Sean Parker
Ava Maria Safai’s Foreigner is one of the most unique and exquisitely realized horror films of this or any other century. In ten years’ time, critics will look back on this film and, if they had bashed it, will resolve to tell you their newly formed opinions on it, much like many did with Jennifer’s Body at its release. But what we’re witnessing in 2025 is no less than an extraordinary debut feature. The title alone is jarring, a vaguely racist term to broadly categorize immigrants, but what Safai has to say concerning the culture is equally shocking. The story takes us back to the early aughts, into the halls of an American high school where Yasamin (Rose Deghan) seeks to impress her new peers after emigrating from Iran. She obsesses over the way she pronounces the syllables of “hypocrite,” trying her best not to invite the ire of her classmates, while at the same time seeking their approval.
I never expected Foreigner to be a horror picture in the way that it turns out, one of identity and possession, yet I did expect a more realistic tome of oppressive bullying. It turns out it can be both, and Safai manages to entangle these themes with great ease. The story is a little Mean Girls, a little Clueless, and a little Heathers, as Safai tackles a balancing act of Yasamin’s high school troubles, such as building an identity around what makes someone likable to others.
Yasamin lives with her father (Ashkan Nejati) and grandmother (Maryam Sadeghi) in a lovely suburban Canadian home, where Yasamin makes bowls of popcorn to watch her favorite shows, like a Friends-like sitcom reflecting that era of cool. The white folks on the screen have catchy dialogue and their confident styles, plus it’s mirroring the most-watched sitcom of all time, the epitome of what an impressionable outsider looking to fit in might use to cultivate a persona. There’s excitement for Yasamin to attend school. She wants to make friends, and she’s working hard at putting her best foot forward. Rachel (Sugar Rot’s Chloë MacLeod) is the only one who takes an interest in Yasamin, and she and her duo of lookalike teens, Kristen and Emily (Talisa Mae Stewart and Victoria Wardell), begin to assimilate Yasamin into their group.
Through veiled racism and Western ignorance, Yasamin is treated as if she’s come from the warped reality of post-9/11 Michael Bay films of deserts and terracotta domiciles. There are moments where Yasamin is bothered by the fact that her past is treated like a limitation, yet she chooses to dismiss the notion rather than confront it. I mean, Yasamin now has a real-life Rachael to call her friend, so why wouldn’t she brush off her occasional obliviousness? Isn’t that what friends do?
Safai’s film takes place in Canada, which, given the time period of the film, would make sense for Iranian immigrants to see a slightly less volatile culture to move to. In 2021, immigrants represented 23% of Canada’s population, a model based on economic development and growth that involves opportunities for outsiders. The number grows from 20.6% in 2011, and I think it’s safe to say that with all of the anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack, Canada became a safer option for those seeking to emigrate. However, that does not make the North American country vastly different from its neighbor to the south.
Cultural exports like Friends, which is notorious for its lack of diverse characters, set its scene in New York and was in the middle of its network run when the events of 9/11 took place. So, when Rachael, seemingly defending Yasamin, calls her a terrorist, it is truly coming from a bombardment of cultural fear, and the changing landscape of Canadian politics, which has become more divisive over the cultural impact of immigration in recent years.
Safai examines the period with a distinct preservation that offers the immigrant perspective. There’s a ritual of assimilation and nationalism that feels like the shedding of one skin and the idea of wearing another. I think Sasha Rainbow’s Grafted tried to do something very similar, but was a bit more focused on the burgeoning chaos factor than the human element. Safai goes a different route, one that is very well embedded into Foreigner’s story, and you don’t see it until the final act, a supernatural element that ties the whole film together.
I’ve seen a lot of people calling Foreigner a possession film, and while that’s semi-accurate, I can’t help but feel it’s also a pseudo-witchcraft film as well. See, as soon as Yasamin meets the trio of Rachael, Emily, and Kristin, she becomes the fourth in their coven. None of this is said outright, but as she sacrifices little pieces of her identity, allowing her name to be shortened to the snappy Yazi or dying her dark hair blonde, it’s almost as if she’s allowing her newfound friends to turn her into something new, eventually turning her into something worthy of demonization.
For as dark as Foreigner can be at times, it’s candy-coated in sparkly stickers and butterfly hair clips. Monsters like Rachael have never looked so innocent. If Foreigner really reminds me of anything, it’s Catherine Hardwicke’s coming-of-age teen drama Thirteen, which most parents would also consider a horror movie. Yasamin never engages in such explicit acts, but there are similar ideas of teenage transformation and identity.
Ultimately, Foreigner is an amazingly contemplative experience, one that asks for sensitivity and respect. It’s a true gem of the indie landscape, with some great performances by Dehgan and MacLeod, a dark and ominous score by Finka Wood, and marks an impressive debut feature that cements Safai’s writing and directing skills and a true tour de force of voice and vision for immigrant perspectives at a time when that is a tough sell to Western culture. Stories like this are necessary and permeate with the originality audiences are seeking.
Foreigner held its World Premiere at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival on Thursday, July 31, with an encore showing on Saturday, August 2. Check out the film’s page on the Fantasia website for more information. The film has been picked up for distribution by Raven Banner Entertainment.
