Halloween is coming in a few days! What have you been doing? I’ll tell you what you should do! Have all your best friends come home (irrespective of their hectic schedules) and from today till October 31st, do everything Halloween-y. For girls and boys as lazy and somewhat anti-social like me, you don’t have to necessarily be the life of the party, you know! Just do a movie marathon of these wonderfully scary Bollywood movies that’ll totally freak you and your friends out and thank me later.
1) Bees Saal Baad
Inspired by A.C Doyle‘s most popular Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, this Biswajeet–Waheeda Rehman starrer freaked the bejeezus out of our parents (and maybe our grandparents too). Bees Saal Baad was everything a perfect horror movie should be: An evil villain, a clueless yet handsome hero, a village belle, an eerie house and Lata Mangeshkar‘s beautiful voice crooning Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil at the perfect points!
2) Mahal
Considered by many to be the first horror movie of Bollywood, Mahal was – and still is – an inspiration for many filmmakers who want to crack the code of horror filmmaking.
3) Madhumati
Madhumati is believed to be the inspiration behind the Hollywood movie The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, Karz and Om Shanti Om. THAT’S how epic this movie is! Plus, personally I love that it was one of the first movies to have such a strong gothic undertone. It’ll be a crime to not watch this on Halloween!
4) Kohraa
A remake of the best-selling book and the Academy Award winning movie Rebecca, which was better than the source material. A rare feat achieved I must say, but you know, everything is more awesome with a dash of desi!
5) Bhoot
One of the last movies which showed the genius of Ram Gopal Varma. Guess he needs to re-watch Bhoot more than anyone else to get his groove back! What say?
6) Raat
If Bhoot was the last movie that showed RGV‘s genius, Raat was one of the first movies that showed how good he is at horror!
7) Woh Kaun Thi?
Because Sadhana was a pro at playing *spoiler alert* twins! Plus she’s so pretty and scary in this movie. Why wouldn’t you watch Woh Kaun Thi? Why?
8) Ragini MMS
The second part had Sunny Leone, but the first part had a story.
9) Raaz
The best Raaz was the first Raaz even if it was inspired by What Lies Beneath! I think it was the rise of Bipasha Basu as the scream queen of Bollywood.
10) Darna Mana Hai
Interesting concept, unique stories – some of them were genuinely freaky! Remember the Vivek Oberoi and Nana Patekar one? Or the Saif Ali Khan and Boman Irani ‘No Smoking‘ story? What was that about? So weird, so eerie, so nice!
11) Bhool Bhulaiya
One word. Manjulika.
Three more words: Aami je tomar.
12) 1920
This Vikram Bhatt movie was unexpectedly nice. Similarities to The Exorcism of Emily Rose notwithstanding, 1920 is like those movies you watch because you have nothing else to do but get suitably impressed as the movie progresses.
13) Road
Proof that Vivek Oberoi was genuinely a good actor. Also where on earth has Antara Mali vanished? She was hot!
14) Kaun
Love, LOVE this movie. Watch it with besties, late in the night, with lights switched off. You are not allowed to take loo breaks. Nothing should distract you from watching and freaking out as Kaun goes on. On that note, someone please get Urmila Matondkar back! No one did crazy better than her!
15) Purana Mandir
Is the horror movie list even legit if a Ramsay Brothers movie hasn’t been featured in it?
Add your favourite freaky Bollywood movies too! Happy Halloween 🙂