General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Paranormal (2020 TV series)

Paranormal (Arabic: ما وراء الطبيعة, Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa) is an Egyptian horror drama television series released on Netflix on November 5, 2020, and the first Netflix original series produced in Egypt. Created by filmmaker Amr Salama, it adapts the best-selling novel series of the same name by the late Egyptian author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik and follows Dr. Refaat Ismail, a hematologist in 1960s Egypt who is drawn into a series of supernatural events.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	November 5, 2020, on Netflix, released in 190 countries and available in over 32 languages¹
Format	One season of six episodes, in Arabic, rated TV-14³
Source material	Tawfik's Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa novel series, launched in 1993, which sold over 15 million copies worldwide⁴^•⁵
Lead cast	Ahmed Amin as Dr. Refaat Ismail, with Razane Jammal (Maggie), Ayah Samaha (Huwaida), Samaa Ibrahem (Raeefa), and Reem Abd El Kader (Shiraz)¹^•³
Direction and production	Directed by Amr Salama and Majid Al Ansari; executive producers Amr Salama and Mohamed Hefzy¹
Reception	96% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 4 reviews; 8/10 average on IMDb³^•⁶

Spoilers

Premise and episodes

Set in 1960s Egypt, the series follows Dr. Refaat Ismail, a cynical hematologist with a dark sense of humor whose lifelong scientific convictions are questioned when he encounters the paranormal. The plot begins in 1969, as Refaat enters his 40s, and he is accompanied through the season by his university colleague Maggie as they investigate supernatural dangers threatening their loved ones.⁷ Netflix's synopsis describes him as plunged into a series of supernatural events as he attempts to unravel the mysteries behind each unusual case.²

The six episodes each adapt one of the novels' iconic myths, with a continuing storyline about Refaat's past and the mysterious Shiraz running underneath:⁸

"The Myth of the House": Refaat invites his old flame Maggie to his birthday party, where a sighting heightens the tension.³
"The Myth of the Curse of the Pharaoh": after the autopsy of a reportedly cursed mummy, a black cloud looms over Cairo.³
"The Myth of the Guardian of the Cave": Refaat and Maggie search for a cure in the Libyan Desert.³
"The Myth of the Naiad": after a tarot reading, Refaat visits his hometown, where a voice hypnotizes him.³
"The Myth of the Incubus": a grief-stricken Refaat chases Shiraz through a haunted maze in his dreams.³
"The Myth of the House: The Return": Refaat tries to decipher the real story behind Shiraz's death.³

The action moves between time periods, transporting audiences between Egypt in 1910, 1941, and 1969.⁹

Origin and production

A long-gestating adaptation. Amr Salama read Tawfik's novels as an eleven-year-old in 1993 and acquired the property rights in 2006, developing the material as a director for years before production requirements, which in Egypt were available only to Ramadan-series-scale productions, could be met through the deal with Netflix.¹⁰ Salama and his producing partner Mohamed Hefzy, founder of Film Clinic, brought the idea to Netflix when the platform was beginning to produce original content in the Arab world.¹¹

Filming began on November 17, 2019, in Cairo, with locations between Giza and Fayoum, and wrapped in July 2020, which Salama announced with a clapperboard image captioned "in these difficult circumstances," a reference to the COVID-19 period.¹²^•¹³ The season was shot in Egypt with an entirely Egyptian cast and crew, which the production presented as a new level of production standards for the country.⁸ Producer Mohamed Hefzy said the production process differed greatly from what Egyptian producers were used to, with resources that had not previously been available to them.¹⁴

The special effects team spent several months of preparation and rehearsal sessions to reach the final look of the character Shiraz.⁸

The source novels

Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, a Tanta-based physician, wrote Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa as a supernatural horror series for teenagers from 1993, in a pulp-fiction boom begun that year by the Modern Arab Association publishing company. He died in 2018 at the age of 55, before the adaptation was released.⁴ The series of 81 books, not counting special editions, sold over 15 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most commercially successful literary works to come out of the Middle East and North Africa.¹¹^•⁵ Its protagonist Refaat Ismail differs from conventional heroes: a weak, sardonic, hesitant, frightened man who makes many mistakes and admits his weakness, which kept him beloved with readers.¹⁵

Release and reception

Netflix announced the release date in October 2020 and dubbed the series into nine languages, including English, Spanish, French, Turkish, and German. Paranormal was also the first Egyptian Original series to carry audio and written descriptions for viewers who are hearing or visually impaired.¹ It quickly rose to number one on the "Top Ten in Egypt Today" list.¹⁶

Critical response was largely positive. On Rotten Tomatoes the season holds a 96% Tomatometer from 4 reviews and more than 250 audience ratings.³ Reviewers highlighted the wry humor and case-of-the-week structure, the cinematography and set pieces, and Ahmed Amin's performance; recurring criticisms targeted the visual effects and lighting.³^•¹⁷ A German review judged it a well-made first season for the first Egyptian Netflix series overall, despite weak CGI and predictable plotting.¹⁸ Some Egyptian critics and readers found the adaptation less coherent than the standalone novels it drew from.¹⁹

Significance

As Netflix's first Egyptian original, Paranormal marked the streaming platform's first foray into Egyptian drama and its first Arabic Original from Egypt.¹²^•¹ Egypt had historically been dubbed the "Hollywood of the Middle East" and produces the most Arabic films and television series in the region, and the series returned supernatural horror to Egyptian television, a genre largely absent since the 2009 series Abwab Al-Khof aired on MBC.²⁰^•⁴

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026