Ahmed Kardous From long time we didn't see Egyptian movie like this i am proud of all , the whole crew especially my friend ( Ahmed AL Morsi ) director of photography such an amazing explaining with lighting from him Also Karim abed AL AZ ( the hero ) first time he can be touchy like this under very talented director mar wan hammed Directing and cinematography was amazing i surprised when i was watching the movie i thought it was a foreign film because of directing and soundtrack I want to thank all the crew without forget names , Nelly Karim , Mohamed Atia ( art director ) music , and my friend Ahmed mo rad the great young talented writer thank you all for this watching experience .

ashraf2103 First before writing my review, I want to mention that I have not watched Egyptian movies since 4 years, and I watched this movie only after I have been advised by others that this movie is in a level of famous Oscar Movies, accordingly I watched it with some earlier impressions, so if you have such impressions my advice would be not to watch it as you are going to be disappointed specially both actors have way better movies as "wahed men el nas" and "Yaokobian building", but if you don't have such level of expectations then I would advise you watch it as it is somehow interesting movie in case you have nothing else to watch, second regarding my review if I would give points for different elements in the Movie I would give 10/10 for Karim, and Khaled, but 5/10 for Nelly as she was not convincing at all, for the sound track I would give 6/10 as the sound level is not jumping from low to very high, may be they wanted to give the suspense effect but the variation from normal to high was very too much, for the cinematography I would give 7/10 because most of the scenes are dark or poor lighting, indeed it is a horror movie but who said that horror movies must be that poor lighting, I still remember the movie "The Others" where most of its scenes were done on candle light but still the scenes were clearer, now for the story, I understood from the Wikipedia that this movie is based on a best selling novel, honestly I have not read the novel itself and I know many times when you convert a novel to a movie it looses a lot from its flavor because of course of the time limit, but the story of the movie was not convincing at all, it opens a lot of unanswered questions: 1- How some sort of heavy drugs which should cause hallucinations can make someone see incidents happened in the past as if he is traveling in time? And how he (Karim) considered himself that he has really seen incidents in the past and at the same moment he has a book with all these incidents written in it? The logical answer that these incidents are part of his unconscious once he read the book and he just retrieve them when had the tablets not that he traveled somehow to the past. 2-The movie didn't answer where Karim has disappeared for 5 years? 3- How he had the same thesis on his Ph.D. as Khaled and they didn't meet at all specially it is not a very common subject for Ph.D.? 4- How Nelly got divorced easily at the end of the movie although she didn't love her husband from day one? These are only example of the questions which you would find

tshaikhu The movie is based on a best seller thriller fiction published in Egypt carrying the same name "The Blue Elephant" written by a writer who s pioneering thriller fiction in Egypt last 5 years with 3 Best sellers in a row "Ahmed Mourad" Marwan Hamed "the Director" made another successful movie based on another best seller book 7 years ago "Yaqoubian Building" That is why, there is excess of hype and teaser Marketing prior the showDirecting style came across in a classy way with good visuals reflecting dark atmosphere of events. Yet slow motion, close shots and sound track climax was abused/over used across the movieSpoiler/ Story/ Script: Although story is very entertaining while reading because of unique writing style , smart choice of topic and good research of facts, It still lacks of building strong plotThe main character of the movie "Dr Yahya, the psychiatrist" is deciphering the truth that the real killer is a devil who haunted the body of his X-colleague by taking hallucination pills of DMT!! What is the link? How come? Why?...No clear answers. Although storyline built good climax of complexity, Twist and solution of the problem came too simple ...It was all about black magic and spell got through the body of the wife via a tattoo !! ...That is it?The writer has unique descriptive writing style that got missed by nature when Novel is transferred to screenplay , so viewer will be left with events, dialog and plot which is the weakest element storyCinemagraphy: Was very colorful and excellent except in abusing the slow motion and close shots techniques Actors Performance: Khaled El Sawi is a legend. Karim AbdelAziz is good but Nelly Karim performance is too flat. She was totally out of orientationMusic is great and fits with mysterious / magical oriental contextIt is nice movie that shapes new genre of mystery/thriller movies in Egyptian cinema but it is far from being classic

Daniel Mamdouh I waited in a huge line to watch this movie, it's like all of Egypt wanted to see it, I had read the novel before going in and by reading the reviews, I was a bit astounded, so after finishing it, I am writing this review, I would like to say that the acting and directing are brilliant, absolutely excellent, the only problem is, this is supposedly based on a novel with the same name, but the story isn't the same at all! so if you have read the novel, and are going to see this movie, be certain that the story is different, so don't be surprised, but all in all, this is a great movie and I highly suggest you go and watch it.