Today is Halloween, a celebration appropriated by Hollywood studios for a spate of horror film release. In India, the story is a bit different. Horror films are generally an inane mixture of blood, gore, sex and sheer stupidity, but as a genre, it does have its fans. And so, on the night of the evil dead, we delve into the dark depths of this sadly neglected genre in the Indian scene, and its hits and misses.

Bees Saal Baad (1962)
Starring Biswajeet and Waheeda Rehman, Hemant Kumar’s masterpiece, Bees Saal Baad was a copy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of Baskervilles”. The story goes that a clan of Thakurs are cursed as one of their ancestors raped and killed a village girl. After her death, the girl’s spirit kills all the male heir’s who come to claim their legacy. The movie had all the ingredients for a good spook fest –isolated haveli, sinister characters, haunting music, a fatal curse, and not to mention great camera angles. And the audiences were suitably impressed when a scene showed hands coming out of a tree trunk to strangle the victims. A massive hit in the 60’s, Bees Saal Baad proved that the Indian janta were prime audience for atmospheric horror films.

Jaani Dushman (1979)
Before he became a father desperately trying to make a star of his son Armaan Kohli, Rajkumar Kohli was the Midas man as far as horror films were concerned. His movies were a curious mix ofsuspense and scary tales, sprinkled with a star cast a mile long. And following in this line was his 1979 film, Jaani Dushman (not to be mistaken for his 2002 film starring his son, which incidentally shares the same name). In the 1979 version, we have a ruthless man/monster going on a killing spree of all brides who wear red as a revenge for his own unfaithful bride who cheated on him. Of course a number of characters are killed before this evil can be controlled. In the end, Amrish Puri is revealed as the monster who kills the women, but not before you see half the Bombay film industry. Sunil Dutt, Rekha, Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Mehra, Sanjeev Kumar, Neetu Singh, Jeetendra, Reena Roy, Aruna Irani, Madan Puri, Amrish Puri, Shakti Kapoor, Premnath, McMohan, Raza Murad et all share screen space in this hit horror flick. Quite a crowd no?

Veerana (1988)
When we are talking about horror flicks how can we not include the Ramsay Brothers? Arguably the most prolific producers of low grade horror films, the Ramsay Brothers are a legacy in themselves. But for now, we would focus on one of their more successful ventures- Veerana. A convoluted story involving a haunted haveli, a witch and a family of Thakurs, the movie was nevertheless quite a hit among the audience. The film can best be described as campy with bad camera angles, excessive use of colour gels, ghastly make-up and stagy props to create bad horror atmospheric scenes. But this proved a precursor for a string of sleazy horror flicks to hit the screens in the 80’s, most of which were money spinners for all the people involved.

Raat (1992)
Believe it or not, but pre Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag, RGV was actually a director who made good non-gansta films, with horror being one of his particular favourites. And even before Urmila’s spirit possession in Bhoot, there was a Raat which frankly scared the bejeebers out of us. RGV’s camera angles and his ability to spring surprises when least expected lends itself perfectly to the horror genre, something he worked to perfection in the forest scene where Deepak (China) first sees his girlfriend (Revathi) in her possessed form. Creative ideas do seem to have been somewhat borrowed from the cult classic Exorcist, but inspite of this, Raat still stands as one of RGV’s best horror flick till date. Sadly somewhere along the line RGV lost the plot and now has a Phoonk and an Agyaat to account for.

Raaz (2002)
And now we come to the current horror specialist – Vikram Bhatt. His horror phase started with Raaz, starring Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea, Malini Sharma and Ashutosh Rana. An adaptation of Harrison Ford- Michelle Pfeiffer starrer “What Lies Beneath”, Raaz became the surprise hit of 2002. Shot in the misty locales of Ooty, Raaz fully exploited all the accepted traits of a horror flick – a vengeful spirit stalking her lover even after her death, and a devoted wife trying to save her unfaithful husband who cheated on her. Since then Vikram Bhatt has served us with a constant diet of horror flicks – Raaz 2, 1920 and Shaapit, but they haven’t whetted our appetite as much as Raaz. Certainly not a classic, but the Raaz does have its moments (especially the incantation ritual and the eerie forest scenes), and we do admit that it is worthy of being included in a scary fest watch.