Bhoothakaalam review Narration: Vinu’s mother and he don’t get along well because of their anxiety and depression. Following Vinu’s grandmother’s passing, things in their rented home deteriorate.
Review: Even in modern times, a haunted setting can be the most basic yet alluring element of a psychological thriller. Bhoothakalam, directed by Rahul Sadasivan, intermittently confines its characters to eerie nighttime settings in order to explore a few psychological and non-psychological issues they may be dealing with.
Vinu, a recent D Pharm graduate searching for employment, resides with his mother and grandmother, who are both ill. The already strained mother-son relationship is worsened by the grandmother’s passing as both of them experience depression. Even worse, things in the house they stay in start to decline out of nowhere.
Nothing that the film uses to lace its story with terror is new to us; these include jump scares, self-moving furniture, spooky noises, unnatural scary elements gone crazy, stories of horror and insanity passed down through the generations, eerie, dark rooms, wide-open eyes, and scary, dark silhouettes.
A lot of the story’s elements can be considered outdated and incomplete by today’s standards, and it is overflowing with clichés. Even though the plot revolves around standard horror movie elements, viewers are kept interested until the very end to find out what happens to the struggling family because of the outstanding performances by Shane Nigam and Revathy. More than the happenings around them, it is their potent expressions that convey to the audience the terrifying qualities of the paranormal story. The film also raises the question of whether it is up to the viewer to determine whether the melancholy occupants of the house are dreaming of the weird things they see all around them.Although the jump scares are intriguing, they can occasionally get cliched and even predictable. Additionally, the current ending leaves the viewer wondering why this wasn’t decided upon sooner. It could have been done better.
This film is recommended for those who enjoy the claustrophobic effect created by eerie tales that evoke chills through unexplained sounds.
