Review of Bloody Ishq: Vikram Bhatt Reaches a New Depth in Indian Horror Cinema
Indian filmmakers often struggle with the horror genre, typically resorting to overly dramatic camera angles, cheap jump scares, and cringe-worthy writing. Vikram Bhatt’s latest horror thriller, Bloody Ishq, unfortunately, sinks even lower. The film showcases all the hallmarks of a lackluster horror flick, compounded by excessively poor CGI. Bhatt employs visual effects not just to depict ghouls and possessed humans, but even for simple, routine shots. This overuse of subpar VFX undermines the film, stripping away any potential tension and thrills.
While I didn’t expect the movie to deliver effective scares, I was unprepared for the intolerable visual nightmare it turned out to be, especially given Bhatt’s previous decent work in the horror genre.
Bloody Ishq’s pacing is torturous, with long stretches of boring exposition
Bloody Ishq begins with Avika Gor’s character drowning in the ocean, her fate ambiguous. However, the next scene reveals her in a hospital, fully made up, with months of her memory erased. Soon, a man (Vardhaan Puri) claiming to be her husband takes her to an isolated, luxurious Scottish villa.
Within the first ten minutes, Gor’s character Neha has a frantic outburst about her inability to feel love for this man (because she has amnesia and doesn’t remember him), casts suspicion on him, and then inexplicably trusts him after spending the night together. Mr. Bhatt, please stop creating absurd gaslighting scenarios?
This is just the start of a problematic storyline filled with absurd dialogue and erratic scenes. In one sequence, a spirit possesses a ghost hunter while her partner continues filming instead of helping her. In another, a husband suggests taking a nearly hysterical wife to the bedroom to calm her down. Adding to the cringe, characters forcefully insert English words into their conversations, seemingly to modernize the tale.
Even mundane scenes in the movie appear to be sloppily edited
Neha entertains a creepy woman who mysteriously appears in her home instead of tightening security. It makes one wonder if her amnesia erased her common sense as well. Throughout the film’s 140-minute runtime, Neha trusts every suspicious character she encounters.
The twisted reality she accepts changes more frequently than a merry-go-round. The only rational decision she makes is in the film’s final scene.
The film fails to deliver any genuine frights
In an attempt to establish urgency and restlessness, Bhatt compromises heavily with the tone, starting the film on a wrong note. Elements that could have been introduced later for a more natural flow form the thrust from the beginning. Gor’s soap-opera-style performance exacerbates the problem, with the film suffering from overacting.
Bhatt’s direction fails to build tension, making the scares predictable and ineffective. The CGI is laughable, featuring poorly rendered ghosts and possessed humans. Bloody Ishq is difficult to recommend even for a casual watch and even harder for horror genre enthusiasts. The only genuinely scary aspects of Bloody Ishq are its torturous pace, terrible CGI, and overly dramatic performances, which become nightmares in their own right. Avoid Bloody Ishq at all costs; your sanity will thank you.
Rating: 1/5
Bloody Ishq is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar