Director: Abhijit Kokate and Srivinay Salian
Year: 2019
Country: India
Alternate Titles: Demon
Genre: Supernatural; First-Person
Plot:
Troubled by his past cycles of abuse, a prisoner in a mental asylum uses his best friend and his daughter to help him figure out why patients are disappearing around the facility only to discover the terrifying truth for themselves and put them all in danger from the menace.
Review:
This ended up being quite an enjoyable effort. One of the more prominent aspects here is the way this one works the premise with its first-person format that gets plenty of play here. Rather than finding a lame way to tell a found-footage effort, this one records the whole film from the individual's perspective which means that everything he sees and experiences is what's told to us so incidents and visions off on his peripheral vision have an extra creepy mindset to them than they ordinarily would. Likewise, the fact that this one allows us to hear his private thoughts in his head or go back in time to watch him being abused in the basement from his memories gives this one a rather intriguing tone that it capitalizes on rather nicely. Even more impressive is that there's no sense of continuity, as this is a rather involved story that takes place over a period of time which makes this fun by getting away from a troublesome cliche and managing to feature a rather intriguing point with the way this works.
The way that setup works into the supernatural hallucinations and visions he has inside the sanitarium is really fun with this one generating some incredibly freaky visions. As he works out the central mystery inside the facility, this first-person setup features the visions he has of his ghost mother or the flashes of the staff appearing while illuminated in neon light for a rather surreal effect. This even helps with the films' celebrated sequence of a victim being attacked in the hallways of the facility where the sight only features him being thrown around by the invisible force rather than seeing anything visibly on-screen which is a worthy sequence here, while the chilling scenes of the treatment he receives in the past while being chained up at his house give this a rather enjoyable manner. This also features a nice twist in the final half that brings the ghost activity to the forefront with the stellar final minutes that are quite chilling and really help to sell the main storyline throughout here.
That said, there are a few minor problems to be had with this one. The main issue is the fact that there's just not a whole lot going on for the majority of the first half. Beyond a few of his dreams and visions, the majority of the first half here has nothing really horrific going on which tends to make this one not feel like much of a horror film. Focusing on the inner workings of the asylum and meeting up with each of the characters in inside and then dealing with the backstory of him being sent there to begin with that the pace is just quite bland. Likewise, this disjointed plotline of going back to focus on the beatings while then showing the paranoia he experiences in the present-day asylum make this somewhat confusing to follow at first. Going back-and-forth several times throughout the plot to finish up the scenes of his tortured past is unneeded when it could've easily been the first half of the film and then carried the story along in a straightforward manner.
The other flaw here is that the first-person perspective limits this one somewhat, keeping potentially horror-based happenings to stories and dialog when it could've been explored on-screen instead, robbing this of some horrific happenings only being from his viewpoint. When it can't focus on anything that directly happens to him or transpire in front of him, it's simply mentioned off-hand and there's not much going on for it in that regard due to the fact it isn't shown firsthand. The on-screen stuff isn't much better, as the treatment that transpires isn't as harsh as it figures to be due to the effect of it being seen through his perspective which really neuters the effect if we can't tell what's going on. Seeing somebody whack the edge of the camera-angle rather than full-on body blows is a big cheat but it still gives this a dark edge which could've gone further if this tactic had not been utilized. Otherwise, there's not much to dislike with this one here.
Overview: *** 1/2 out of 5
While there's plenty of enjoyable facets to be had here with an intriguing concept and plenty of strong action brought about by the film-making tactics, it's somewhat troublesome plotline and film-making limitations do somewhat hurt this one. While those unwilling to go along with its flaws should heed caution, it's highly recommended to those curious about the film based on its accolades or the film-making tactics provided here.
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