Yes, there is a girl cracking her neck backwards. Yes, there is a girl speaking in a gargled voice. Yes, there are clichés like the girl being elevated from the bed or a pale apparition of a bloodstained minor appears and disappears and Yes it’s difficult to pin one film that has inspired the Friday release Indian horror The House Next Door. You can take the name of Exorcism Of Emily Rose and Insidious.
But No, there are no ghosts with faces painted in pathetic white. No, there are no hot chicks bathing in skinny costumes and No, there are no romantic songs jumping in any time to spoil the atmosphere of a horror film. The house next door might not be an original piece of work without taking any inspiration of its Hollywood counterparts, but it still provides a new perspective in reference of Indian horror films.
A young, happily married couple finds themselves embroiled in inexplicable domestic circumstances caused by their next-door neighbors. Krish (Siddharth) and Lakshmi (Andrea Jeremiah), however helpful and social, cannot wrap their heads around the bizarre series of recurring incidents at the D’Costa household and get entangled in them in more ways than one. The House Next Door has rendered complete justice to the theme and the storyline of the film. It keeps you at the edge of your seats, believable VFX, coupled with some splendid performances by the entire star cast and not to mention, breathtakingly beautiful locales of the Himalayan valley.
Siddharth as a medical prodigy is a treat to watch on screen, and walking shoulder-to-shoulder with him is Andrea Jeremiah but one actor who steals the show is Jenny (Anisha Victor) as a troubled, rebellious Goth girl. This horror flick may not impress the genre fan too much but it surely brings us a hope that we might get something at par with the Hollywood standards in future with a local flavor.
