Yet again based on a familiar premise of a family shifting to a haunted house, THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR works because of its gripping narrative and a shocking message oriented flash black related to a Chinese couple and their daughter living in the same house (back in the 1930s).
Supposedly based on a true story, the film was simultaneously shot in three languages (Tamil, Telugu and Hindi) and has been skillfully directed by Milind Rau along with a fine camerawork, background score (sound effects) and VFX enhancing its overall impact. Impressively enacted by Siddharth, Atul Kulkarni, Prakash Belawadi, Andrea Jeremiah and Anisha Victor (in particular), THND has a superfine first half but a stretched second, wherein the proceedings do take some hard to believe cinematic liberties at times. Plus a few scenes also remind you of the famous Hollywood horror classics (as a routine).
Having said that, the film still successfully manages to remain interesting and compelling right till the ‘message oriented’ climax. And it’s the ‘haunted past’ that actually hits you hard in an emotional manner, forcing you to think about the shocking and unbelievable crime committed by an obsessed father. As a matter of fact, the social message in the film actually works as the director never stresses upon the same in the entire duration, but only reveals it in the end coming as a brutal blow. And that’s exactly how it needs to be done in a horror film, since the viewers are not there in the theater to watch some ‘intellectual - thought provoking’ stuff, as tried in the latest PARI.
In all, despite revolving around a familiar path, THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR largely delivers what one expects from a decent (Indian) horror film and thus deserves to be seen.
Rating : 3 + 0.5 / 5 (with the additional 0.5 for its expressive, emotional flashback giving an important social message)
(The article was first published at UC News Mobile App in March 2018)
Tags :
THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR (2017) Review by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, New Hindi Films Reviews By Bobby Sing, New Horror Films in Indian Cinema, New Bollywood Movies Reviews By Bobby Sing, New Hindi Horror Films
