The Priest movie review: Mammootty’s horror thriller fails to deliver on its promise
The Priest film solid: Mammootty, Manju Warrier
The Priest film director: Jofin T Chacko
The Priest film score: 2 stars
Malayalam celebrity Mammootty’s newest movie The Priest launched in the remainder of India on Friday, every week after it made its theatrical debut in Kerala and some different abroad markets. The movie has already earned fairly a status as a fascinating horror thriller, having acquired largely constructive opinions. The movie’s field workplace assortment has been strong regardless of individuals being cautious of visiting cinemas throughout Covid-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, I used to be underwhelmed after watching the movie because it didn’t meet all of the expectations that I had constructed up in my head. I used to be additionally in confusion as I questioned whether or not I used to be tripped by my excessive expectations, courtesy the movie’s vital and industrial success in Kerala, or the movie in itself was common? After sleeping on it, I’ve concluded that The Priest is inferior to it was marketed to be. The movie, with some thrilling concepts, was mediocre at greatest.
The Priest follows the adventures of Fr Carmen Benedict, (performed by Mammootty), as he hops from one thriller to a different. Each case he takes up is a Pandora’s field, that brings forth a slew of unresolved mysteries and sad ghosts. He’s known as in to analyze a collection of suicides throughout the similar household that takes place beneath mysterious circumstances. Simply once you suppose that is the case this film is all about, debutant director Jofin T Chacko throws in his first twist. The sensational case was simply an excuse to attract Benedict into an online of darkish deception. Whereas investigating the suicides, Benedict runs into Ameya Gabriel (Child Monica) and immediately feels one thing is off about this 11-year-old lady. “She is carrying a large weight, which isn’t of her personal,” Benedict tells his cop pal after his senses seize some paranormal presence within the ambiance.
Benedict feels that Ameya is simply the tip of a extra intricate and twisted puzzle that performs out within the realm that lies between the residing and the useless. And from that second on, Jofin begins to set the viewers up for a a lot larger thriller than mysterious suicides. And the sensation of one thing extra thrilling proper across the subsequent nook is what retains us invested within the narration because the movie itself has little to supply to retain our undivided consideration.
Jofin ought to have demonstrated extra braveness in pushing the scenes involving exorcism. Benedict performing his new-age exorcism with some fancy devices feels very superficial. It’s such as you buckle up for a nightmarish journey, however all you get is a watered-down model of a visit to a scary home at your nearest mall.
