“The Vile,” a new Arabic-language horror from Emirati filmmaker Majid Al Ansari, unveiled its first full trailer while locking fresh distribution and high-profile festival berths, sharpening its bid to travel beyond the genre circuit. The film will premiere internationally at Sitges and play the BFI London Film Festival before opening in the United Arab Emirates on October 30, with Saudi rights secured by Telfaz11 as sales roll out ahead of Halloween.
Set in the Gulf and performed in Arabic, the story tracks Amani, a devoted wife and mother whose ordered life is upended when her husband brings home a second wife and an unseen presence begins to seep through the house. Early materials frame the film as a chamber piece that threads domestic betrayal with supernatural dread, with Bdoor Mohammad leading a cast that includes Sarah Taibah. Producers include Roy Lee and Steven Schneider for Spooky Pictures alongside Image Nation Abu Dhabi, building a U.S.–U.A.E. bridge for a regional genre title.
The trailer lands on the back of a breakthrough launch at Austin’s Fantastic Fest, where “The Vile” — titled “Hoba” in the U.A.E. — won Best Horror Feature, boosting word of mouth as the film heads into Europe. Programming notes for London describe a woman “pushed out of her own life,” a line that echoes the director’s stated interest in exploring the emotional costs of polygamy without didactic framing.
Internationally, AGC International boarded sales in June, positioning the film for a broader push as festival audiences and distributors test the commercial appetite for Arabic-language horror. The Sitges slot and a fall corridor of genre events give the campaign multiple touch points, while the UAE date plants a clear theatrical flag at home. Image Nation, which backed Al Ansari’s earlier work, has cast the project as part of a wider effort to funnel regional stories into global pipelines, with the trailer emphasizing practical effects, tight interiors, and escalating paranoia over jump-scare spectacle.
Critical responses out of Austin highlighted the film’s claustrophobic design and performance-driven tension, with several outlets noting that the family dynamic grounds the metaphysical shocks. As a next step, the LFF screenings and Sitges exposure will test whether the movie’s domestic unease reads across borders — and whether a Gulf-made horror film backed by a U.S. genre shingle can convert festival heat into a sustained international rollout.
