Ludo (2015)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Boring

Better Late Then Never

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I personally love watching horror movies of all types, especially if they are foreign movies. With that being said, I don't think Ludo is a film for everyone. I thought this movie was going to be about zombies when I quickly skimmed through the summary and all I could remember was "shopping mall" and "gruesome".The film starts off with a couple of teenagers trying to get laid. They wound up in a shopping mall when they couldn't find a hotel room for the night. As the couples' begin to get into the good stuff, an old man and woman come out of no where. They get the teens to play an evil board game with them. That's when things get really crazy. I'm not going to say what exactly happens but that the film goes into more depth of the origins of the evil board game.OK, so the concept of the film was interesting and the acting wasn't too bad. There were some scenes that I thought were pretty cool/creepy. The story started off pretty simple and then it just felt like it was trying to do TOO much. As the movie progresses, it focuses entirely on the evil game that I just kind of forgot about the teens. The special effects were pretty good in my opinion but it was also too much for me. Overall I enjoyed it as a late night horror movie to watch but I'd only watch it once. The story could have been so much better. It's a different feel of horror and that's what I liked about it. So in the end...I like it and I don't like it.

I am a huge fan of Q. Huge is an understatement but Ludo did not meet even 20% of my expectation. When I found Ludo was on Netflix I was elated and I spent my Thanksgiving afternoon glued to the screen. I have never felt so disappointed. Rii is as usual amazing but whoever did her voice for the movie ( I assume it was meant to be a Sakchunni - Bengali married woman's spirit) sounded ridiculous, raspy and horrendous. The four main characters are shallow and by shallow I mean not an ounce of depth. I grew up in Kolkata and I can vouch for the fact that we don't use so much of swear words in our daily vocabulary. I Know impressionable men and women feel that using swear words would be cool but it was a bit of an overkill. Tilottama Shome as the Shaman could have been explored much much more. I was left with a palate of bile after the movie. It could have been so so much better had some of the background story been omitted and stress put on the present day scenario of the Shaman's existence. Over all, I think it is a mess.

Two teenage girls, Ria (Subholina Sen) and Payel (Ananya Biswas), meet up with Pele (Soumendra Bhattacharya) and his brother Babai (Ranodeep Bose) for a night on the town, after which they plan to find a hotel for some casual sex. This being India, however, where sex before marriage is a big no-no, they are unable to find anyone willing to rent them a room, so the horny foursome hide in a shopping mall until after hours instead. Once the lights all go off, the teens find themselves face to face with a weird elderly couple who entice them into playing an ancient, evil version of the popular board game Ludo that feeds on blood.Not being well versed in Indian horror flicks, I am unsure as to whether a shopping mall is a popular setting for such movies, but it's the second in a row for me, my previous Indian horror experience being the absolutely lousy Darr @ The Mall (2015). Ludo isn't any better. Darr's highlight was an energetic song and dance routine (which says a lot about the rest of the film); Ludo's strongest point is its occasionally rather nasty gore, which includes eyeball gouging, gut ripping and tongue tearing. But both films suffer from a plot that makes very little sense.Ludo's 'Hellraiser meets Jumanji' evil board game is a neat idea that offers plenty of scope for scary moments, but co-directors Qaushiq Mukherjee and Nikon fail to make the most of their concept, instead offering up lots of random creepy imagery without much of a coherent story-line; when the narrative is so confusing, it's hard to engage the viewer, and even harder to scare them silly. Worse yet, the second half of the film changes tack completely, forgetting about the teenagers to focus on the backstory of the game and its original victims, resulting in a horribly disjointed mess of a film that makes for a very frustrating experience.

Well -- just saw this modern indie horror flick -- warning if you are not into industrial or heavy tech music -- you may get a headache -- part of this review try to give these filmmaker positive energy in trying to make something different -- but it a mess --- but shows promise in that they continue this style it may get stronger. Since there was some nice shots - but really choppy with their editing -- loses the narrative a bit. But if you like gore -- there plenty of it! Editing matches the soundtrack – but gets boring after a awhile. Story has too many twists -- after a awhile the twisted game of Ludo -- seems to lose interest - we get it... you play; you die for all eternity.Its downfall -- its visuals (which very dark and romantic – horrific but almost Gothic) show much of Indian culture/ landscape – that the soundtrack could have really reflect that instead just having really loud dance music and rock music – maybe filmmakers trying to appeal to Indian teenagers or college students.FYI: Did see some people immediately walk out during the 1st gory scene – so I guess the film does deliver -- have fun playing Ludo!