in my opinion. In many aspects, the movie may be termed as a "plain" movie. This fact added with the problems above makes it uninteresting. It is termed as a horror movie here in Turkey, but in today's standards it is not scary at all. Watch it if you are curious about how a Turkish horror/thriller movie would be; else don't even bother...

I agree with the majority........this film sucks.........malisef

[turkam · 1/10 · 12 August 2006]

It is truly a shame that a Turkish filmmaker can make a truly awful film with all the advances in modern technology, books about film-making and online film courses about Ingmar Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock. Who do these filmmakers think they are...........Americans? As a Turkish-American, I am perhaps one of the few people who can criticize the output of films from both countries. After great recent films like "Uzak-Distant" and "Hajar," it seemed like the Turkish industry had completely divorced itself from its infamous past and Cuneyt Arkin's films were ones in which people could only watch after a six-pack of Efes Pilsens. But, "Buyu," which was sent to me by a Turkish friend from Australia is indeed a reminder that bad- truly bad films can still be made in Turkey. The film is predictable, boring and the special effects are woeful. "Buyu" also features shameless sexism and absolutely sick sequences, such as women being raped by spirits-no, I'm not making that up! The acting is really awful. The directing is even worse. And, the editing is truly pathetic. I just hope they don't make a sequel!

so so

[bestmariah · 21 December 2004]

this movie isn't excellently good but it is OK .i like the theme however it would have been better if dialogs had been written in more effective way (sorry to say that despite having been announced as a horror movie, some inappropriate scenes and dialogs made people laugh so much !)and more talented actors and actress had been chosen.mass media paid much more attention to this movie and it's back ground scenes.it was mentioned that there were some interesting bad lucking events took place which i think it didn't make sense at all . there was also fire took place in gala of movie. it may have done deliberately to make a good advertisement.who knows?

Worst

[snakeplis · 1/10 · 21 May 2007]

"büyü" The worst movie I've ever seen . Nobody can make worse than this. Orhan Oguz is the worst director of the world. He does not know anything about horror movies.This movie is a trash. I have seen before "Turkish exorcist" at the theater. It was an old movie but was the only real Turkish horror. Except that, new generation Turkish horror movies have really bad scenarios ,actin' and direction. "Büyü" cant be like a "Turkish star wars". Cause star wars is a strange movie. But "Büyü" is a really terrible bad movie. Now at last I must say "dont watch any Turkish horror movie". "araf" , "gomeda" , "dabbe" are not much worse than "büyü". But have you got enough time? Don't waste your time.

Whoever says it didn't scare, lies!!!

[gunsor · 6/10 · 7 July 2005]

A pretended to be original horror movie from Turkey with ethnic touch... In fact it succeeded in some spots such as the moon, the abandoned village and the ancient spell ever lasting concept, or the first usage of the visual metaphors in a very serious way not seen before in Turkish cinema in this genre especially, made it seem original...I didn't like the crying and mourning scenes with half naked women because of being unnecessarily long. Those scenes gave it a taste of arabesque. In fact catharsis in an oriental way scenes is a rare idea but there must have been a balance. Bloody terror with demonic possession idea ornamented with a religious McGuffin isn't new (ref: Exorcist episodes), but an unexpected serious work from the local movie makers on such an extreme idea really surprised me, even the tempo of the movie or even the stone village panorama is enough to satisfy my expectations while watching a local horror movie...I haven't laugh, no, I haven't even grin and nobody else did such a noise in a crowded theater while watching this surprising performance...