Horror Story (2013)

India Reliance DVD

Maya


As usual when a Bollywood Bhatt Horror not very scary but still a somewhat in a trashy way enjoyable movie
with a couple of likeable young actors and a Great Location in this deserted Huge Hotel. Actually, the best thing
about this film is the location and i'm pretty sure we will see some sequels in the future exploiting this locale.
Yes, this is a Vikram Bhatt production, the Bhatt's - the Horror Family of Bollywood.

Warning for SPOILERS below

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The film starts with a middle-aged man driving up to and then walking into - a huge deserted hotel The Grandiose
where he goes to room no. 3046 and commits suicide by jumping from the balcony. He's the former owner.
Then, after the credits, we join a group of 7 friends (22-26 years old something) that has gathered to party a last
night before one of them leaves for the USA. They're Neel (Karan Kundra), Neena (Radhika Menon), Maggie
(cutie Aparna Bajpai), Achint (Nishant Malkani), Sonia, Samrat and Maghesh (Ravish Desai).
On the TV they hear the news and the story about the latest victim in the infamous shutdown hotel. The Guys tell
the stories about the hotel and that the ghost of a girl is haunting the place and makes people die.
So, the best scriptwriter in the world - Ever - Vikram Bhatt ... concocts the most logical scheme. Hey, Guys, instead
of partying off Neel, let's go to the Hotel and meet the ghost there tonight. Yeaaaaah, brilliant idea.

The Ectoplasmic Hotel

Neena, Achint, Neel and Maggie

Said and done. Soon the septet has arrived and start looking for Room 3046 and then they start dying.
Samrat dies first in the shower of the room and when the remaing 6 tries to escape from the hotel they find that this is
an impossible task as their back entrance door has vanished. For some unknown reason they don't even trie to shatter
the big entrance hallway glass doors? But the Haunted Ectoplasmic Hotel from Hell wouldn't allow such easy solutions
i guess. Then Mahgesh and Sonia dies - 4 to go. "Who's here, who's killing us ? complains the girls.
Also, Vikram Bhatt schemes up the never before used gimmick, there's no mobile phone connection in the hotel !

Aparna Bajpai as Maggie

Radhika Menon as Neena

So, the murderer is the ghost of the child killer mass murderer Maya, once a mental patient in the asylym that the
hotel was built upon, and she just want to .... kill people. Will anyone of The Frightened Seven survive ?
OK, i sound a bit ironic above and the film wasn't very scary, and which horror flicks really are?, in Bollywood
very rarely - i've only been scared by Ragini MMS and 1920 - but the film was pretty enjoyable still.

The location with the deserted and unpleasant looking hotel worked fine and with a better script and a more
talented director exploiting the visual possibilities this could've been something memorable. The constant babble
from the actors, yap, yap, yapping the poor script, took away most of the atmosphere of the great locale.
But, better luck next time or with Horror Story 7. For the decapitated head the makers shouldn't have used
CGI, it looked awful, but a special effects prosthetic head, wouldn't cost that much.
This may sound like a small problem/complaint but really is one symptom of why Bollywood Horror most often
sucks - the makers don't take it, the genre, seriously and settles for the trashy and second grade.
anamorphic widescreen, 5.1 or 2.0 hindi with english subtitles, no song/dance numbers, no extras

 

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