Film Impressions

REVIEW: Phoonk 2

FRIGHTFULLY UNFUNNY: CROW, CHUCKY, CHAKU, CHUDAIL!

'Bring on the ECG machines!' the marketing team screamed. Tomorrow the ads will claim stars and swooshes of approval from critics known and unknown. They'll even have success parties. And they will conveniently forget that the audience is not equus asinus.

The audience is not. I love the blood and gore and general dementedness of Korean and Japanese movies. I clutch my stomach each time there is a re-run of Alien. I have seen Paranormal Activity, loved The Hills Have Eyes and The Ring. The shining, Wait Until Dark, Se7en are as scary as the Halloween movies. And am still creeped out by seagulls because of The Birds and terrified of ravens because of the Omen movies.

REVIEW: Phoonk 2

BLOW COLD

Ram Gopal Varma’s factory regularly churns out a few of these low budget horror movies in between other kinds of films—maybe to keep the staff busy.  There could be no other explanation for a Phoonk 2—there’s no creative challenge left in the horror genre the way these factory-assembled quickies approach it.