Kaali Khuhi: Sinister And Wicked
In this review article for Indian HORROR flick KAALI KHUHI, I’ll tell you why you should see it on Netflix, and why you shouldn’t. I’ll tell you why it’s scary, but also why it’s campy. I’ll rate its jump scares, creep scares, gore factor, soundtrack, and more.
Indian cinema is famous worldwide for its singing and dancing Bollywood movies.
However, this is not your happy-go-lucky, singing and dancing, laughing and crying Bollywood movie.
Kaali Khuhi is terrifying. In a small Indian village, the villagers need to reckon with the murder of newborn baby girls. This infanticide has unforeseen consequences…
A Girl Lost in the Rain
Kaali Khuhi starts out with a girl stranded in the middle of a rainstorm.
Soon, we see the girl knocking on a door. An older woman invites the girl inside to dry off.
The older woman may not know it, but you and I do: this invitation is going to spell trouble.
You want to yell at the old woman, “don’t invite her in!” But of course, the girl steps over the partition into her warm, dry house…
Why Kaali Khuhi is Brilliant
Kaali Khuhi is brilliant for several reasons! For one thing, there’s hidden symbolic meaning in the cinematography.
Check out this scene of Shivangi, a little girl eating sugared fruit. She’s hovering over a well of water gazing down at her reflection.
Red juice drips down into the well. It ripples across the still water on the surface, distorting her mirror image so that she sees someone else!
Scary for Shivangi, sure, but even more terrifying for us, too, if we think about what the scene really means! The red juice is the blood of the murdered child, and the Well of Water is the dark abyss into which the baby was cast (Kaali Khuhi means “black well”)!
Daniel B. George’s Kaali Khuhi Soundtrack
Another reason I liked Kaali Khuhi was for its SFX and soundtrack.
SFX and music are a big deal in horror movies. They help you get that IMMERSIVE FEAR experience. When it comes to the SFX, I liked how the ambient sounds set a creepy tone. From the insect chirping to creaky doors, the sound effects helped me get into a fearful mood.
And Kaali Khuhi music director Daniel B. George wrote a horrifying score.
Anything but dull, his soundtrack does everything you want a horror soundtrack to do. When Shivangi hears a scary sound, and she looks up to see, the music rises in pitch and swells in volume, building this knot of anxiety in your gut.
Or when Shivangi takes a foreboding look at her sick grandmother laying on the bed, and the score turns subtle, dark, and disturbing.
My favorite part about the Kaali Khuhi score was how the creepy main theme softly plays again and again until you’re familiar with it.
Haunting, yet familiar, it was reminiscent of the Twin Peaks theme song, only much scarier, more “horror” than “haunting drama”.
I found a Daniel B. George “Masterclass”on Youtube. I’ll put the video at the end of the article in case you want to check it out (it’s in English).
Why Kaali Khuhi is…Not So Great
The script is bad in some places.
Some of the lines (like the one in the pic below) struck me as tacky and obtuse. This line made me cringe and squirm in my seat.
This ham was way overpriced, if you know what I mean.
Some of the screams were poorly executed as well.
Too bad!
Kaali Khuhi Rated by HORROR Category!
Rather than rate a movie overall, I prefer to rank horror films by category. Each category score is given based on how scary it is.
Jump Scares 4/10
I jumped a few times! This is the thrill I look for in horror flicks.
Creepy Scares 6.5/10
Kaali Khuhi is a slow burn, so creepy scares abound. Be ready for lots of high blood pressure with this Indian horror movie.
Gore Factor 3/10
Yes, bodily fluids to make a few appearances, but Kaali Khuhi isn’t a essentially gory horror movie. Personally, I was fine with that.
Makeup 5/10
The makeup was moderately scary. The sort of monsters you see in the screenshot below aren’t a main part of Kaali Khuhi, but I thought the makeup artists did a decent job.
Kaali Khuhi Soundtrack 8/10
As I wrote before, Daniel B. George’s soundtrack was fucking terrifying. I won’t go over all the points again, but below you can see his masterclass, if you’re into that kind of thing!
Writing a horror movie soundtrack is something you have to get just right, and I thought Daniel B. George did an amazing job of making Kaali Khuhi an immersive horror experience.
As promised, here is Daniel B. George’s Masterclass:
More INTERNATIONAL HORROR!
Are you ready for more international horror? I’ve been reviewing horror movies from all around the world. Here are some of the countries I’ve reviewed:
Each link leads to a horror movie review from that country!