‘The Vile’ Takes Emirati Horror From Fantastic Fest to Screens This November

Dark Sky Films will release The Vile, Majid Al Ansari’s award-winning Arabic-language psychological horror, in select cinemas and on digital platforms from 20 November, bringing the Emirati filmmaker’s unsettling family drama to wider audiences following a festival run that included Fantastic Fest, Sitges, BFI London and Busan.

Produced by Spooky Pictures and Image Nation Studios, The Vile became the first Arabic-language feature made under the companies’ partnership and arrives with considerable festival momentum. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Horror Feature, before continuing internationally, while its cast includes Bdoor Mohammad, Sarah Taibah, Iman Tarik, Jasem Alkharraz and Samira Al Wahaibi. Al Ansari directs from a screenplay co-written with Johnnie Alward.

Mohammad stars as Amani, a devoted wife and mother whose carefully ordered family life is shattered when her husband Khalid returns home with a second wife. Zahra, played by Taibah, is also pregnant with his first son, leaving Amani to decide whether to abandon the life she has built or remain in the family home for the sake of her teenage daughter Noor.

She chooses to stay, but Khalid refuses to leave with Zahra and instead expects the women to accept the arrangement while he departs on a business trip. Left together under the same roof, tensions quickly deepen as Zahra begins establishing herself within the household and forming a bond with Noor, who is already struggling with the fallout from her parents’ fractured marriage and rumours spreading among her classmates.

At the same time, increasingly disturbing events begin to convince Amani that Zahra may represent a threat far beyond the emotional damage already inflicted on the family. Unable to determine whether the phenomena surrounding her are supernatural or the product of psychological trauma, she becomes consumed by an investigation into her new rival’s past.

The film blends domestic conflict with supernatural horror, using Amani’s deteriorating circumstances to examine betrayal, motherhood and changing power within the home from a distinctly Gulf perspective. It also marks Al Ansari’s return to feature filmmaking after his 2015 debut Zinzana and his subsequent work directing episodes of Netflix’s Paranormal.

Behind the camera, The Vile brings together a group of producers with substantial genre credentials. Roy Lee’s recent credits include Weapons and Barbarian, while Steven Schneider produced Paranormal Activity and Strange Darling. Derek Dauchy, whose credits include Late Night with the Devil, and Rami Yasin also produce, with Mohamed Hefzy and Yasir Al Yasiri serving as executive producers.

The Vile will be available in select cinemas and on digital platforms from 20 November 2026 through Dark Sky Films. The trailer is available to watch below.

The Vile trailer