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Out of the blue, Jio Cinema announced the release date of Boo, a Telugu-Tamil bilingual horror flick. The movie has an ensemble star cast of Rakul Preet Singh, Vishwaksen, Nivetha Pethuraj, Megha Akash, Manjima Mohan, and Reba Monica John. The movie is currently available for streaming, and let’s see how it is.

 

Story:

Kiara (Rakul Preet Singh) plans to celebrate Halloween day with her three friends, Kavya, Aruna, and Ritu and invites them to her house. Upon the arrival of her friends, Kiara shows them a rare book named “Halloween Stories” that contains ghost stories. The book has an instruction that one shouldn’t stop reading it till he/she completes all the chapters. As the four start reading it, they experience some bizarre events happening around them. The characters in those ghost stories try to communicate with them in the real world. What’s the mystery behind that book? What did the four friends do in these unusual circumstances? What happened finally? This forms part of the rest of the story.

 

Plus Points:

The movie was a bit bearable, thanks to its ensemble star cast. Rakul headlined the film, and she was good in her role. Vishwaksen is neat as a paranormal scientist. Though his screen time is limited, his character is very crucial to the story.

After Rakul and Vishwaksen, Reba Monica John got a good role, and the actress gave a decent performance. Nivetha, Megha Akash, and Manjima Mohan are okay in their roles. The first story in the book “Hiccups” that features Nivetha is passable. The film has a runtime of 90 minutes, and it is a big boon for the audience.

 

Minus Points:

The director seems to have been inspired by Ram Gopal Varma’s Darna Marna Hai and Darna Zaroori Hai, as Boo’s basic premise is similar to these mentioned films. Narrating different and short horror stories isn’t a bad idea at all, but what has gone wrong with Boo is execution.

Not even once would one get a feel of a horror film, and the usage of familiar tropes has let down the movie completely. As audiences have been watching a lot of horror films of late, the makers can no longer depend on cliched scenes and regular horror effects to scare the viewers. The terrible part is the horror moments are unintentionally funny.

The makers tried to add some twists at the end of the film. But as the remaining part of the film isn’t effective, these twists seemed silly and logicless. Further, it gives a feeling that they were forcefully placed. Had there been some genuine horror moments intriguing the viewers, the decent performances put in by the artists wouldn’t have gone in vain.

 

Technical Aspects:

The music by G.V. Prakash isn’t great, and the song that comes initially is awful. The production values are okay. The cinematography by Sandeep K Vijay is decent, but it could have been better to give an eerie and spooky feel. The editing is perfect.

Coming to the director Vijay, he did a poor job with Boo. Despite having many talented artists by his side, he failed to come up with an engaging narrative. The premise is pretty good, and Boo could have been a good horror flick if not for the bad screenplay and silly horror effects. The miserable execution made Boo a disappointing horror thriller, and there is no wonder why the film isn’t promoted.

 

Verdict:

On the whole, Boo is a horror film that fails to amuse. Rakul, Vishwaksen, and Reba Monica John are good in their roles. Though the movie has a good premise and had the opportunity of being an ideal horror flick, the poor direction didn’t let that happen. You can skip this movie.

123telugu.com Rating: 2/5

Reviewed by 123telugu Team