‘The Haunting’: Cast & Crew
Director: Tanveer Bookwala
Cast: Erica Fernandes, Gul Panag, Prakruti Mishra
Available On: Amazon MiniTV
Duration: 31 Minutes
‘The Haunting’: Story
Moushmi (Erica Fernandes) is accused of killing her best friend and roommate (Prakruti Mishra), but claims that it is a demon who made her do this and she is innocent. This demon has been following her since the day her sister passed away. Will the authorities believe her story? Will she be able to catch the real culprit and save herself? Is there actually a ghost? Or is it all in her whims and fancies? Well, for all that you’ll have to watch the movie.
‘The Haunting’: Performances
Erica Fernandes’ manages to take the entire weight of the film on her shoulders. However, the performance is too weak in comparison to what we have seen her do in her previous TV shows and OTT outings. Her act in the climax is the only respectable thing about her performance in the entire film. Considering her towering talent, it felt like the rest of the scenes she could have done even in her sleep – they were that easy for an actress of her calibre. Let’s not remember this film in Erica Fernandes’ filmography.
Gul Panag has been totally wasted in a character that’s confusing from the very start. Is she an investigating police officer trying to elicit the truth out of the convict? Or is she a prosecuting lawyer trying to make her admit to the killings? Well, the way Gul Panag badgers Erica Fernandes to admit that she has done the murders doesn’t happen in any police investigation. Rather than proving that Erica Fernandes, with facts or theory, that she has done the murders, it felt like Gul Panag is begging Erica Fernandes to just admit to the killings so that the case can be shut down right away. Then, when you show Gul Panag to be such a hard-ass tough nut to crack, you shouldn’t have shown her getting this scared at the first sight of the paranormal being. At least a little bit of fightback or resilience would have made the character’s outlook justified.
The rest of the supporting cast is not even worth mentioning.
‘The Haunting’: Script, Direction & Technical Aspects
Tanveer Bookwala’s writing is filled with old cliches. People who have watched even a couple of horror movies would know the usual tropes of a horror story. An under-the-bed shot with a ghost’s legs, a shot of the ghost’s hands bursting out from the closet, the ghost walking on all fours with a back arch, the ghostly house that no one is willing to rent, the 5 stages of getting possessed by a demon – these are like typical. Bookwala has written every one of these cliches into his script which makes it so very predictable that you’re left far away from jumping out of your seat in shock.
A special mention to Ritu Bhatia’s dialogues, some of which are crass of the highest order. Just because you’ve to establish two young girls moving into a big city like Mumbai, you don’t have to make them talk with such cheap lines like ‘Amey ko house warm karne bulau kya?’. There are many more like that. Just FYI: Two best friends can talk without using cheap innuendos and sexual connotations in every statement.
Tanveer Bookwala’s direction also is too amateurish. In the beginning, the story keeps back and forth like past and present and mid-present. Unless you’ve watched the film for almost 15-17 minutes, you’re not sure as to what’s happening in which timeline. The clarity is slightly blurry. To add to that, the terrible VFX can be attributed to the film being low budget. Can you believe it, there is a shot where one of the characters is falling off the ledge of the balcony, and that falling-off shot is taken in half. Not having a budget for good VFX is understandable, but at least spend good money on the VFX of one of the most important shots of your film. Also, there are numerous jump cuts that the movie is filled with which usually would create a horror effect, but in this case, it looks slightly bizarre. The smooth transition without having jump cuts and probably with long slow shots could have actually accentuated the horror effect. It does come once when Erica Fernandes drops her phone and then very slowly bends down to look under the bed. That same effect couldn’t get replicated in the other horror scenes.
Editor Ashish Vichare is also to be blamed for the jump cuts. He should have known better. However, kudos to him for keeping the film to just about half an hour.
Hari K Vedantam’s cinematography is possibly one of the good things about the film. The overhead drone shots at the start establishing Mumbai leading on to the lavish apartment are brilliantly done. Also, the entire scene from Erica Fernandes’ house in Bhubaneswar where it’s raining outside and she is all along inside crying and then the phone rings – that scene is so brilliantly lit that it does give you the chills for a bit.
Dharam Bhatt’s background score is definitely applause-worthy. The horror scenes are so cliched that it’s only because of Bhatt’s good music that you at least feel the pump of seeing a scary movie. The BGM surely helps to get at least some money worth in this semblance of a horror film.
‘The Haunting’: Can Kids Watch It?
Yes
Outlook’s Verdict
‘The Haunting’ is filled with age-old cliches which, not just the connoisseurs of horror films, but even commoners who’ve watched 2-3 scary films would also know of. The low-budget VFX also hurts as it’s not able to lift up the film to become a scare fest. To add to that the performances too aren’t that praiseworthy. So, if you’re craving a good horror film, watch the ‘Insidious’ or the ‘Conjuring’ film series’ and give ‘The Haunting’ a miss. This is Totally Avoidable. I am going with 1 star.
