Shaitaan
2024 · Directed by Vikas Bahl
Original language: Hindi
- thriller
- horror
The story
Kabir and his family's fun weekend retreat takes terrifying turn when an intruder takes over the control of the body of his teenage daughter, putting her at the mercy of his increasingly sinister orders.
What it’s like
Cold, controlled interiors and a glossy, high-key look give way to dark, shadowy rooms as a weekend getaway at a secluded farmhouse curdles into dread. The palette runs from crisp daylight and warm lamplight to murky greens and blacks once the night turns against the family, with a lot of tight handheld framing that pins you inside the house's claustrophobia. The score leans on swelling strings and thudding percussion, with stings that punch at each uncanny moment, and the silence between them feels loaded. Its vibe is slick, unsettled and deliberately overwrought, the kind of pulpy black-magic thriller that suits a late evening with the lights low or a Friday horror night with friends. Pacing is brisk and escalating, built around a father's desperate, increasingly frantic attempts to reclaim his child, and the emotional register swings between parental panic and cheerfully outlandish genre excess. The intensity is moderate to high: frightening possession scenes, eerie menace and a steady stream of supernatural threat, with some violence and disturbing psychological cruelty, but little explicit gore. It is for viewers who want a jumpy, melodramatic supernatural thriller rather than anything gentle or subtle.
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