Evil in Turkish Muslim horror film: the demonic in “Semum”

Abstract

The aim of the following study is to offer a better understanding of the Turkish religious consciousness. Turkey is a secular country with a Muslim majority. Movie characters with different attitudes towards religion and their relationship to supernatural evil within Islamic cosmology will be examined. This will provide better insights into the religiosity among Turkish Muslims and their relationship with religious metaphysics in a secular world through the popular horror movie “Semum” (2008). “Semum” is unique by not utilizing jinn, but a devil as the chosen monster. By that, “Semum” conceptualizes an entity of what is perceived as evil in contrast to the moral greyness presented in jinn-horror movies. It reflects a supernatural world of good and evil to its audience, in which metaphysical questions are addressed. Turkey, as a Muslim-majority society, is less often examined when it comes to theological/metaphysical matters regarding the Islamic faith, than when it comes to social issues. For an accurate understanding, this paper first investigates the director’s own statements about his monster. Afterwards, Islamic sources will be compared to the movie’s depiction of said monsters. Next, the roles of the main characters and their relationships towards the demonic will be explained. By that, it will be seen how the roles of the characters allegedly deal with evil. It will be shown that secularism is considered to be insufficient to deal with possible threats to humanity. Yet, the director asserts that science and religion should co-exist to deal with mankind’s fears.