Dybbuk: The Curse is Real, a horror movie starring Emraan Hashmi, Nikita Dutta, and Manav Kaul, is now out on Amazon Prime Video. The film is directed by Jay K and is a remake of his 2017 Malayalam horror ‘Ezra’ that starred Priya Anand and Prithviraj Sukumaran.
The synopsis reads, “Mahi, a newly married woman, brings an antique Jewish box into her home. When Mahi and her husband Sam begin to have paranormal experiences, they soon learn that the box is a dybbuk containing an evil spirit. The couple then seeks the help of a rabbi to unravel its mystery. Will they survive this ordeal before their child is born?”
Amazon Prime’s Dybbuk Review Contains No Spoilers
Dybbuk Review
Amazon Prime’s Dybbuk is a story of Sam and Mahi (Emraan Hashmi and Nikita Dutta) and the paranormal activities they experience in their new house in Mauritius. They try to make a fresh start at a new place, with a lavish mansion. But terror makes an appearance in their life in the form of a Dybbuk box, which Mahi ends up the opening. The box carries an evil spirit that possesses people. As per the synopsis, once the spirit accomplishes its mission or revenge, it finds another body to possess.
Emraan Hashmi is back in the horror business after quite a long break. During the trailer launch, he shared his excitement about romancing with horror again. About the film, he had said, “The film has been shot internationally and the aesthetics are different from other horror films. Like, how Jay has integrated Jewish culture, beliefs and supernatural things. It is beautiful and we believe it should not just be restricted to the Indian audience.”
From Raaz 2 to Ek Thi Daayan, he has given many stories about ghosts, evil, vengeful spirits, and seductive romance. Except for the seductive romance part, many elements in the latest Amazon Prime film are similar to his previous films. Sadly, the horror factor isn’t good.
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Jay K, who directed the original Ezra, has given quite a slow start to his latest Hindi horror flick. During a press conference, the director and Emraan said that they increased the horror component in Dybbuk to give it that scary Halloween feel. I was not startled by the ghost faces, or the jump scares, unfortunately. The locations often kept changing as if one could just jump from one place to another easily. Due to the average VFX, the scary/gruesome scenes failed to leave a frightening effect.
One of the very few things I liked was that there were no songs. It’s cringe to watch songs in a horror story, and I’m happy that Bollywood realised it. Emraan and Nikita had lovely chemistry. But nothing was brilliant enough to save the sloppy story.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the real curse is watching the latest Amazon Prime release. The evil spirit gets out of the box; sadly, the concept wasn’t out of the box. The twist, in the end, reminded me of one of Emraan’s horror movies, which is my favourite. I won’t reveal it as it would be a spoiler. But it’s not something horror fans will enjoy even a bit.
Dybbuk: The Curse is Real is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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