‘Bloody Ishq’ Movie Review: Avika Gor’s Horror-Diva Act Feels Lost in Vikram Bhatt’s Shoddy Recycling of ‘Raaz’ (LatestLY Exclusive)

Bloody Ishq Movie Review: Back in 2002, Vikram Bhatt ripped off What Lies Beneath to make Raaz, a horror movie starring Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea. The film hasn't aged well, but as a teenager, I was spooked by that opening scene and those whispers of 'Sanjana'. Twenty-two years have passed now. I have grown up, Bollywood cinema had grown up and then went sideways. Raaz spawned a franchise that lost its way even with a 'Reboot', but Vikram Bhatt hasn't grown up as a horror filmmaker, as evidenced in his new horror film, Bloody Ishq – a rip-off of his own Raaz. In fact, I could say that the director has regressed when it comes to revelling in his once-hit 'sex and horror' formula. ‘Bloody Ishq’ OTT Release Date: Here’s When and When To Watch Avika Gor and Vardhan Puri's Horror Movie Online!

The movie begins with its protagonist, Neha (Avika Gor), drowning in a lake, with her voiceover claiming 'Bloody Ishq' is responsible for her situation. When a film has such an awkward way of making a title drop, you know that's a cue that it's going to be a bad one. Neha gets rescued and admitted to a hospital, but she loses her memory in the accident. Instead of finding a residence near the hospital for her recovery, her husband Rohan (Vardhaan Puri) takes her to their castle-like home on an island in the middle of the ocean. Memory loss or not, that should have been Neha's cue that she had married the biggest red flag of a husband. Imagine your wife nearly drowned in a lake, and you take her exactly there, trauma be damned.

Neha, while remembering nothing of her past, including her marriage and her husband, experiences spooky occurrences at her home. Even spookier are her unexpected encounters with Ayesha (Jeniffer Piccinato), who claims to be her best friend and warns her about Rohan. Memory loss or not, the fact that Ayesha kept appearing out of nowhere, even in her bedroom, should have rung some alarm bells in Neha's head that there was something wrong with this woman. Oh yes, Ayesha also talks in seductive whispers, and it is hard to ignore where you have heard someone speak like this before in a Vikram Bhatt film and what happened to her. The raaz to that mystery is not hard to crack! Pun intended!

Watch the Trailer of 'Bloody Ishq':

Ayesha claims the house is haunted, Rohan says it's not, and tries to bring his wife to his bed to rekindle their love (or he is just plain horny), while Neha experiences all kinds of ghostly activities. And plenty of gaslighting as well, as she gets busy figuring out who is telling the truth and why the ghost of the castle is annoyed with her. As for me, I was too busy making a checklist and finding out where Bloody Ishq ticked the boxes.

'Bloody Ishq' Movie Review - Vikram Bhat's Checklist of Horror Tropes

In case you wonder which Vikram Bhatt horror tropes make it to Bloody Ishq, here’s a list:

1. A large mansion in the middle of nowhere where only two people reside

2. A woman walking through a long corridor at night

3. A spirit playing hide-and-seek with the heroine for reasons best known to no one

4. Someone gets possessed and talks in a strange language

5. The heroine walks towards a place of evident paranormal activity instead of running away

6. The heroine hears whispers everywhere

7. The ghost keeps playing with the heroine's hair

8. A dark secret obviously connected to someone close to her

9. The heroine becomes a victim of ghostly torment despite having nothing to do with it

10. Ghostly hands coming out of water and crevices

11. Fake jump scares

12. Laughable VFX (come on, I've seen YouTubers do better with their home PCs)

13. An even more laughable final ghost reveal (it felt like the graphics team tried to make Predator and shrouded it in blackness so no one could see how bad it turned out to be)

The tropes don't just stick to horror. Vikram Bhatt also brings in his other favourite elements, like kissing and lovemaking scenes inserted between soft romantic songs and, of course, infidelity. If the influences of Raaz weren't obvious in the first half, they very well rub it in your face when Ayesha discovers the actual reason behind all her torments. 1920 Horrors of the Heart Movie Review: Avika Gor's Hilariously Dumb Horror Film Can't Exorcise The Absurdity of Its Making.

'Bloody Ishq' Movie Review - Shoddy Production and Performances

While I can somehow overlook why Vikram Bhatt sticks to his own formula for making a horror film, what I cannot fathom is how he has regressed in terms of technical values. The first Raaz was at least shot in real locations which added to its spooky value. Its 2024 rip-off feels like the entire thing was shot in a green-screen studio. How can you generate fear in a place where nothing, not even the paths the characters walk on, feels realistic and has a cheap feel?

As for the performances, Avika Gor is turning out to be Bhatt's new favourite Scream Queen, after having done his daughter's equally terrible horror film 1920: Horrors of the Heart in 2023. While she gets the terrified expressions right, her dialogue delivery feels clipped in several places. In a shoddy production like this, it is hard to place blame on her performance. Vardhaan Puri is pretty unconvincing as someone who has put up a clean facade to hide a dark side. The one good thing that Bloody Ishq does is at least it has a touch of feminism in the way it ends, something it does differently from its source. Still, it is just me clutching at straws to say anything positive.

'Bloody Ishq' Movie Review - Final Thoughts

Bloody Ishq is Vikram Bhatt's laziest, shoddiest attempt at making a horror film, where not a single department earns any brownie points. The film's reliance on outdated tropes, poor technical execution, and lacklustre performances make you wonder how such a film gets greenlit in these times. Unless you are a sucker for movies that give you cheesy laughs because they belonged to 'so bad, it's good'. In that case, Bloody Ishq is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 26, 2024 05:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).