Bhoot: Part 1 – The Haunted Ship #MovieReview

A bereaved shipping officer must save a girl he believes is real, on a stranded, unmanned haunted ship, “Sea Bird”.

Starring: Vicky Kaushal, Ashutosh Rana, Meher Vij 

Directed By: Bhanu Pratap Singh

Release Date: February 21, 2020 | Runtime: 1hr 54min | Starred Review

Bhoot: Part 1 – The Haunted Ship Review

I have never really delved into Indian horror too much so I was really excited to watch Bhoot – The Haunted Ship with Lilyn (she’s the one who found it and suggested it). There seem to be several in a series. I’d like to watch the others as well but for this watch Haunted Ship trumped Haunted Apartment (Bhoot).

It started out very strong with creepy home video and a little girl getting yoinked by a ghost early on. From there we follow Prithvi as he rescues some (presumed) trafficked humans in an action scene that was worthy of an action-fest oriented movie.

After the action scene, however, it slows a little so you can get to know the characters and Prithvi’s past and what’s going on in his life. It was a bit of a different take on the ghost tropes that I’m used to and I really loved the way it was presented.

Prithvi himself was a great character (being absolutely smoking hot didn’t hurt any) and I loved the friendship between him and his partner, Riaz. I feel like it’s very rare to see actual friendship in movies, particularly in horror movies. I’m seeing it better represented lately and I am loving it.

The sound design was fantastic. It wasn’t overloaded with music and what music there was really fit the scenes and atmosphere. Lilyn and I particularly found the finger snaps to be creepy as all hell and a nice precursor to the scares to come. Who knew something so simple could be so foreboding feeling?

The scenes were well shot and interesting. The ghost fx make-up was a little obvious but it did not take me out of the movie nor ruined the atmosphere. There was a crackly jointed spider-crawling girl that sent chills up the spine and I even jumped at one point in a scare that was not a jump scare but just a really well done moment. That rarely happens and I always appreciate it when a movie is able to capture my attention so intensely.

I don’t want to give spoilers but the story took some twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting and were done very well. The ghost’s motivations were different than the normal tropes. I loved the ending. It felt like a very nice wrap-up to the ghost story and to Prithvi’s journey.

All in all, I really loved it and I can’ wait to check out the rest of the Bhoot movies. I would also like to give it a rewatch as it was a bit confusing at first until we got straightened out on who was who and what was doing what.

I’ll turn the floor over to Lilyn for her thoughts on Bhoot – The Haunted Ship.

Lilyn:

My thoughts are fairly basic regarding Bhoot. It was a well-made version of Ghost Ship in its own way. The MC was smokin’ hot and such a good person that he gave me the warm’n’fuzzies. I thought the acting was on par, but oh lord was I lost trying to figure out who was who and what had happened to who for the majority of the story.

Once I understood it, it was a lot better. I think I may end up rewatching this again without the confusion.