Raaz

Vikram Bhatt's 2002 Indian film adapts Hollywood's What Lies Beneath and is regarded as the production that started the 2000s revival of Bollywood horror. A couple who go to the hills of Ooty to save their crumbling marriage find the bungalow they are staying in occupied by a vengeful spirit. The secret the spirit holds concerns the husband's past. The film succeeds by making the horror an extension of the marital crisis: the ghost is a concealed crime returning. Bipasha Basu's performance made her a star. Technically it was considered ahead of Bollywood horror at the time, but the adaptation stays very close to its source and the song sequences lower the tension. In later years the series turned into sequels only loosely connected to each other. Who it's for: viewers interested in Bollywood horror and Indian thrillers of the 2000s. Who it's not for: anyone who has seen the original and will compare, or bothered by song sequences interrupting the pace of horror.