By Kaanchan [ March 13, 2009 ]
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Friday, the 13th - Of thrills and chills

The human race is a strange one! We are attracted to gore, violence and horror on the silver screen, likes bugs to a candle! And yet, for some reason, the horror genre is not considered a viable option in cinema. In spite of that, each year we have at least one director taking the plunge.

Yaar Nee
One of the fore-runners in this genre in Kollywood, is the Jaishankar-Jayalalitha starrer Yaar Nee. It's a haunting tale with thrills in abundant, though in the end we do find out there were no ghosts after all. Telling a tale of ghosts is one of the most difficult things in cinema. Though the very idea of a visit from the dead, is quite horrifying in itself, on the silver screen, it takes much more than the idea to scare the living daylights of a rather skeptical audience. And Yaar Nee, did quite a fabulous job at that. The ever passive look on Jayalalitha's face was enough to bring the shivers on, "When is she going to attack?" because we know 'still waters run deep'. In this day of graphics and animation, we still have not been able to bring on the haunting quite as well.

Unlucky No. 13
Another horror flick that went down well with the masses, was 13aam Number Veedu. The intrigue starts with the name alone. For years 13 has been branded unlucky, and if you surf the internet you will find a host of reasons why. 13 has become so inauspicious that people have gone to the extent of skipping the number completely while numbering houses or floors in buildings. And so when you have a movie named 13aam Number Veedu [House No 13] you feel that chill down your spine immediately. But the theme of this movie has been the favourite horror theme for years - a girl physically or emotionally abused, dies and returns with a vengeance. And that pretty much sums up the story line of this movie as well. In addition to some primitive, but well delivered, special effects, make up and background score, the movie offers a good deal of scares. My dear Lisa, is another one of those 'abused girl's spirit comes to avenge her death', and a lot of the scary sequences did have the 'Inspired from Evil Dead' watermark, but that in no way hampered the impact.

Toy Story
Vaa Arugil Vaa works on the same theme but brought in the concept of a possessed doll. The evil doll idea is of course borrowed from the Hollywood horror movie series Child's Play, where this really nasty looking doll Chucky goes on a rampage. Coming to Vaa Arugil Vaa, it's the story of a naive young girl, tortured by her in-laws. Her strife ends in her death. Her wounded spirit enters a doll that she used to dote on and takes revenge on her tormentors. If you watched the movie today, you might not be as intimidated by the plastic doll awkwardly wielding a knife. But back then it was a new idea for the audience, most of whom had no idea that Chucky was way more flexible and animated than her.

From singer to slayer
Uruvam starring Mohan brought forth the idea of black magic, a concept not popular in those days. What was even more amusing was to see Mohan, who had till then done endearing roles, take on the garb of a man possessed by an evil spirit. The thrills in the movie are mainly in the sound track, but the scariest sequence is probably the one in which Mohan stretches his hands in front of the altar and they burst into blisters.

Hollywood inspiration
Coming to blatant Hollywood rip offs there are but two that make the cut. Jenma Natchathiram and the recent Sivi. The former is the adaptation of Omen. Making a movie that portrayed a child as Satan in human form was quite a big risk in the Indian scenario, given that children are considered at par with God. In another movie Pillai Nila, a little girl is possessed by the spirit of the