I have been brainstorming ideas for a short horror film for a while we eventually settled on a take on somali folklore specifically dhegdeer. Here is the basic outline. Feedback would be appreciated
Dhegdeer
Omar, a young muslim man accompanies his fiancée to meet her elderly aunt for the first time before their wedding. He considers himself incredibly lucky, his fiancée is kindest and most beautiful woman he has ever met and he hopes to make a good impression on the only close family member she talks about. Her aunt lives in an old, isolated house at first she seems nothing more than a gentle frail grandmother but one thing that stands out about her is her unusually long and pointy ears and she never tries to hide it.
When Omar and his fiancée are in their guest bedroom he whispers about something silly but her aunt who is outside the house immediately replies back which weirds Omar out, he is thinking to himself how can she hear whisper from a seemingly impossible distance. He also noticed how she very rarely blinks to an extent is genuinely abnormal she can go dozens of minutes of not blinking. He also came across things he wouldn't think a typical elderly somali woman would have. A Portuguese coin from the 16th century, wardrobes filled with clothes from different centuries, Bayonets and more which he thinks are a bit odd for somali woman to have but he appreciates and admires it and kinda thinks it's cool since he's a history major himself
But one thing that genuinely creeped him out is he sees some paintings from 1600s that has the exact same face as her, another one from 1800s black and white pics from 1930s in Italy, another one in 1970s in maryland and seemingly not too many years ago. And he sees a lot paintings/portraits/photos of tens of thousands of men over centuries from very different parts of the world. He tries to ignore them as a very strange hobby but it's not something he can easily forget.
At dinner, she serves a rich meat stew. The smell instantly bothers him. As a Muslim, he has always known the scent of pork(its human meat), but this smells even stranger. When he politely asks what kind of meat it is, she simply smiles and replies, "An old family recipe," refusing to answer directly. She insists multiple times that he eats everything she served. She served him a huge ton of food something he clearly cannot finish. He is clearly uncomfortable by now His fiancée dismisses his concern, but his appetite disappears.
When he goes back to the guest bedroom he asks his fiancée what is wrong with her aunt and she doesn't"t say anything literally. That night, unable to shake the feeling that something is terribly wrong, he quietly searches the house. Hidden inside an old wardrobe, he discovers dozens of photographs of his fiancée standing beside different men over many years. None of the men ever appear more than once. Something she has never mentioned to him.
Convinced he has stumbled into something dangerous, he decides to leave immediately the next morning. Before he can go, the aunt calmly asks why he is leaving so suddenly. He lies, claiming an emergency at work.
She smiles hearing his sudden change in heart beat
"You are lying." Before he can react, she bites of his fingers in an instantenous way with surgical precision . The shock overwhelms him, and he loses consciousness.
He awakens chained to a bed deep beneath the house. His legs and one arm have been amputated. Unable to move, he watches in horror as the old woman calmly strips flesh from his severed limbs and prepares them as though cooking an ordinary meal.
She finally reveals the truth.
She is not human.
She is Dhegdheer.
Rather than chasing prey, Dhegdheer enslaves beautiful young women through supernatural trigger phrases,forcing them to lure unsuspecting men into her home. They remain fully conscious but powerless to resist. She has done that to thousands of beautiful women for centuries.
To prove it, she calmly issues commands to his fiancée.
She sits.
She stands.
She walks in circles.
The man realizes that the woman he loves was never part of the trap by choice. She is merely the latest prisoner in a cycle that has continued for generations. She commands her to take a butcher knife and behead him and that happens.
As Dhegdheer prepares her next meal with quiet satisfaction, she explains that every photograph in the house marks another man who believed he was joining a family, only to become dinner instead.
The film ends as another photograph is added to the collection, suggesting that somewhere, another unsuspecting man is already on his way to meet the aunt of the woman he loves.
What do you think, also I've written it in english but will translate to somali. Anyway my main inspirations are dracula(the original bram stoker novel) texas chainsaw massacre and get out