A festival celebrating children should be the last place to find nightmares that will haunt you for the rest of your life. But, as we horror fans know, some monsters love kids – as entrees. For these creepy critters, a children’s festival is more of an all-you-can-eat buffet.

In Islam, a yearly holy day called Achoura/Ashura commemorates Moshe/Moses/Musa parting the Red Sea, as well as the Battle of Karbala. Depending on the branch of Islam observing it, it is either a day of mourning or a day of celebration. For Shi’a Muslims, it is a time of mourning and fasting, in memory of the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet, in the Battle of Karbala. However, in majority Sunni places like Morocco, where our story takes place, it is more likely to be a day of celebration. In the film, Moroccans celebrate children at this time, with Ashura Night also known as the Night of the Children. Celebrants dress in costume, dance, and sing to commemorate the occasion.

On a long past Achoura night, a young girl (Celine Hugo) and her friend slip away from the festival – and the girl’s abusive middle-aged husband – to a crumbling manor deep in the woods, and the girl is swallowed by the darkness. In the present, a woman named Nadia (Sofiia Manousha) is invited to a very strange art exhibition opening by her childhood friend, Stéphane (Iván Gonzáles). Nadia’s husband, Ali (Younes Bouab), is working himself to the bone trying to solve the case of an alarming number of missing children, while his and Nadia’s young son, Youssef (Mohamed Wahib Abkari), feels increasingly alone. In the heart of the city, a little boy loses his soccer ball, and finds what appears to be… someone’s human pet (Omar Lotfi)?

The way these plot threads twist together into the braided rope that is Achoura is something you have to see for yourself to understand. It travels back and forth between past and present, mainly focusing on Nadia, Ali, and Stéphane, but when other characters are pulled in, it doesn’t feel clunky, instead making the story more intricate – and more fun to unravel. Terrifying and tragic in equal measure, it blends a few subgenres, presenting viewers with a monster they won’t soon forget – awake or asleep. And while the image of childhood friends reuniting to try to once and for all banish an ancient evil may feel familiar to fans of It or Mercy Black, this French-Moroccan tale is worth watching anyway. The visuals are stunning, and a lot of scares are pulled off with minimal gore. The score by Romain Paillot is well-composed, and solid performances are given all around by the adult and child actors alike.

Achoura is a frightening, well-made piece of Moroccan horror that deserves wider recognition. If you can find it, I highly recommend seeing for yourself what lurks within the walls of the beautiful but terrifying French House.

9 out of 10