Iruttu - Focused throughout and reasonably engaging!

Bharath Vijayakumar

V.Z. Durai's Iruttu is as unlike other horror films as it is like them. There is a fresh angle brought to the ghost theory using Islam mythology. So instead of 'Satan' you have 'Jinn'. While this isn't a huge shift from other horror films, it does lend Iruttu a certain unique flavour.

Darkness invades a town in a hill station in Tamil Nadu at 12 noon for few minutes and leaves behind 5 dead bodies ( Hence the title Iruttu). The inspector who investigates the case dies mysteriously. Enters Sundar C (along with his wife and kid) to investigate the case and this puts his family in danger.

As you can see, the plot is nothing novel but the first half of Iruttu has a nice build up and has few tense moments. Some of the jump scares work and the eerie ambience clicks big time. The music and cinematography ensure this. The performances are perfunctory. A little more intensity in this regard would have helped a great deal. The usual stupidness that the characters of a horror movie indulge in, finds its way into Iruttu as well. Something scary happens in the midnight but the next day the characters show no so signs of fear and go about everything as usual and this cycle keeps repeating. The CG involving animals is pretty ordinary and should have been much better given their importance in the film.

What really works for the film is the screenplay that remains focussed. There are no diversions. Even a song that seems to be there for titillation turns out to be there for a rather solid reason.

Bottomline:

Iruttu is a pretty decent horror flick that gets few things right. It could have been much more without its rough edges.

Rating : 2.75/5