Vadakkan

I'm honestly surprised by the high ratings for Vadakkan (2025). Many people keep praising it as a "good attempt," but I don't see it that way. It feels like the filmmakers simply tried to imitate Hollywood-style horror by mixing found footage elements with some bits of our culture. There's nothing wrong with experimenting, but this felt more like copying than creating something original. Instead of trying to replicate Western horror tropes, they should have focused on building a horror experience rooted in our own rich traditions and storytelling. That would have made a much stronger impact.

Meh/10 for me.

Movie Vadakkan has a Plot though seemingly comparable to several others, have some extra twists added to keep it different.

Selection of the cast is generally ok. The lead actor is good to watch till the end.

Direction needs improvement especially in the 2nd half lagging parts when the investigation is ongoing in the bungalow at night.

Cannot be treated as a visual treat niether a thrilling horror, though it has its own suspense factors.

Acting of kishore is commendable and a good attempt but far below that when compared to kantara.

Ending is almost predictable from the bridge scene, though it could have been made different.

Overall a good attempt...

Boring story. Nothing new.

Could have avoided unwanted vulgarity and bad language.

Should Learn from neat movies like romancham.

Disappointed. Expected better standards from Malayalam movies.

Sound effects were good.

Location was beautiful.

If you update 1 star here, it automatically gets updated as 9 ?

Now I can understand why this movie is having 8 stars from so many😀 Overrated beyond acceptance.

Failed attempt to copy some English movie.

Ending is predictable.

If the story is strong and relatable to common man, people will like it.

This is not a family movie.

This is not worth the time spend.

The movie felt like an adaptation of found footage horror into a Kerala setting, involving folk like Theyyam. But still they failed to deliver something original to the table. I expected a more smoother blend, but this was just American wine poured into an Indian bottle - superficially repackaged without tasting either flavour. The premise had a lot of potential and they just ruined it.

The cinematography was pretty good, capturing the eerie beauty of rural Kerala. Kishor's acting too, was decent. I also appreciate the experiment. These are the only positives I felt.

I don't understand how it got such a high rating. Maybe people liked the experimentation angle. But for a dedicated horror fan like me, this was a below par attempt.

The first sign of trouble is the audio editing and dubbing. There's no depth and the entire audio is distractingly distanced from what's on the screen. You can just imagine the actors dubbing in the studio with the mics entirely in their mouths. Even basics like the voice of someone behind another being lower is just missed.

The screenplay is disjointed.. and not in a well scripted horror movie edge-of-seat disjointed kind of way but in a incompetent kind of way. There are so many plot holes from scene to scene and the direction is lacking. The background of the plot and story is inconsistent and there's no resolution for the audience at the end when it could easily have been good with just basic homework.

The actors are competent, the cinematography is great and the background score, except for the first entirely out-of-place song, is decent.

It looks like a basic good concept of story was established, decent actors were cast and then everything else just crashed into a school play run by the 5th standard history teacher. Rewatching any one episode of the 20 year old series Supernatural, would've been entirely so much more satisfying.