Wingrave is an Egyptian psychological horror film. It was written and directed by Ahmed Khalifa and stars Ashraf Hamdi, Diana Brauch and Karim Higazy. It was the first English-Language Egyptian feature film in history . The film was designed as a tribute to Gothic literature, Expressionist Cinema and the Ghost Story genre.

Plot Synopsis

As renowned parapsychologist Henry Wingrave struggles with conducting a forbidden form of a seance he thinks back on three of his most disturbing and challenging experiences of dealing with the the restless dead. Throughout these experiences he is called on to contact the dead brother of a grieving young woman, to cleanse a newly bought house of the malicious entities residing within its walls and to determine whether a young woman is possessed or merely insane.

In the end he has to face the present and decide whether he is going to forsake everything he believes in and conduct a forced seance which could result in dire consequences both to him and the roaming dead.

Production

The film was the shot in 9 days in Alexandria and Cairo with a budget of $7,500.

The film's crew consisted of three people (Writer/Director Ahmed Khalifa, Production Manager Noha Said and Assistant Director Mohamed Waheed).

The film was the first Egyptian film in history to be exclusively distributed in the U.S on DVD and to be available for paid download .

Style

The film is experimental in nature as it is divided into three parts, each part is told using a different filmmaking style. The first story Seance is told as a Silent/Expressionist film. The second story The Presence is told with no dialogue but with voice-over. The third story Abode is told in the form of a Pulp Gothic/Noir novel with page numbers, text on screen and very little dialogue.

The Wingrave Halloween Special

Wingrave-Film.com, the official website of the film, posts a new short story every Halloween that is written by Ahmed Khalifa, the writer and director of the film and which features the character of Henry Wingrave. On Halloween 2007, the website posted the short story A House Unbound which serves as a prequel to the events of the film .

References