Horror Archives

Why Stephen King’s Stories Only Get Scarier with the Passage of Time

Stephen King’s books reveal their depths slowly. Great horror comes from a fight between hope and hopelessness, empathy and the lack of it, and all of King’s stories straddle that fine line.

Amal Singh July 28, 2016

Bollywood

Stree Review: A New World Where Men Live in Fear of Women

In Amar Kaushik’s Stree, gender roles are reversed: Men are forced to comply with society’s impractical rules and police their behaviour for no fault of their own. The film uses its supernatural spirit to imagine a safer world for women, but fails to eventually carry it through.

Poulomi Das July 2, 2016

Pop Culture

Don’t Breathe 2 review: Breathable compared to the first, but equally grim and fascinating

Don’t Breathe 2 doesn’t have the urgency or the novelty of the first film, but it has enough dreary twists, hideous characters and another solid, if ugly, performance by Stephen Lang (the blind guy).

Manik Sharma June 25, 2016

Pop Culture

Phone Bhoot Review: Screwball Horror Comedy That’s Unashamed of Being Silly

Phone Bhoot is silly, awkward and committed to nonsense to the extent that you don’t mind taking partaking in its idea of fun.

Pradeep Menon June 14, 2016

Pop Culture

Hereditary Review: Family is the Greatest Horror of All

The most inventive stroke of Ari Aster’s Hereditary is that it has the greatest horror villain of all time: family inheritance. The film takes the saying “skeletons in the closet” literally, giving us a genuinely terrifying portrait of a family’s breakdown.

Poulomi Das May 20, 2016

Bollywood

20 Years Later: Ram Gopal Varma’s Kaun? Is the Freakiest “Knock Knock” Story of Our Time

Back in 1999, when Ram Gopal Varma shot Kaun, a home-invasion horror with a single set, three characters, loose threads and under 15 days, it seemed like he was courting disaster, or worse, boredom. But 20 years later, the film’s experiments with crafting an atmospheric horror is nothing short of revolutionary.

The Faunlet May 18, 2016

Pop Culture

Why I Won’t Be Watching Goosebumps 2 in Theatres

I learned the lesson that it’s better not to tarnish the memories of the books I would read by torchlight after bedtime with a movie more goofy and ghastly. Written by RL Stine, the Goosebumps books were where younger readers were introduced to all of horror’s tropes as a genre.

Dushyant Shekhawat May 15, 2016

Pop Culture

Ghoul Review: Humans Are the Real Monsters in Netflix’s Horror Mini Series

Like Get Out and Pari, the Radhika Apte-starrer Ghoul underlines horror with context and uses it as a device to drive home a point about prejudice and gross injustice. In all three, humans are the hunters – not the hunted.

Poulomi Das April 30, 2016

Bollywood

You’ve Been Ghosted: Is There More to Bollywood Horror than Ramsay Brothers?

What next for Bollywood horror? Ramsay Brothers might be the most popular spooky filmmakers, but there is more to the genre. Decades later we continue to be haunted by tried-and-tested tropes – women in white, demonic possession, and bhoot banglas.

Aditi Sen April 25, 2016

Pop Culture

Man vs Wild: The Spectacular Horror of Lijo Jose Pellisery’s Jallikattu

The horror in Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu feels potent because it is not posited as a horror film. It’s rooted in a world all too real, where cops are wife-beaters and BJP flags loom the streets and men will literally tear each other apart to assert their superiority.

Mohit Patil April 18, 2016