Bhoot Review: Technically Disabled and Cluttered Horror Flick that Fails to make an Impact!

‘Bhoot: The Haunted Ship’ features the story of a haunted cargo ship - Seabird which has plunged aground at Mumbai's Juhu beach. Prithvi Desai (Vicky Kaushal) who is a cargo officer has been appointed for the operation of driving the freight away from the beach. However, his operation does not end well after he discovers the ghost of a young girl who has been trapped on the ship for over a decade now.

The film starts off with offering a brief details haunting onboard seabird as it narrates the story of a young girl - Mira with just 10 minutes into the film; the makers have instilled uncanny and sinister sequences. Generally, horror films introduce themselves with holding onto a certain visual style of a spirit however; it seems casting for their ideal Bhoot went haywire. Pondering about the same, writer-director Bhanu Pratap Singh’s ideas and characteristics of his ghost seem to be contouring throughout the film.  

It's intriguing how the director was inspired by elements from various films like Annabelle, Raaz, Ghostship, and many more. In fact, he even failed to make a creative attempt that could fret someone over its scenes. Replace the ship with a house and all you'll be left with the same old clichés that have been making their way to the big screen.

The film introduces Vicky with quite an unusual kick as he's seen trying to save some girls who have been a victims of human trafficking. Well, the scene seemed to be totally out of context as the filmmaker was much concerned about describing Prithvi’s personality rather than introducing the actual characteristics. Despite such variably unwanted detailing, Bhanu fails to add depth to his characters. Apart from the back-story and mental instability, there's nothing much to contemplate about him. 

As a matter of fact, the film tries to be scary and kudos to the debutant filmmakers makers for crafting a plot that actually keeps you gripped until the first half. But apart from that... You might just sleep it off as it's going to be boring. 

The major flaw that Bhanu overlooked in the second half, was the addition of short and sweet

hilarious moments which pumped the graph of this horror film. The first half takes you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, wherein you feel spooked and even enjoy a bit of drama followed by short bursts of laughter. But with the initiation of second half, you see all the clichés and predictable jump scares gradually prying in the exposition.

To be honest, the film is relatively scary due to the unnecessarily loud and amped upbackground score which was quite irritating. Eventually, these lond and irritating noises increase your BPM (beats per minute) resulting you to be scared. Basically, a jugad, that works perfectly. Meanwhile, the makers went out of ideas as they couldn't coax the audience towards the failed mystery of Mira.

It's sad to see poor Vicky Kaushal, holding onto the same expression throughout the film. It's startling to see him run out of expressions considering his previous films. They even wasted actors like Bhumi Pednekar and Ashutosh Rana. 

Over the years, the cinematic language of horror films has changed drastically. If you observe closely, until 2013, horror films focused on the buildup of a spooky and chilling sequence. However, with the changing times and development of technology, films try to scare you with jump scares (which aren't always effective). These changes have resulted in the introduction of ghosts with the help of tools such as background score and extreme close up. While some find it scary, some clearly don't. Having being explored a plethora of horror narratives you'd never find this matching to that of a film like 13B. 

In conclusion, the film failed to surprise as the stereotypes started resurfacing on the sequences and it's sad to see Vicky holding onto consistent expressions throughout the film. The film is an incorporation of bad CGI and makeup as well. The jumpscares do manage to scare you but build ups are equally important and it's seems Bhanuh has a lot of homework to do!

(Ratings: 2.5/5)