At this point I've seen more than a few Hindi horror movies and for the most part I usually find them amusing but certainly not scary. This one... well, "scary" might be taking it too far, but creepy it certainly was. I'm not sure that any Indian horror film has raised my neck hair as often as this one did. Predictable? Sure... but aren't they all? There are very few "original" story ideas left in the horror genre. But even with the best of story ideas, it's the execution that separates the good from the mediocre from the truly bad (see "Kaun?", 1999). And Vaastu Shastra is pretty much spot-on in the execution department. Staging and lighting worked well, even the makeup was better than the norm (especially for the creepy dead-things). And while some have pointed to other films as "inspirations" for "Vaastu Shastra", it's not the obvious Hollywood or Korean or Japanese (or Hong Kong, or...) ripoff that you might expect. Yes, there are elements of several previous films, but really... can't you say that about just about every horror movie released since "Night of the Living Dead"? Someday perhaps a writer somewhere in the world will come up with a story we've never seen before. But with the sheer number of films that have rolled out since the invention of the motion picture camera, it's nearly impossible to make a film in any genre -- especially the horror genre -- that doesn't include elements of those that have gone before. "Vaastu Shastra" is no exception, but the "borrowed" elements are more a salute to the films that came before it than they are blatant plagiarism. This is a well written, well-directed, well produced movie and one well worth watching.
Review of Vaastu Shastra
