Barring a handful of examples, film franchises as a concept haven’t yet made great inroads in Tamil cinema. One of the successes in this world of franchises is the Pizza franchise that has been rolling out installments at a regular frequency. All three parts of the horror franchise have been helmed by debutants. The first part (2012) saw the then debutant Karthik Subbaraj bring in a fresh voice of storytelling that used horror only as a plot device to delectably tuck in a neat little surprise in the final act. 11 years later, comes Pizza 3, again helmed by a debutant, only to prove that a legacy isn’t just enough. A well-fleshed-out and well-thought story that can actually give you chills running from its writing and not relying on mere sound effects is more important.
Gone are those days when jump scares, haunted mansions, and dense white makeup were enough to give us cheap thrills. It was more important to deliver an actual tale of dread rather than resorting to just jump scares. Interestingly, the first two films of the Pizza franchise used a con angle to subvert the cliches of the genre. Unfortunately, Pizza 3: The Mummy, while trying to play up the horror emotion, fails to understand its study on the audience, who has seen enough of white make-up and mystery figures lurking around.
As typical of any horror film, Pizza 3 has two stories running, crossing paths at one given time. There is a restauranteur Nalan (Ashwin Kakamanu), whose personal problems become multifold when the paranormal gets involved. A sample of this would be a particular dessert that strangely keeps appearing in the kitchen. He also has a paranormal investigator girlfriend Kayal (Pavithra Marimuthu), who barely has anything to do in the story.
On the other hand, a series of murders that strangely gets connected to our hero. Amid all this, there is a 700-year-old cursed mummy doll. Like how we saw a sample of aghast in the opening credits in cult films like Ring or Urban Legend, Pizza 3 too has one. But it makes you so confused that you nearly forget to make any sense of it as the credits roll. In addition to this, Pizza 3 also tries to take itself too seriously that it misses having fun, which is something that Pizza immensely had. Under the guise of tugging your emotional strings, the film elaborates on a back story that might trigger your memories regarding one specific violence that took place in Chennai a few years. But its execution and usage as an induction to the horror do not work out naturally. In its ambitious idea to highlight the apathy of the violence, the film forgets to connect its dots. If the ghosts are as mighty to avenge the perpetrators, why is there an involvement of our protagonist, whose connection to their story hangs in there by a thread? But defying such logic, Pizza 3 tries to weave around a tale of convolution and hauntings that are of no use.
Pizza 3 might have some of its fear moments and there are plenty of jump scares, but its filmmaking is so archaic that it still needs scenes like TV shows debating the presence of ghosts, to make the audience feel they are watching a ghost story. Adding to the woes is the third act which fails miserably and is rushed to only complete the film. While Ashwin tries his best to save this sinking ship, it’s only in parts he is able to do so, as the story becomes a steady downward slope. With neither evident ambition nor exemplary craft, Pizza 3 becomes a letdown to the franchise.
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