Boo, director Vijay’s second attempt at horror after the rather forgettable Diya is quite a memorable film, just for all the wrong reasons. Despite being one of the few all female multi-starrer of the country, at least on paper, Boo is just a glorified compilation video of five heroines taking turns to shout,”Yaar adhu?” in the dark for 90 minutes straight. Though the film has a couple of capable performers, the film refuses to rise above this mediocrity thanks to its lackadaisical writing and amateur execution.
Cast: Rakul Preet Singh, Reba Monica John, Nivetha Pethuraj, Megha Akash, Manjima Mohan, Vishwak Sen
Director: Vijay
Four friends gather for a halloween party and they decide to read a series of ghost stories to amp up their fear. But things take a different turn when the ghosts from the stories come searching for them in reality. Though, basing a film on this idea is older than halloween, Vijay seems to have been heavily impressed by the idea that he choose to make it in not just one but two languages. It is surprising how both the versions are majorly unique without any dubbing issues. But there ends the surprise factor. The stories that pan out within the story are alarmingly uninventive and almost stick to the same pattern.
Vijay sticks to done to death tropes like a spooky bungalow owned by a creepy octogenarian, using mirrors to spot ghosts and supernatural messages on smartphone for each of his segments. Even the every-dependable jump scares are ineffective here as we see them coming a mile away. Probably in an attemp to keep the runtime in check, Vijay hardly gives any breathing space for the subplots.Before a heroine could even complete a couple of dialogues, her portion is cutshort and is replaced by a new one from the next segment.
The filmmaker’s intention to make the audience find out whether the entire story is real or staged also falls flat on the face, as the performances of the exaggerated actors scream out the answer. While some horror films make us empathise with the ghost and some make us sob for its victims, Boo makes us feel terrible for its lead actors. Excluding Reba Monica John and Rakul to an extent, none of the stars get a character with substance.
A main character in Boo, makes an elaborate plan to prank a bunch of people. She comes up with a script, trains her actors, even plans the perfect timing for execution and finally, everything works in her favour. I wish director Vijay had put in half her efforts.
Rating:
#script #dead #ghosts #Cinema #express
