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Betaal is a Miniseries With a 3 Hour Runtime
Betaal is a Miniseries With a 3 Hour Runtime

Betaal, the Netflix original horror webseries is one of the most anticipated ones. Its generated considerable buzz after the trailer hit social media. Information about Betaal is trickling along in bits and pieces. IHC brings you the latest updates from the world of horror fiction.
We recently caught up with Patrick Graham, the creator of Betaal. During the discussion, Patrick revealed the duration of the web series – 3 hours.  That’s less that half the duration of a typical Netflix webseries. In fact, Patrick’s previous series for Netflix, Ghoul, was also four episodes. Netflix termed it a mini-series. There’s no clarification from Netflix about whether the series is a mini-series or a full fledged webseries.

Watch Betaal Official Trailer here:

In Betaal, Vineet Kumar plays the chief of a team of mercernaries hired to clear off an entire village and blast off an entire tunnel. The villager dissaude him from doing so, but his contractor (Jitendra Joshi) will have none of it. Unknown to both of them, an evil power that controls a zombie army resides in the tunnel. The villagers are trying to save them and everyone ele.
This could be a one-off. Or, this could be Netflix bowing to the wishes of a particular director to work in very short format. Or, it could be something that Netflix is open to doing in the future. After all, its Netflix that commissions stuff. So they can easily say that they are commissioning only four episode mini-series and not the ones that made the term bingeing popular in India.


The streaming industry is definitely going to change once the lockdown opens up, as the entire entertainment industry is bracing for a complete overhaul. Some content creators are already of the opinion that the eight hour format is difficult to cater to, because audiences have already begun to consume entire webseries in a day.

Betaal is a Miniseries With a 3 Hour Runtime

David Arquette Signed Up for Scream Sequel
David Arquette Signed Up for Scream Sequel

David Arquette is back, people! The endearing character Dewey Riley in the Scream franchise is back. Dewey has been part of all the four Scream movies. While David is back, there’s talk that other actors from the original franchise are in talks to return for a Scream sequel to return as well. The reports suggest that this will be an original story and not a remake of the other Scream movies.
Scream is one of the few Hollywood horror movies that were popular among the Indian audiences.  Arquette said, “I am thrilled to be playing Dewey again and to reunite with my ‘Scream’ family, old and new. ‘Scream’ is a big part of my life. For both the fans and myself, I look forward to honoring Wes Craven’s legacy.”
Earlier, there have been rumors that Neve Campbell is in talks to return to the franchise as well.  There are other names in the talks.  Sidney Prescott and Matthew Lillard, have shown interest in returning to the franchise. David Aqruette is the first among the retro cast to officially return to the franchise.

Watch Scream 4 Trailer:

When Scream returns, it becomes one of the many 90s franchises that are returning to the screens in one way or the other. Before the lockdown, we had two movies of the old franchises returning, The Invisible Man and Fantasy Island. The Invisible Man did good business but people didn’t warm up to Fantasy Island. As the year closes, we have a Halloween movie to look out for.
Scream, meanwhile, was also a successful webseries over at Netflix. It became one of the few movie franchises that had a good run as a web series concept.   David Arquette was not part of that series. So, its good news that he’s returning for the Scream sequel.
James Vanderbilt writes the original script for this one. Spyglass is producing this through Project X Entertainment’s Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein and William Sherak.


Kevin Williamson and Chad Villella are executive producers. Matt Bettineli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet are directing.

David Arquette Signed Up for Scream Sequel

Blumhouse Television and NBC Make Mini Series on Pam Hupp Case
Blumhouse Television and NBC Make Mini Series on Pam Hupp Case

Blumhouse Television and NBC are coming together for a limited mini series based on the Pam Hupp case. The story is one of the most notorious true crime stories. It tells about the Betsy Faria murder case, which took place in 2011. The authorities first charged him for the murder and then exonerated him.

This is the latest project that has crept out of a podcast. Dateline NBC, the channel had covered the Pam Hupp case and the Betsy Faria case several times, from 2014 to 2019.

Watch Blumhouse Television and NBC mini-series Exclusive Teaser:

Liz Cole, President, NBC News Studios and Executive Producer at Dateline had this to say:
We have covered this story from all angles, including as an unwitting participant,” said Liz Cole, president of NBC News Studios and Executive Producer of Dateline. “Having been at the forefront of the true crime genre for so long, we know better than anyone that truth is often stranger than fiction, and with the twists and turns in this case, we saw a real opportunity to present it in a scripted format. We are so fortunate to co-produce it with the brilliant storytellers at Blumhouse Television.
Marci Wiseman and Jeremy Gold, the co-presidents of Blumhouse Television had this to say:
When we first came across The Thing About Pam, like thousands of others who’ve seen the Dateline episode and listened to the podcast, we were riveted. So when NBC presented this to us we jumped at making this our first scripted project with them
Cole will co-produce, along with Jason Blum, Marci Wiseman and Jeremy Gold, who will do the same for Blumhouse Television.


Podcasts are becoming incredibly popular with horror fiction and true crime enthusiasts. Many podcast platforms have numerous podcasts dedicated to true crime and the supernatural and horror. Recently. Amazon Prime commissioned a webseries based on another highly popular podcast, Lore. Lore was all the grandmother’s tales we hear about superstitions and the incredible believable reasons behind them.

Blumhouse Television and NBC Make Mini Series on Pam Hupp Case

Name of MovieGehrayee
CastSriram Lagoo, Anant Nag, Padmini Kolhapure, Reeta Bhaduri
DirectorAruna Vikas
ProducerN B Kamat
StoryAruna Raje
Year of Release1980
Gehrayee is a Bollywood Horror Movie with a stellar star cast. After Mahal, I think of Gehrayee as the Bollywood horror movie that had a cast that few will match. The cast comprised of Shreeram Lagoo, Anant Nag, Indrani Mukherjee, Padmini Kolhapure and Amrish Puri in a special role.
Aruna Raje directs this script by Vijay Tendulkar. It’s interesting that today, conversations about the movie are marred by some silly controversy. It is a unique and well-made movie, that could have spiraled down the way of sleaze. Maybe a female director at the helm didn’t allow that to happen. Here’s all that you’d like to know about Gehrayee.

Gehrayee Synopsis

Chennabasappa is a successful businessman who has decided to sell the land in his village. His family servant, Baswa, is not happy with it but he can do little more than accept his employer’s edict. Chennabasappa tells Baswa that he will ensure that he will get a job in the factory that’s starting.
Chenna’s family comprises his wife, son, and daughter. Chenna doesn’t believe in the supernatural and has a strict and domineering nature. Though everyone respects him, nobody is happy with his domineering nature.
His son, Nandu, already has a conflicting nature with his father. Things are never hunky-dory between father and son. Uma, the younger daughter is busy with her life as well, with her school being the center of her universe.
Nandu decides to travel for a picnic on the eighteenth of that month. Their servant, Ramu, tries to persuade him to not travel on that day. Both Chenna and Nandu dismiss this as rural superstition.
On that fateful day, Chenna doesn’t have a positive board meeting. Also, they receive a call that Nandu has met with an accident. The accident news turns out to be a false alarm and Nandu is back home safe and sound.
Uma starts behaving strangely, and the family tries to solve the issue. Things take a turn for the worse when one day, Uma behaves strangely with Nandu’s girlfriend, who had come to visit the family.
The family is now in despair over how Uma behaves. The most problematic aspect is that Uma starts talking in a brash, rough tongue and speaks in a highly vulgar and rural dialect. The seemingly high society and well-cultured family cannot take it.
One day, Nandu decides to spend the whole day with his sister, so that see gets refreshed. Nandu and Uma have a good time together. When they return home, however, Uma goes into a trance and tries to seduce Nandu.
The psychiatrist now says that the only solution for Uma is the shock treatment. Uma’s mother is very worried about this. At the same time, the family is shocked about Uma’s behavior with Nandu as well
That’s when the house servant, Ramu, suggests that they should show Uma to a Baba. When the family is a bit discerning about it, he tells them that he could at least bring a lemon that’s purified with some sacred chants.
He tells them that the sacred chanted lemon must be placed under Uma’s pillow. If the next morning, the lemon turns black, Uma is possessed. If the lemon doesn’t change color, everything is all right with Uma.
Nandu tries to reason with father against the shock treatment but to no avail. Distraught, he agrees to Ramu’s idea of the sacred lemon. That night, they put the lemon under Uma’s bed.  In the morning, Nandu and Ramu check whether the lemon has turned black.
However, to their shock, in the morning, the lemon had disappeared. The trio keeps this to themselves. In the evening, when Uma is playing carrom with the family, she goes into another delusion and tells about a Mahadeamma, who committed suicide because she was pregnant out of wedlock.
This is when Chenna’s wife finally understands that this is possession has something to do with her husband and Baswa’s wife. Chenna confesses everything to his wife. He tells her that he had a one night stand with Baswa’s wife, back when he was very young. That concluded in her being pregnant. After this, Uma is given shock treatment.
Uma returns from the shock treatment but things are not going as they should be. The next day, the food turns into cow dung. Chenna goes wild and accuses Rama of trying to disturb the house. Ramu leaves the house.

Watch Gehrayee Online:

Uma’s condition worsens and the trouble between Nandu and his father increases. But looking at Uma’s condition, even he agrees to use supernatural activities to cure Uma.  They contact several Swamis and Gurus.  Chenna forgives Ram and Rama returns as well.
One of the Gurus promises that Uma will be all right. He asks Uma’s mother whether Uma is a virgin. She replies in the positive and the Baba says that he will conduct a pooja the next day. However, he abducts Uma in the night and tries to sacrifice her to a God that he prays to.
The family doesn’t give up though, and contacts another learned Baba. When he comes into the house, he immediately finds out the lemon – thrown at the top of the roof. The Baba then tells the family that they will find something on the trees.
As expected, they find witchcraft material. The Baba burns the material along with the lemon. He invites them to his house the next day, so he can pray with Uma and banish the demon forever and ever.
Chenna has some apprehensions, but he finally bends to his family’s will. During the prayer ceremony, the Baba finds out everything that there is to know about Uma’s possession. The demon confesses that Baswa had another Baba capture him and order him to possess Uma.
The Baba banishes the spirit, who promises that he will never return. Nandu also gets closure by going to the village and questioning Baswa’s spirit, who tells all about what occurred between his wife and Chenna.

Gehrayee Review

There can be no movie like Gehrayee. Gehrayee is one of those very rare Bollywood horror movies that get under your skin, scare you, and revolt you. All this, while sending a message about everything that’s wrong with India – the caste system, the rich and poor divide, and the strange misogyny that we live in – even today.
The movie released in 1980, but the story’s still relevant today. Switch on any of your favorite true-crime series and you will see one Gehrayee type story. The sacrifice scene, Uma’s nude in that one. . Director Aruna Raje uses a peculiar camera angle that comes across as just on this side of voyeurism. It isn’t the nineties type of camera angle, but still.
Another controversial scene in this Bollywood horror movie is where Uma comes on to Nandu, her biological brother. Even for those who find it controversial, its a mild shock and something that creeps under the skin for a while to come. That same year saw the release of the Padmini Kolhapure starter Insaf the Tarazu.
That movie had an extended sexual assault scene filmed on Padmini as well, which put her in the infamous category. Raj Kapoor cast her in the mainstream movie Prem Rog. She did win the Best Supporting Actress Film Fare award for Insaf ka Tarazu, though.
The Bollywood horror movie Gehrayee is a must-watch for horror movie audiences of all ages and regions. It will be a learning experience for them.

Gehrayee: The Bollywood Horror Movie Marred By Controversy

The Twilight Saga addition has been the talk of entertainment websites for a while. Today, the official announcement has hit the wires. The next book in the Twilight Saga, titled Midnight Sun, is the Bella and Edward love story told from Edward’s perspective and Edward’s experiences as a vampire.
Stephanie Meyer pens this book that will release sometime next Summer. With the Twilight series already making it to the world of movies and so many other merchandises, there’s no doubt that this book will make its way to a theater very soon.
When the movies released in the early 2000s, there was little competition in the vampire zone.  Now though, Stephanie Meyer has to complete with books like Crave, which have their movie deals in place as well.
The Twilight series wasn’t just a movie franchise, it was a pop culture phenomenon that people remember to this day. Maybe that’s the reason that Stephanie is giving her fans another addition to the franchise. It also was instrumental in forwarding the careers of almost everyone who was part of the movie.  The movie series made household names out of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, and several others.


Stephanie even revealed the cover of the book, which you can view at this link. 

Twilight Saga Prequel Midnight Sun is Edward’s Perspective

PATRICK GRAHAM RETURNS TO NETFLX WITH THE RED CHILLIES PRODUCED BETAAL, A NETFLIX HORROR WEB SERIES


Patrick Graham gave India one of the most unique web series set in India, Ghoul. Ghoul starred Radhika Apte, Manav Kaul, S.M Zaheer, and others. Jason Blum, Anurag Kashyap, and others produced Ghoul. The Netflix mini-series is a benchmark in Bollywood horror. Ghoul has won critical acclaim internationally.
Bloody Disgusting listed Ghoul as a must binge-series during the lockdown.  He brings  Betaal, a new horror web series that’s produced by Red Chillies Entertainment. Here’s what the logline looks like:
Hired to displace tribal villagers to make way for a new highway, officials unearth an old curse and an army of British soldier-zombies
This is classic  Patrick Graham. He talked about the intrinsic issues that India has in Ghoul too. Betaal has the very Indian concept of trouble brewing over progress trying to claw over something that time has forgotten.Betaal stars Vineet Kumar, Aahana Kumra, and Suchitra Pillai among others.

Watch Patrick Graham creation Betaal Trailer:

Patrick Graham is right at home with this new series of his. Patrick has explored concepts of institutional prisons in Ghoul too. In the first look, we have the cast members glaring at us, in uniform from what seems to be a secret prison

Patrick Graham Creation Betaal Story Revealed

MANGALSUTRA TRIES TO NORMALISE THE BOLLYWOOD HORROR MOVIE.


MovieMangalsutra
CastRekha, Anant Nag, Prema Narayan, Om Shivpuri, Madan Puri, Rajendra Nath, Jagdeep, Reshma T
DirectorB, Vijay
Story and ScreenplayM. Sundar
DialoguesSnehlata Verma
Associate DirectorVijay Kumar Raichura
ProducersRavi Kumar,Chandrika Karla, Era Karla,
Mangalsutra, the Bollywood horror movie released in 1981. Film historians will tell you that for around 4 or 5 decades, that means from the 40s to even the 00s, the social drama was the lynchpin of Bollywood movies.  The Rajshris had been at it since the sixties, and they had several contemporaries.
The first three decades of Bollywood movies were also ruled by Mythology, Fantasy, and Sci-fi.  Horror, as earlier said, came in the forties, with one of the first horror movies being Mahal, which released in 1949.
With these decades interspersed with the social dramas and horror becoming an interesting genre, it wasn’t rocket science for someone to mix the horror genre with the social drama. And someone did it with the social drama horror Mangalsutra, Mangalsutra had an interesting cast.
The Bollywood horror movie starred Rekha and Anant Nag. Nag made a name for himself with the 1980 Bollywood horror movie Gehrayee.  Gehrayee and Mangalsutra, though clumped under the horror genre, are starkly different from each other.  That goes to show the diversity that the Indian horror genre has. Here’ what you should know about Mangalsutra.

Mangalsutra Synopsis

Vijay is the son of a rich, urban man. He’s been betrothed to Gayetri, the daughter of Vijay’s father’s friend. Vijay and Gayetri are in love and are ready to be married. Just before the wedding, Vijay and Gayetri find out one major difference in their way of thinking. Gayetri believes in God while Vijay doesn’t.
However, Vijay tells Gayetri that he won’t interfere in her faith and she has all the freedom to follow her faith, in whichever way she wants. The two gear up for a happy marital life, when the first lash of misfortune hits them.
On their honeymoon, Vijay falls violently ill and the doctors cannot put their finger on what’s wrong with Vijay. Vijay tells the doctor that he could only hear a ‘tick-tock’ sound and it was as if all his brain nerves were about to burst.
The doctors keep Vijay under observation. Vijay is distraught that he has not been able to give his wife, Gayetri, the happiness of marital life. He discusses with her about how the doctors have not been able to find out what’s wrong with him.
Gayetri tells him that she believes that God will be able to give her all the answers.  That night, Vijay has his first supernatural experience. He sleepwalks in a possessed state and Gayetri follows him.
When Vijay sees Gayetri, he tries to sexually molest her. Her in-laws and father come in time to save Gayetri. The servants say that the only to save Vijay now is to bring in a Baba.  The Baba begins to find out the truth and a female ghost begins speaking.

Watch Mangalsutra for Free:

The female ghost says that she hates Vijay and will rest only when she has killed him. When Gayetri and her parents ask her further, the female ghost reveals that her name is Kamini and she was Vijay’s lover.
She also shows off the ring that Vijay had given to her as a mark of their love. Kamini tells them that the two had a one night stand and Vijay left her afterward. She died and now has come back as a ghost to avenge her loss.
The Baba tells the parents to keep Gayetri and Vijay. Seeing them together will once again revive Kamini’s spirit. He says that he will get a special amulet that will solve this issue forever. But before he can return, Vijay’s condition worsens.
Vijay realizes that during his last possession, Kamini had hurt Gayetri. When he sees, Gayetri hurt, he confesses to her. He tells her that he had met Kamini a few times in college, but he never loved her.
She, however, vows that she will pursue Vijay till the end of his life.  Gayetri believes her husband and decides to fight the spirit for her husband.

Mangalsutra Review:

Mangalsutra is a masterpiece in storytelling. Firstly, the movie’s a supernatural movie disguised as a social movie. The title, literally meaning a necklace a woman wears to denote her married status, the screenplay, the characters, all hint at a social movie.
In fact, after the interval, if we had an evil sister of the father-in-law making life hell for the new couple and then turning over a new leaf, nobody would find it awkward.
Secondly, Mangalsutra is a classic case of how a mythological Indian story converts into a fine movie. In Indian mythology, we have the character of Savitri, who brings back her husband, Satyavan, from the dead.  You can read that story here.
We have had that concept repeated a couple of times, most recently the Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor starrer Aitraaz.
Mangalsutra also becomes important because of the depiction of the possessed Vijay. This is an 80s movie, so the Hammer horror type of gore and prosthetics aren’t there, but the special effects and the make-up has aged nicely.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone is creeped out watching the possession scenes even today. Anant Nag does a great job of playing the vulnerable husband. Rekha does the confident Bharatiya nari incredibly well.
Movies like Mangalsutra and the past year’s Gehrayee went a long way in normalizing the concept of the Bollywood horror movie. Of course,  few years down the line, the Ramsay brand of movies, closer to Hammer Horror changed the face of the Bollywood demon – literally – forever.

Mangalsutra: The Social Bollywood Horror Movie

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