Plot Summary: After Dylan who is a mute, performs a ritual to summon a Djinn to grant him a wish, he must survive the night if he wants his wish to come true.
There's something about the way characters with disabilities are portrayed in movies that bothers me.
It is the way they interact with other characters who are supposed to be "normal" and who pointedly give advice about accepting who you are and that it is alright if they have something lacking, it is what defines them, etc.
On the surface, this seems like very sympathetic advice but when these dialogues are not inserted well into the story, more often than not it comes off as if the character is making light of the other character who is different from them.
In the Djinn, there's a scene when the father tells his son, Dylan, that there is nothing wrong with the way he is. Now Dylan is a mute boy who also has asthma issues. He can hear and must have heard his father tell him several times that it is alright if he's unable to speak. Yet, Dylan knows it is not okay. Perhaps he doesn't believe his father's sincerity as he mouths those dialogues.
Why else would Dylan find himself drawn to making wishes he could speak to a Djinn?
Clearly, his father Micheal, never truly understood what Dylan was coping with or else he would have seen signs of the way his son felt guilty about his mother's death; blaming himself for her apparent suicide.
But Michael's character isn't developed well, and so his interactions with Dylan are barely encouraging.
THE DJINN Movie Plot
The movie begins with Dylan waking up in the middle of the night. It's the eighties so that means there isn't enough progress in technology to assist Dylan in communicating with his family and which is why he can't call out to his mother who comes forward and blows out a candle.
Sometime later, Michael and Dylan have moved to a new house.
New houses always spell trouble for a family who has experienced tragedy mostly because they don't familiarise themselves with the house's history, nor do they thoroughly check the kid's room.
They just send a kid into a new room without checking to see if there are some rats lurking about, or black magic stuff, or a talking doll, or anything ominous.
Nope, it's just informing the kid where their room is going to be and then let them handle it on their own.
So of course, because Michael didn't check Dylan's room beforehand, his son promptly finds a book to summon djinns who grant wishes.
Dylan must not feel that close to his father to tell him about it. No, he sees it as an opportunity to make his wishes come true.
Later that night, Michael has ordered takeaway and Dylan is sulking.
Dylan sees it as a good idea to not eat the food and throw it around.
As soon as Micheal leaves, Dylan begins the ritual which is simple enough: just a few droplets of blood on the candle before midnight in front of a mirror and make a wish.
Dylan does it and signs his wish; to gain the ability to speak again.
Now Dylan clearly didn't read the entire book or he would have read that there were a couple of strings attached to getting your wishes.
One of them is apparently having the djinn come to terrorise the summoner before midnight for an hour and turn into humans and basically make all your nightmares come true.
So that's what happens for the majority of the movie. Dylan hides, uses things to stab the intruder who is the djinn taking the shape of all the people Dylan has seen recently, and only then goes to consult the book to find he missed out a couple of rules associated with making wishes. Also, the djinn will only leave after the candle is blown out after midnight.
Dylan then sees his mother but that's the djinn making him relive his trauma where Dylan witnesses her suicide and he thought his mother was disappointed with his inability to speak. The Djinn's version confirms Dylan's worst fears.
THE DJINN Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Dylan is chased around the house over and over until finally, he extinguishes the candle after midnight.
But that's when Michael appears, back from work. While Dylan was unable to contact for help because of the Djinn's shenanigans, Michael didn't care much for checking up on his son either.
It's time for the djinn to leave but he is a Djinn of his word and so he gives Dylan the ability to speak by taking away Michael's voice.
Then the Djinn returns back to the book.
The movie could have been condensed into a few minutes instead of more than an hour-long movie. There simply was a lack of horror content and it was getting tedious just watching Dylan running around the house.
The ending too was a bit of a cliche. And what's with the djinn harassing the summoner for an hour? The Djinn sure is one evil entity.
Scare scale: 2/5
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