I really wanted to like this one. Between my growing disdain for the ubiquity of Christian exorcism horror in the modern day, and how much I’ve gotten into films that directly swerve from that standard like Godless, I was hoping that this would serve as another welcome change of pace for the genre. But not only is this production nothing all that special on its own, but it’s the kind of mid that ends up flying right in the face of the message at the heart of the story.
Building off of Hindu folklore, in particular a Dharmic demon called a pishachi, it’s something of a coming-of-age story for Sam (Megan Suri), a first-generation Indian-American who is shown struggling with staying true to her heritage and assimilating with her new surroundings. It reminds me somewhat of The Old Ways in how it uses confrontation with a dark aspect of a particular culture’s religious teachings as a way to reconnect with that culture, tapping into personal strength to fight a force with special significance to Sam’s identity.
To that end, the pishachi takes on a monstrous embodiment of the process of assimilation itself. This invasive, suppressive force that separates the true self from the fabrication, reducing people to the label of ‘crazy’ by outsiders who don’t recognise the origins of the presence. It’s an interesting approach to the standard gaslighting trope that appears in just about every supernatural horror film to an extent, and it shows a willingness to use the unique mythological texture as a selling point.
However, I’d argue that this doesn’t go nearly far enough to make itself stand out, to the point of unintentionally kneecapping its own thematic throughline. For a film that is meant to highlight the process of cultural assimilation as something undesirable and even harmful, it is far too willing to homogenize itself to fit in with the ‘expected’ framework for this kind of horror film. It’s quite reminiscent of the standard found in 2000s-era films in its quasi-procedural pacing and treatment of the supernatural force like a form of contagion that passes from person to person. However, unlike something like Smile, which also revived filmmaking staples of this era but remixed them to fit more modern tastes and sensibilities, this is closer to The Unborn in how, despite tapping into folklore that doesn’t usually get the cinematic treatment, it makes up for that by using the same cinematic treatment all the other spookies get.
It doesn’t help that the presentation for the actual messaging regarding assimilation can get a bit… goofy. There’s a scene between Sam and her crush involving grievous bodily harm after being offered booze and weed, which managed to make me completely quit my bitching about how direct Talk To Me’s anti-drug messaging was. At least that film didn’t actively look like it was funded by D.A.R.E.
So… yeah, this is a bit disappointing. I can’t say I hate it all that much, but that’s mainly because it’s too bland for me to have any strong feelings about it one way or another, beyond mild annoyance at seeing something tout the importance of being true to one’s self and one’s own identity, and yet be completely willing to blend into the crowd as a film. This is the kind of stuff that makes me thankful for the modern trends towards ‘elevated horror’ (as problematic as both the label and its tropes have become), as at least those features tend to offer more interesting material than this.
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