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| Edited By: DNA Sunday Team |Source: DNA |Updated: Oct 28, 2018, 06:25 AM IST
Among Indian films, I liked Ram Gopal Verma’s Bhoot (2003) and Raat (1992). Both were really scary. I don’t even remember when I watched Raat, but I do remember being young and so scared that I avoided being alone in a room. If something had to be brought from another room, I would ask my younger sister. Bhoot was scary in the beginning until I saw the ghost. Actually, for me, a film is scary until I see the ghost. The fear is fear of the unknown – the minute I see the ghost then I know how it looks and then my fear kind of dies. So, I do watch such films at times and I am no more scared of them as much, but it is not my preferred genre.
I am a chicken when it comes to horror movies. As a child, I saw Jaani Dushman (1979) and I would dream of Sanjeev Kumar’s version of the beast chasing me at night. Years later when I was editing the promo of RGV’s Bhoot, I would avoid going back home late at night and would sleep in the studio, because of this dialogue – ‘har ghar mein koi na koi toh mara hoga’ (every house has seen death). I was scared of opening the doors of my flat at night. Same has been the case with Omen and The Extortionist, they almost killed me. It is so bad that I have started avoiding watching horror movies, even if it’s very popular.
I am not a horror buff, but there are a few films that have really scared me. My first brush with a horror film was with Papi Gudia (1996). I think I wasn’t just scared; I was figuring out that emotion of being scared and that was what kept me glued to the television every time. Another instance goes back to school days when my friends and I started watching Kaun (1999), totally unprepared for what was coming our way but all of us were too cool to show how scared we actually were.
For me, the best horror film would be The Shining (1980). It captures the inherent possibility of a monster lurking within all of us, which only needs an environmental or psychological trigger to be unleashed. It’s also a great commentary on the horrors of social isolation. The movie left me shuddering because of its mood, atmosphere, and Jack Nicholson’s frighteningly brilliant performance.
The Ring, with its quiet buildup sans dramatic music or even obvious scenes, had a chilling effect. What you see through the movie are people’s fears building up. I’ve also watched so many Ramsay Brothers’ movies, but none of them with their ketchup makeup, masks or loud music have ever scared me. The scariest scene for me was when this haunted girl, with her face hidden by grimy black hair, crawls out of the television and into the drawing room of the child watching this movie. That instance, as I write this, still gives me goosebumps. The idea of our reality, being broken by something that leaking out of something as normal as a television – the concept of it was blood-curdling!
The scene also somehow reminded me the movie Raat. I was terrified with the scene in which innocent Revathy is holding a doll and turns its head in the same way as the people who have been murdered in the movie have.
