WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I’ll be honest, Indian cinema in general has never really interested me, let alone Indian horror films. I had such a worry but they were going to be full of out of context dancing and singing (wait for it). Now, I won’t say I’m converted but some of the films below weren’t too bad…
Darkness Visible
I just wanted to point out straight away that unlike the other films on this list, it was also produced by the British Film Industry. I’ll be honest, I had a suspicion around Ronnie from the beginning, expecting the evil to have something to do with his artwork. However, when his scar started to bleed and he smiled I wondered if there was more going on. Truthfully I think I was just trying to rationalise the film too early but I wasn’t far wrong. Instead of the artwork being cursed, Ronnie was saved by the spirit of a murdered killer entering his body as a baby. Now, don’t get me wrong – this is a pretty good film but it definitely feels more like a murder mystery than a horror film.
Alone
It sounds really bad but when I saw the words ‘Bollywood Horror’, I was expecting singing and dancing but hoped that I was going to be proved wrong. Unfortunately, really early in the film I was proved right. 45 minutes in there’s practically a music video thrown in! This has no place in a supposed horror film in my opinion! After quite an intense opening with the storm and Anjana’s creepy voice – nothing really happens for a while. The funny thing is, I love the idea behind this film and as it is not too dissimilar to Look Away, with the dead sister. The only difference is that the switch of sisters is involuntary in this film. I’m not sure if it is because of the soft music or Sanjana’s delayed reactions but the jump scares just didn’t have their usual affect. For a lot of this film, it feels more like a soap opera than a horror film. I’ll give them this, they tried some really good twists – however I had already figured out how it was going to end.
Chhorii
Straight away from the opening of this film, it reminded me of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn. You assume very early that Bhanno is aware of the children in the sugarcane field – the fact that she warned her daughter-in-law to stay out of it but part of me was also concerned before she told this story that she was actually involved with them! Strangely, because we see the very little of the children until around an hour from the end, Bhanno seems much more terrifying and sometimes it feels hard to trust her, and in the end it seems you’re right not to. In a way this would have fitted into my A Mother’s Love article as she is subjecting Sakshi to this to save her family, and to give her son an heir. The last 45 minutes focuses specifically on Sakshi, Sunaini and the 3 boys and this is where the story really unravels its darkness, and it isn’t what you expect.
Dybbuk
I’ll say this much, Masood may not have known what he was playing with but I put dybbuk up there with Ouija boards….do not mess with it! The way his body looks after the attack is disturbingly realistic. Unfortunately, after this moment the suspense of the film is lost because we move on to a storyline that for me – has no relevance to anything or so we think until the end of the film. Truthfully, the box isn’t the danger but what’s inside because, much like Alone, this is a possession story. However, I’m unclear if the house has become possessed or if Mahi has! The spirit goes into Mahi’s mouth when she opens the box but the sounds are around the house instead. But it gets more confusing as all along we are led to believe it’s actually their baby and it isn’t revealed until 20 minutes from the end that it’s actually Sam that’s possessed!
Bhoot Part One: The Haunted Ship
After the quite haunting opening scene of this film with the little girl being taken, I got a little bit confused. As this was now set 11 years after the opening incident, I had no idea who Prithvi was and wasn’t even sure how the flashbacks were going to be relevant. In my opinion it has absolutely no bearing on the story even though his daughter is dead. Thankfully, this does not take away from the spookier parts of the film, but spookier doesn’t mean this is scary. We meet possessed Meera haunting the boat about 1 hour into the film and even though the cracking noises are rather disturbing, the CGI is awful! What bothered me a little is that the film was focused on rescuing Meera, which is fair enough, but not on the spirit that had possessed her. I think from the ending we are supposed to understand that she has been possessed by her real father, Amar, but this isn’t exactly clear to me.
Khamoshi
Interestingly, this film is actually based on the Mike Flanagan film Hush, and has basically the same plot (I know what you’re all thinking, and yes – there may be an article incoming). It’s even a similar title as Khamoshi means silence in Hindi. Now, not having seen Hush, I don’t know close they have got it – for example I don’t know if we see so much about the man that tries to scare the lead out of her home as we do Dev trying to scare Surbhi. This made the film quite interesting as most of the focus was on him. I had an inkling that his father may be dead as there was something about their interactions, unfortunately they made that part of the story line a little too obvious. Even though this film isn’t exactly scary on the whole, I love the little additions of humour as Dev can come across a little bit creepy at times.
