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Mar 4, 2024 · The Hindi film industry's perception of horror as merely an ROI (return-on-investment) genre may have stifled innovation in this space, and limited the genre's growth potential, even as other genres like action, drama, comedy, and romance continue to reinvent to suit the changing audience needs.
There is a thin line between horror and comedy and most Bollywood films seem to manage a spoof rather than a good spook. Horror movies produced in the last three decades of the 20th century were no different. The 1970s and 80s were marked by a rise in the production of “masala” films.
- 11 Stree
- 10 Pari
- 9 9
- 8 1920
- 7 The House Next Door
- 6 Kothanodi
- 5 Aamis
- 4 Mahal
- 3 Bhoot
- 2 13B: Fear Has A New Address
A Horror Comedy About An Urban Legend Of A Witch Who Abducts Men
1. Stream on Netflix The mix of horror and comedy can be a lot of fun when done effectively and Stree is one such movie that nails the blend. This Indian horror movie is based on a popular urban legend called Nale Ba (which stands for Come Tomorrow). The legend has people painting this word on the walls of their homes to keep out evil spirits. Streefeatures a village where a witch has been haunting it for years while abducting men, while the film's main story follows a young man who falls for...
A Movie About A Girl With Demonic Blood Who Becomes Pregnant
1. Stream on Prime Video A great directorial debut from Kolkata-born Prosit Roy, Pari is a supernatural horror movie about a strange woman named Rukhsana, who may not be of this world. Containing elements of demonic horror, Pari concerns a satanic cult called Auladhchakra that sexually assaults and impregnates kidnapped womenwith the offspring of an Islamic mythological demon named Ifrit. Even more disturbingly, there is a group that seeks out the impregnated women and holds them captive unti...
A Father & Son Encounter Horrors During The Passing Of A Comet
1. No streaming options available A fun mix of science fiction and horror, 9 also contains some touching elements regarding father-son relationships. The "9" title refers to the number of days that a passing comet will disrupt all forms of modern technology, including electricity and phone service. The movie follows Dr. Albert Lewis, a widowed astrophysicist, and his eight-year-old son Adam, whom he has a distant relationship with because he blames the boy for his wife's death during childbir...
A New Couple Moves Into An Old Manor Only To Find It Haunted
1. Rent on Amazon Some of the best period horror movies include haunted houses, and 1920 belongs to this subgenre. Released in 2008, the movie concerns a married couple who live inside a haunted house. Arjun is a Hindu man who marries a half-caste British Indian woman and his family tries to kill her to stop the marriage. Arjun abandons his religious beliefs and his family before taking a job as an architect remodeling a stately old manor home. While there, they learn it is haunted and someth...
A Troubled Teenage Moves In Next Door To A Struggling Married Couple
1. Rent on Apple TV The House Next Door is an Indian horror film with many effective scares that can both startle and unsettle. The story follows Krish and Lakshmi, a brain surgeon and his wife, who grow troubled once a rebellious teenager and her stepmother move in next door. A series of disturbing paranormal events accost the teenager, resulting in a battle between good and evil as Krish and Lakshmi attempt to rid their house of the spirits. Siddharth not only starred in the movie as the br...
A Story Of Mothers & Children Based On Indigenous Folk Tales
1. Stream on Yupp TV 2015's Kothanodi is based on Grand Mother's Tales, a very popular piece of Assamese literature that has been enjoyed since its publication in 1911. The book is a collection of folklore stories written by Assamese poet, Lakshminath Bezbaroa. It would have proved quite difficult to adapt the book, given its legendary status in Assam. But through some good filmmaking and inventive re-imaginings of the classic stories, Kothanodi proves an enticing watch. The movie's story is...
A Couple Soon Develops A Taste For Human Flesh
1. Stream on Yupp TV Aamis, whose English title is Ravening, debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019, garnering some very strong reviews. The story follows a content pediatrician named Nirmali, who meets a Ph.D. student studying Indian eating habits. The two quickly form a bond and soon begin experimenting with different types of meat. Before long, Nirmali develops an obsession with trying human meat,which leads to a horrifying conclusion as their secret desires soon become public. It's...
Bollywood's First Horror Movie
1. Rent on Amazon Often credited as Bollywood's first horror movie, Mahal is worth watching simply for its historical importance. Released in 1949, the movie stars Ashok Kumar as Hari Shankar, a man who experiences visions and bizarre occurrences inside his new, abandoned palace. He begins to see visions of a mysterious woman who claims that she was his lover in a precious life. The movie draws on themes of reincarnationwhile presenting a tantalizing mystery that is filled with both scares an...
A Demonic Possession Movie
1. Stream on Yupp TV Taking enormous influence from The Exorcist, Bhoot is a worthwhile addition to the malevolent demonic possession subgenre. This movie is about a married couple — Vishal and Swati — who move into a haunted apartment and begin to experience severe repercussions in the form of Swati's possession. Bhoot contains some solid possession-based scaresand is led by a great performance from Urmila Matondkar (playing Swati), who won a Bollywood Movie Award and Filmfare Award for Best...
A Man Watches His Family's Future On A Telenovela
1. Rent on Amazon Aside from the rather silly name, 13B: Fear Has a New Address is a fun little low-budget Indian film. The film looks fantastic despite its obvious lack of money, working wonders with inventive camera angles and beautiful framing. Madhavan also proves a capable leading actor, portraying a man who watches the future of his family through a telenovelathat is playing exclusively on his television set. He soon learns the terrifying secret that a family was butchered in his new ap...
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- Features Writer
- 'Bhoot' (2003) Directed by Ram Gopal Varma. Bhoot (Ghost) focuses on a couple who rents a high-rise apartment at a ridiculously low price. When Vishal (Ajay Devgn) finds out that the reason the apartment is priced so low is the suicide of a woman who killed herself after killing her son, he decides to keep it under wraps from his wife, Swati (Urmila Matondkar).
- '1920' (2008) Directed by Vikram Bhatt. A period horror drama that will make most Bollywood horror lists, 1920 follows Arjun (Rajneesh Duggal), a well-known architect, who decides to marry a girl from a different caste, Lisa (Adah Sharma).
- 'Pari' (2018) Directed by Prosit Roy. Starring popular actress Anushka Sharma, the plot is centered around the demon Ifrit and a satanic cult aiming to perpetuate the bloodline of the demon.
- 'Ek Thi Daayan' (2013) Directed by Kannan Iyer. In Hindi, "Daayan" means witch. Known for starring in a string of horror films, Emraan Hashmi plays the role of a top magician who's suffering from the trauma of his past as he believes his father and sister were killed by a witch when he was a child.
Nov 11, 2022 · Could it be that the periodic calls for boycotts that Indian films face – especially from supporters of the current right-wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, or if the movie features...
Aug 5, 2020 · Bhoot. How do you imagine an Indian ghost to be? A women in a white sari holding a lamp who also happens to walk on the road preferably at midnight? Watch this film and you’ll be convinced that ghosts have come a long way too.
When the horror-suspense genre was reinvented a decade later, things took a very different turn. This Halloween, here are three films from that later era that represent Bollywood firsts in...
