The old man is on his knees in front of a ruined building with a smashed door, desperately trying to chase away evil spirits, a widespread belief in Turkish society.
Cameras swirl around the actor and director Metin Kuru encourages him to give his all: the number of takes is limited to keep a tight budget.
This new feature film, made in Bursa (west) with the means at hand, must feed a booming industry in Turkey to meet the appetite of spectators.
Despite the country's economic crisis, more than one new horror movie hits theaters every week.
No less than sixty outings are scheduled this year.
“
I try to make as few [technical] mistakes as possible
,” Mr. Kuru told AFP between two scenes of
Muhr-u Musallat 2 - Yasak Dügün
(
The Haunted Seal 2 - Forbidden Marriage
).
Shooting in the dark helps: "
The color palette of horror films isn't very varied, it allows shooting with cheaper cameras, fewer lights and smaller crews
",
Superstitions
Until the 1990s, Turkey produced few horror films.
For film critic Gizem Simsek Kaya, a teacher at Kültür University in Istanbul, their development is due to changes in Turkish society.
"
The decline of superstitions in favor of science began to fade in the late 1990s
", shortly before the coming to power of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, from political Islam, believes the critic.
See also
Worried Istanbul Journal
, the thrilling autobiography of a press cartoonist in Turkey
Religious horror films became popular in the wake of
Büyü
(
The Spell
), released in 2004, and reached new audiences two years later with the
Dabbe
series , named after a figure in the Apocalypse in the Quran.
In nine years, its director, Hasan Karacadag, has shot six feature films and broken several records at the Turkish box office.
Siccin
, another series of horror films, is in turn imposing itself from 2014. “
Certain Islamic tendencies and the rise of conservatism have played a role
”, judges Gizem Simsek Kaya.
fake idols
Turkish horror films mainly revolve around genies, invisible spirits from Islamic mythology.
A puzzle for make-up artist Yesim Vatansever: not only are genies supposed to be invisible, but there are more than seventy types of them... "
It would be much easier to show an extraterrestrial
," she says.
According to Gizem Simsek Kaya, Western-style vampire films offend religious sensibilities in Turkey: "
It amounts to a form of 'shirk'
", the sin of idolatry, she explains.
Ghosts are also a problem.
“
In Islam, the corpse is only seen covered with a shroud.
When you try to resuscitate someone or something, they must remove the shroud and walk naked
“recalls Ms. Kaya.
In one film, she recalls, a man found pants on the street after tearing off his shroud: “
The moment he put them on, the film turned into a comedy.
»
"Error message"
All these constraints help to standardize Turkish production to the detriment of industry.
“
The films are shot in a few days and the material is mediocre
,” notes Gizem Simsek Kaya.
"
Until this year, I had never seen an 'error message' accidentally appear in a film shown at the cinema
," she quips.
Sign of negligence in assembly.
Screenwriter Ozlem Bolukbasi acknowledges that films often disappoint audience expectations.
“
But budgets and productions are limited
,” she pleads.
“
Despite this, are we still attracting the public?
The answer is yes
”.
The shootings also attract the curious.
Villagers flocked to see the actors of the
Haunted seal 2 - Forbidden marriage
and its kneeling old man.
“
It's fun.
The whole city is here at the moment
, ”slips Huseyin Aydemir, owner of a restaurant in Bursa near the plateau.
“
A scene was shot at the cemetery two days ago.
The inhabitants were there several hours before the film crew.
»