Horror Story is a 2013 Indian horror feature film directed by Ayush Raina from a screenplay by Vikram Bhatt (Raaz 3D, Haunted, 1920: Evil Returns; 1920; et al).
The movie stars Ravish Desai, Hasan Zaidi, and features the Bollywood debut of television actor Karan Kundra. The plot revolves around a night spent by seven youngsters at a haunted hotel.
Bhatt has stated that he wanted to avoid casting “big stars” in the film, as he believed that they “cannot turn the audience fearful” in what he termed as a “hardcore horror film”. Ravish Desai commented that the movie will be the first in a franchise and that planning for further films has already begun.
Plot:
A group of seven youngsters – four guys and three girls decide to spend a night at a reportedly haunted hotel to celebrate the farewell of one of them leaving for the USA. Despite people’s warnings and other “signs” trying to ward them off from there, they enter the hotel, and then the truth dawns on them…
Reviews:
“Horror Story isn’t a masterpiece, yet it is one of the better movies to come of this genre. It offers cheap thrills, goose-bumpy moments and genuine shrieks unlike the giggle-inducing comic moments other proclaimed horror movies. At the end ultimately it depends on how much you revel in movies of this nature.” Bolly Spice
“Debutant director Ayush Raina shoots the grisly goings-on with the minimum stress on conventional sounds and visuals associated with the horror genre. Belatedly the horror genre has chanced upon the relevance of austerity in putting forward the panic and terror of youngsters trapped in a situation where they cannot escape from a satanic annihilation.” IBN Live
“The film uses too many ideas from popular films like The Ring and lacks tremendously on elaborating the writer’s imaginative bent! It is a brazenly written, uninspired work lacking originality and freshness. You can easily give this one a miss unless you are desperate to scare yourself…” Koimoi.com
“Horror Story is a fun light (not comedy) horror, with some scenes of excellent spooky tension, but overall poor in terms of plot, dialogue and acting. Some of the subtitles are amusing: I heard “bullshit!” at one point, though the subtitle showed “nonsense!”. Some of the supernatural special effects are so fleeting that I had to press pause in order to see what the group were screaming…” Ready Steady Cut!
Cast and characters:
Karan Kundra … Neel
Nishant Malkani … Achint
Hassan Zaidi … Samrat
Ravish Desai … Mangesh
Radhika Menon … Neena
Aparna Bajpai … Maggie
Nandini Vaid … Sonia
Sheetal Singh … Maya
Bikramjeet Singh
Masood Akhtar
Neelima Shetthi
Himanshi
Trailer: