Horror Short Film Review: Happy Diwali

 

Plot: A woman brings home a decoration during Diwali and ends up being haunted by a personal tragedy.

It's the festival of lights and it is that time of the year when we celebrate the victory of light over dark.

For centuries, Diwali has been celebrated by putting up lights and lighting diyas to expel the negativity on our surroundings. It is time to put all negativity aside and indulge in harmony and celebrations.

But that doesn’t mean that as a horror fan you need to deprive yourself of horror stories.

A new short, titled HAPPY DIWALI is here to give you the creeps.

HAPPY DIWALI Plot

A woman is on the phone with a relative from India and wishing him a happy Diwali. He asks about Diwali celebrations at her place. She is living abroad and replies that it is just an ordinary day over here.

Besides she isn’t in much of a festive mood after Vicky's death. Nevertheless, she manages to coax herself to buy a decoration for her home.

A shopkeeper finds a hanging decorations and sells it for twenty-five pounds. The woman immediately buys it and hangs it at her home.

In the evening, while she is offering prayer, she hears some noises. Upon inspection, she finds the sewing machine going off on its own. A thin strip of cloth reveals Vicky's name and the woman becomes convinced that he is trying to contact her from the other side.

She also suspects the new decoration has managed to let Vicky contact her.

She suddenly sees a figure and even ends up hurting herself, but that doesn't dissuade her from believing what she wants to believe.

She is happy but when he relative calls again, he insinuates that she is imagining things. She begins to doubt herself too and talks aloud with Vicky, pleading with him to talk to her again.

She turns on the sewing machine and places a strip of cloth. This time the message is DIE.

The woman is now convinced that whoever is talking to her is not Vicky. He would never want to hurt her.

She decides the only way to break the connection with the unholy spirit is by burning the decoration which she does.

After its all burned up, she goes and prays again.

In the end, a message come on. It is a quote from the Bhagvad Gita that says that while the external demons may injure us, the demons inside us make us live in constant wretchedness.

The short ends.

The movie is the perfect horror movie for Diwali. It has a beginning, middle, and end. The story has the right amount of horror elements and an interesting message at the end.

However, the movie lacks in clarity. The dialogues could easily have fixed some things like the character names and relationships. Just who was she speaking to on the phone? Who was Vicky? Why does the sewing machine already have a strip of cloth ready for the spirit to engrave a message?

Most importantly,  was the decoration haunted or the sewing machine? It seems that the decoration was just harmlessly dangling when the woman randomly decides to burn it. That poor decoration.

Scare Scale: 3.5/5