Introduction: The horror genre, deeply rooted in myth, ritual, and collective memory, has long served as a cinematic expression of social anxiety and cultural trauma. Across world cinema, localized forms of horror have emerged through the creative adaptation of folklore, ritual practices, and geographically specific cultural symbols. In the Iranian context, however, horror cinema remains relatively underexplored, largely due to limited theoretical engagement and the persistent perception of horror as merely a form of popular entertainment. This study aims to develop an indigenous model of horror cinema in Iran by integrating global genre theory with the cultural, mythological, and environmental characteristics of Khuzestan Province-a region distinguished by its ethnic diversity, complex historical experiences, and rich ritual traditions.
The study addresses the question of how local myths, rituals, and environmental conditions can be translated into the narrative and aesthetic structures of cinematic horror. It further examines which folkloric elements are most adaptable to cinematic representation, how localized forms of fear differ from universal horror archetypes, and what institutional and cultural constraints affect the development of horror cinema in Iran.
Methods: This study adopts a qualitative analytical-documentary approach that combines theoretical inquiry with cultural analysis. The data were drawn from two principal sources:
• written materials, including books, scholarly publications, and documented folklore related to horror, mythology, and the regional culture of Khuzestan; and
• non-written sources, including oral narratives, ritual descriptions, and ethnographic records derived from previous fieldwork and archival collections.
The analysis proceeded in three stages. First, recurrent mythological motifs and folkloric figures were identified within the local cultural corpus. Second, these motifs were mapped onto the narrative and aesthetic conventions of the global horror genre. Finally, their cinematic potential was evaluated with particular attention to narrative construction, mise-en-scène, and sound design.
The analytical framework integrates genre theory (Neale, Altman, and Carroll), myth criticism (Eliade), and performance theory (Turner and Schechner) to examine the relationship between ritualized fear and cinematic representation. Through a cross-cultural comparative perspective, the study situates Iranian horror within the broader traditions of folk horror and cultural horror, both of which combine indigenous belief systems with contemporary cinematic forms.
Results: The findings indicate that the cultural landscape of Khuzestan provides a rich repertoire of horror-related motifs across mythological, ritual, and environmental dimensions.
Within the mythological dimension, supernatural figures such as Al, Taptapo, and Umm al-Subyan embody collective anxieties surrounding motherhood, fertility, and liminality. Their symbolic complexity offers substantial potential for constructing culturally distinctive cinematic monsters.
Within the ritual dimension, practices such as Zār exorcism ceremonies, mourning rituals, and infant protection rites incorporate embodied performances and sonic patterns that closely parallel the temporal rhythm and emotional intensity characteristic of horror cinema.
Within the environmental dimension, deserts, marshlands, war-affected settlements, and other geographically distinctive spaces generate powerful visual and emotional settings for horror narratives. These landscapes, shaped by historical trauma and ecological extremity, evoke isolation, uncertainty, and the uncanny.
The study further identifies a distinctive audiovisual repertoire associated with southern Iran, including lamentation chants (yazleh), ritual drumming, dramatic contrasts between intense daylight and nocturnal darkness, and the persistent presence of wind and silence. Together, these elements constitute a unique sensory vocabulary capable of defining the aesthetic identity of an indigenous Iranian horror cinema.
Synthesizing these findings, the study identifies three interrelated components essential to a localized model of horror cinema: (1) a narrative-mythological structure grounded in local legends, taboos, and transgressions; (2) a spatial-visual atmosphere shaped by abandoned villages, humid riversides, and decaying architecture; and (3) a sonic-ritual design based on ceremonial rhythms, chants, and strategic silence. Collectively, these components provide the foundation for a culturally grounded cinematic language of fear that remains locally authentic while being accessible to international audiences.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that the localization of horror cinema in Iran requires more than the incorporation of indigenous symbols into established global genre conventions. Rather, it depends upon a structural synthesis that brings global genre frameworks into dialogue with local mythological and semiotic systems.
Within the Iranian cultural context, fear is represented less through external monstrosity than through the disruption of sacred order, the transgression of ritual boundaries, and the return of suppressed historical memory. This interpretation positions cinematic horror as an expression of enduring cultural tensions between tradition and modernity, the sacred and the profane, and the human and the supernatural.
The mythological and ecological characteristics of Khuzestan further demonstrate that horror aesthetics can simultaneously remain culturally specific and internationally intelligible. The integration of ritual soundscapes, regional dialects, environmental realism, and indigenous mythology offers the potential to establish a distinctive cinematic language through which Iran’s cultural memory can be expressed audiovisually.
Overall, the proposed model provides a theoretical framework for the indigenous development of horror cinema in Iran and offers both scholars and filmmakers a basis for reinterpreting the genre through local cultural traditions rather than reproducing established Western conventions. Future research may extend this framework through comparative studies of other Iranian regions in order to explore the diversity of localized expressions of fear and their cinematic potential.