Diés Iraé

Rohan is the son of a wealthy family; he does not work, spends his time with friends and lives alone in a large house. One day he learns that a woman he knew has died. In the same days strange things begin in the house: sounds, smells and objects that move. At first he does not believe it, then he becomes unable to leave. There is a link between her death and what is happening in the house, and to understand it he has to look at his own past. Rahul Sadasivan directs. Pranav Mohanlal takes the lead. It is in Malayalam. The director has made horror films one after another in Malayalam cinema in recent years and this continues that line. The fear it builds rests on sound and darkness; the film makes little use of the sudden shock. The house is used in detail as a single setting and most of the narrative takes place there. The matter it works at is guilt; the supernatural strand is tied to the character's own conduct. Malayalam cinema came forward technically in genre films in this period and the sound design is this film's strongest side. Its limit is the script; the plot is familiar and the section of explanation runs long. Who it is for: viewers who like slowly built horror and Malayalam cinema. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the plot familiar, and the ending contested.