Variety is the spice of horror

There’s something comforting about watching the dead — and the undead — haunt the living, writes Karthik Keramalu

There was a time when Ram Gopal Varma was making astounding horror movies. His lustrous formula was to make them as scary as possible by keeping the storylines simple, albeit with lots of room for ambiguity.

In the climactic portion of ‘Raatri’ (1992), simultaneously made in Hindi as ‘Raat’, the exorcist (played by Om Puri) deploys a metaphor regarding the amount of distance a particular source of light travels and the endless darkness that lies beyond it in order to explain the mysteries surrounding us. It comes across as a casual piece of dialogue, but that’s exactly where the entire weight of the plot rests.

Rima Kallingal as Bhargavi
in ‘Neelavelicham’ (2023).

Of course, the highlight of ‘Raatri’ is undoubtedly the act of exorcism itself in which the ghost melts into several dreadful forms before scampering away. And the Telugu film ‘Deyyam’ (1996), begins with the trope of a young man following a woman in a white sari into a graveyard. Do the nuts and bolts of his killing need an explicit mention? Aren’t killings as de rigueur as the eternal tussle between Gods and demons in such movies?

So far, so good. In the 2010s, however, there was a storm. Following the success of ‘Chandramukhi’ (2005) and ‘Kanchana’ (2011) in Tamil and ‘Prema Katha Chitram’ (2013) in Telugu, a bevy of half-baked horror comedies was unleashed upon us. While a few of them were watchable, most of them were stunningly unfunny. Rudderless dramas are often an inevitable encounter. One would have to push the margins of existence on many occasions, or turn off the valve.

Fortunately, the sub-genre started shrinking of its own free will. Or, maybe, it shrank because there were no takers anymore. It hasn’t been laid to rest, though. Horror comedies are still being made, but they are not ubiquitous at the moment. Sigh, that’s a relief. One can be happy about it for the remainder of the decade (or until the ball drops).

Breakthroughs in the genre

The thing about horror is that there’s something comforting about watching the dead — and the undead — haunt the living. At least that’s how it usually works. In the West, Mike Flanagan uses the genre as a springboard for therapy, whereas Jordan Peele uses it to peel away the layers of social issues that are rooted in prejudice. So, the raw materials as such don’t have to be limited to jump scares and crude violence.

In Telugu cinema, ‘Masooda’ (2022) and ‘Virupaksha’ (2023) have proved that horror can be served without adding an unnecessary dollop of crass humour. Beyond the elementary tricks in these movies, there are large sections where the male protagonists go out of their way to help the possessed women. It might be quite natural for a potential love interest to step in and discover the handbook of solutions, but for a neighbour to do it out of sheer goodwill is extraordinary.

Gopi (played by Thiruveer) vehemently refuses to be a bystander, in ‘Masooda’, when he witnesses his neighbour turn into a ghost. Instead of shrugging his shoulders and looking away, he offers to help his neighbour and her worried mother. Even when he gets physically attacked for doing his job, for example, he does not curse the perpetrator. And, most importantly, he does not stay away from the epicenter of hell for long. He argues that he’ll do whatever little he can by exhibiting a rare kind of tenderness that’s not often seen on-screen.

Although ‘Virupaksha’ handles an equally tough subject, Surya (played by Sai Dharam Tej) seems to be interested in solely saving his girlfriend (played by Samyuktha) from the villagers who are adamant about sacrificing her in the hope of saving themselves from the depths of black magic. Surya and Gopi aren’t cut from the same cloth, as they do not operate on the same scale. For starters, the former is portrayed as a typical hero. With nothing to gain from being civil, however, Gopi becomes a willful participant in a game of life and death.

Closer home, ‘6-5=2’ (2013) was, perhaps, the last riveting horror thriller that captured the attention of the viewers of Kannada cinema. It was truly ingenious in more ways than one. But the talking points around the genre are still tethered to Shhh! (1993), ‘Apthamitra’ (2004), and ‘U Turn’ (2016) to a great extent.

Horror movies need to take more unconventional turns. They may not always glow in the dark, but they’ll pave the way for the next generation of writers to hone their skills. What is Aashiq Abu’s ‘Neelavelicham’ (2023) if not a grand tale of romance, jealousy, and revenge? In this Malayalam fare, the ghost literally saves the protagonist when he falls into a water well, but takes revenge against the antagonist by pulling him further into the water later. This is just to say that the shocks can come in any number of variable combinations, but they have to be legitimate and march towards a purpose.