A US distribution deal brings fresh attention to Majid Al Ansari’s Emirati thriller, a story of motherhood and domestic power shaped by women on screen and behind the camera.
Amani’s home is the centre of her life, and the place where her security begins to unravel. When her husband returns with a second wife, pregnant with his first son, her position within the family changes abruptly. In HOBA, that premise becomes the starting point for psychological and supernatural horror, with a mother’s determination to protect her daughter carrying the story forward.
Directed by Emirati filmmaker Majid Al Ansari and produced by Image Nation Studios and Spooky Pictures, the Arabic-language film has now secured US distribution through Dark Sky Films. The acquisition, announced on 2 October, creates a further route for a Gulf story to reach international audiences. A US release date has yet to be announced.
The family at its centre gives the news its cultural interest. Bdoor Mohammad plays Amani, opposite Saudi actress and filmmaker Sarah Taibah as Zahra, the new wife. Amani wants to remain in the home and safeguard her daughter Noor. As disturbing events accumulate, she begins to suspect that Zahra is concealing a supernatural threat.
Even before that question is answered, the situation described in the film’s synopsis raises a more everyday uncertainty: how much control does a woman have over the life she has helped build? A husband’s decision reshapes the household, leaving the women to live with its consequences. Motherhood becomes bound up with the need to defend a place, a relationship and a sense of belonging.
Al Ansari has described his intention to draw fear from emotional upheaval within the family as well as from the unknown. In the statement accompanying the US acquisition, he connects the film’s Gulf setting with feelings of betrayal and a mother’s fight to protect her family. That framing makes the domestic conflict central to the film’s premise, giving the supernatural story an intimate point of entry.
Women also helped shape how that household was conceived. In its account of the production, Image Nation identifies Emirati executive Fatima Al Dhaheri as a creative collaborator whose involvement extended across script development, character work and decision-making. Casting was led by Emirati casting director Alwiya Thani alongside Omar Al Bayati. Their contributions offer a fuller understanding of the women’s perspective behind a film directed by a man.
Those roles matter because cultural specificity depends on decisions made throughout production. Who gets to question a character’s motivation, recognise a detail of family life or influence the choice of performer affects how a story takes shape. The studio’s account places that work inside the creative process, alongside the performances that audiences eventually encounter.
HOBA, also known internationally as The Vile, opened in UAE cinemas in October 2025. It won Best Picture in the horror competition at Fantastic Fest that year, an award recorded in the festival results reported by Rue Morgue. The new acquisition extends an international journey already under way.
For a US audience, the film will introduce a particular household and the pressures within it. For readers in the Gulf, the distribution deal offers a reason to revisit the questions its premise brings into view: who holds authority at home, how a mother protects her child, and what happens when the place associated with safety becomes a source of fear.
