Bloody Ishq comes off looking even more shoddy and ill-conceived when there is so much superior content to entertain the horror buff, observes Deepa Gahlot.

The horror universe in Hindi cinema has moved on but Vikram Bhatt is still stuck with outdated plots of haunted mansions and women trapped with evil spirits.

Written by Mahesh Bhatt, Bloody Ishq is a mix of Vikram Bhatt’s own 1920, and dozens of films about vengeful ghosts that have been made before. It’s a surprise that the Bhatts are not tired of remixing the same formula.

Neha (Avika Gor) wakes up in hospital with memory loss, after being fished out of a lake.

She discovers that she is married to Romesh (Vardhaan Puri), and they live in a castle on a remote Scottish island, where there are no other people, not even domestic help (who cleans that monstrosity?).

To begin with, the house is a hideous mix of heritage (bad art and antique marble statues) and modern (a white staircase that looks out of place).

But cavernous rooms and long corridors are a must for horror films of this kind.

She discovers that Romesh is about to convert the chalet into a resort, to recover from business losses caused by COVID.

Workmen show up perfunctorily, that’s about the extent of his plan.

There are strange sounds and eerie goings on — shrieks and moans, bloody palm prints on the window, glass shattering, objects rolling about, a broken lift cranking up and down in the night, which spook Neha but Romesh blissfully sleeps through it all, and refuses to admit that the house is haunted.

A mysterious woman claiming to be Neha’s best friend Ayesha (Jeniffer Piccinato) tells her that Romesh is lying, and the mansion has a spirit that hates Neha.

This Ayesha seems to wander in and out of the island, and it doesn’t occur to Neha to ask how she manages that when the only way to reach it is by ferry.

In fact, in another scene, a woman lands up in the dead of the night, easily messaging Neha, when there is supposedly no network on the island.

Neha finds the card of a cop on the floor of the basement, and he (Shyam Kishore) shows up claiming that Romesh was a suspect in the murder of his father (Rahul Dev), and Neha had had another so-called accident earlier.

Then she finds a receipt of a ‘Ghost Investigator’ (Gautam Sharma), who tells her he and his partner had recorded definite proof of the ghost in the house.

Now Neha must discard all Romesh’s declarations of love, and find out what is really happening. The reason for all the ghostly mayhem in the mansion is just too weird.

Neha, of course, has no other family or friends she can reach out for help, but finds a strange medium, who tells her where to look for clues.

The film is full of bizarre scenes, like Romesh taking a woman wounded in a gun attack to his house instead of letting the cops take her to hospital.

The spirit can take any form and reach anywhere but needs to pound on the door when Neha needs time to gather the means to fight it!

Films about ghosts and ghouls expect suspension of disbelief but within the requirements of the horror genre, a story can be told in a convincing manner.

It is never clear what the spirit wants — to get Neha off the island or to kill Romesh, because everything is muddled.

To make the viewing experience more painful, Avika Gor’s costumes and make-up are ghastly (she has full war paint on even in bed), Vardhaan Puri can’t act, and the film is too long and slow. Everybody seems to walk in slow motion, and talk in irritatingly whispery voices.

Bloody Ishq comes off looking even more shoddy and ill-conceived when there is so much superior content to entertain the horror buff.

Bloody Ishq streams on Disney+Hotstar.

Bloody Ishq Review Rediff Rating: