The success of horror films depends mostly on whether it can generate the amount of fear we anticipated and making the story plausible, if not logical.
If measured on such a scale, the Malayalam film Winter -- written and directed by Dipu, and starring Jayaram -- falls somewhere in between. It is because the narrative is confused. It is not sure whether the director wishes to be a true horror film or a logical psychopathic tale where everything is explained, and the loose ends are tied in the climax.
Dr Ramdas (Jayaram) is working as a surgeon in a multi-speciality hospital in Hyderabad. He has a problem; one of his young daughters is depressed due to the claustrophobic environs of the apartment system. So on the advice of a psychiatrist played by Manoj K Jayan, he finds a specious bungalow on the outskirts of the city.
This marks the beginning of the things we are too familiar with happening in a horror film -- from an overflowing toilet to a missing kid to the gruesome killing of the pet. In between, there is effort to give scientific validity to Vastu Shastra.
There are a few genuinely scary moments but they fail to make a sustained impact. Then there is an overt effort to pacify the rationalist in the audience with lot of mumbo jumbo about psychopaths.
Every actor seems to be sleepwalking through his/her part. We can feel the lack of interest in every performance whether it be Jayaram or Bhavana (Jayaram's wife; wearing a sari and a huge dot on the forehead, that is one of the unintended shocker of this film).
The film has a jaded feel to it, maybe because it was languishing in the cans for the last couple of years.
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