Asvins

As this Indian chiller starts we are told of the ancient legend of a farmer whose twin sons drown. After praying to the gods one is returned along with a pair of idols which he must keep together. A demon tricks him and his village is cursed until they are reunited. Centuries pass and they have come into the possession of an Indian archaeologist who has a large mansion in England. Something strange has happened there and a group of young Indians are exploring the house. The opening chapter shows them exploring, found footage style, and bad things happen to them. We then flash back to just before they arrive at the house, which is on an island which is accessible at low tide. We learn why they are there and more about what is happening to them.

I thought this started well; the introduction was effective and the found footage scenes provided some early scares. Later on as they arrive and start exploring it is suitably creepy with a terrifically spooky atmosphere and disturbing sound effects. Unfortunately as we get to know more it starts to drag somewhat; it could have done with being about twenty minutes shorter. The acting is solid with the characters appearing genuinely terrified at times. If you enjoy a good scare but don't want swearing, sex/nudity and gore then you needn't worry as this features none of that. Overall a decent enough chiller.

These comments are based on watching the film in Tamil with English subtitles.

One of the Worst movie I've watched this year so far. The plot seems good but screenplay & acting is so dull. When you watch the movie you don't even feel connected, first few minutes was okay then I started to feel sleepy. I remember watching a movie called "Ra" it was good, it was also similar to paranormal & demon.

The real YouTube short film was just 20 mins but it was really well made.

1. Casting was not good 2. Jump scares didn't work 3. Short story dragged to almost 2 hrs 4. There's no twist & turns 5. Predictable 6. Poor Screenplay It didn't give any feel like watching a horror movie since it was so plain & dull. Director needs to focus on casting & screenplay.

Horror films stand out, create impression, leave impact in the audience when they are either intellectually stimulating (Insidieux (2010)) or absolutely mistifying (Le cercle (2002)).

Asvins is neither of the above but tries hard to be at least one of the above. Sure we can see influences of famous horror films (Activité paranormale (2007)) but nothing can save the lethargic attempt at writing. I heard that the original script is developed from a short film. When you hear it, you think that the movie would have a lot to offer than the short film but it is merely a prolonged (dragged out) explanatory video of the same.

Somewhere in a foreign land, five Indians venture out in a country side to explore a haunted mansion where an archaelogist of Indian origin had seemingly killed all her servants and herself sometime before. They go here in the pursuit of capturing footages to use for the promotion of a black tour but unfortunately, as mentioned above, it is a haunted mansion and they go at night, what could possibly go right?

Only the first 15 minutes is entertaining. Tarun Teja, the director, must have taken his audience for fools, so he makes sure that we understand certain things by repeating what was told before at the start of the film during the entire course of the film through dialogues, characters and mark boards, which was annoying.

The back story should have been enjoyable like in Arundhati (2014) but is bland and often told through drawings. Apart from this, all the main characters are highly 2D like we don't even care about them whether they are dead or alive and it is a horror film, even if all of them are dead, I would not have mind. There was nothing at stake for the main lead to jump into actions.

Through out the whole film, I, along with all the audience who watched it in the theatre was like, meh, whatever.

Some of the cinematography is quite good. The filming locations are impressive, especially the mansion, even though some of the interiors seem out of place (like the basement). However. The acting is horrid (especially Vasanth Ravi as Arjun); just when you think someone is doing a passable job, they make a face (I assume they are "possessed") or they fake-cry. There is SO. MUCH. CRYING. And none of it is realistic. Utterly ridiculous. I saw the film began as a short. It makes sense, as much of the film feels like padding. The 1 hour, 51 minute running time feels like much, much longer and the majority of it feels wasted.

Chapter 1: The lore told at the beginning was good. And the entire chapter 1 was in found footage format which was really good and entertaining. 7/10

Chapter 2: This chapter had really beautiful cinematography, but was just people talking. 6/10

Chapter 3: This where the movie starts to get mediocre. Cheap jump scares and the interval twist is very mid. But the sound design and bgm was good. 5/10

Chapter 4 and 5: These chapters made me regret watching this film. It starts to get very bad. The budget takes a real hit and it is clearly visible. The climax sequence was very childish and was like a serial. 2/10

Conclusion: This movie had a lot of scope at the beginning, but mediocre acting, amature dialogues, very bad second half made it forget what it was meant to be. You will be disappointed not because it was a bad movie but because it had a lot of potential and lost it on the way.