by Joseph Davis, Contributing Writer
Let’s be real: I am not a fan of horror movies. There are some like The Cabin in the Woods or Get Out that I find truly phenomenal, but I almost never go out of my way to watch a film in the thriller or horror genres. However, with it about to be October, a.k.a. the spooky month here in the States, at the time I’m writing this, I felt it was right to give a foreign horror film a chance. While discussing this with some friends, one of them suggested the 2018 Indian film Tumbbad, which is currently on Amazon Prime. So I decided to grab a blanket to shield myself, turn on all the lights, and prepare to sleep with one eye open for the next week as I turned it on to see what it was all about.
Watching this movie, one of the biggest things that pulls me in is the fact that the storyline feels so unique in the genre. Obviously I’m not well versed, but a lot of movies feel like they go for the evil creature or person who wants to kill the main cast. This is why I feel that Tumbbad sets itself apart. It’s like some of the ones I do enjoy where the fear itself is not a creature but a concept. You still have an evil creature, sure, but it’s not the creature itself that drives the story, but something else: in this case, greed. This in itself puts this movie into territory that is right up my alley. There’s more to the story than just an evil character, and in many ways this same story could fit into other genres and still work, and the directors and writers have done a great job moulding it to the themes present. What also puts it over the edge for me is just how real this movie feels to be in many ways, and I think that’s thanks to the mythological angle of the story.
On that thread, I love the setup of this movie. Honestly, I’m not familiar with Indian mythology, but this movie made me interested to learn more. Giving you a little bit of backstory — something that’s not found in mythology and completely fictionalized — works perfectly here as everything about it makes sense. How the humans interact with this being is fitting and provides the audience with every twist and turn a movie like this should have. It helps as well that these twists feel organic for each time period of this film, be it 1918 or the 1940s. It also allows you to get a glimpse into the British colonial rule of the day, though in a way this is also one of my only hangups with this film. I’m glad this was included, but I feel that the plot line it takes wasn’t fleshed out enough as the British soldiers in this story felt very one note. However, this does little to affect this story overall, as I could not pull myself away at any point.
On the character aspect of this movie, this is where the movie feels the most real. Vinayak (Sohum Shah) and the rest of this cast just feel like real people you could expect to meet in the real world when they appear in this movie. Their drives and their faults are things you could see in anybody you meet, or may sometimes be something we have to resist in our day-to-day lives. That’s what might be the scariest thing about this movie: the fact you could see the characters actually doing what they do, to the detriment of themselves or others.
Ultimately, Tumbbad is a massive recommend for me. For someone who is not a fan of horror films, the fact that I heavily adore this movie should be all you need to hear to know just how good it is. It’s a great combination of story, mythology, and character work that makes me want to dive into the other works of these actors and this director to see what else they have to offer. This one gets three thumbs up from me, which is — wait, where’d the third hand come from?
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