One of the biggest cinematic cultural phenomena of the past fifteen years besides bullet-time has been the hand-held camera genre of film-making. Starting off with The Blair Witch Project the hand-held camera soon came to be a staple in not just horror movies but also other genres such as Sci-Fi (Cloverfield, Chronicle) but also used in countless action movies to convey mayhem and confusion in the midst of a fight. It was only a matter of time before Indian movies would pick up on this and while Ragini MMS did employ a few tricks, it wasnt quite in the same league. Now ? (Question Mark) goes the whole nine yards in using the same trick and oddly enough comes out pretty successful.
Seven friends head into the wild to make a film, a haunted mansion offers shelter. However soon enough spooky happenings disrupt the proceedings and when one of them is brutally attacked by an unseen force, stupidity prevails and they chose to stay back rather than make a run for it. How they meet their fate forms the crux of the tale; all chronicled by their trusty camera.
Rather than rely on any ominous background score, the director employs tricks such as falling objects or creaky appendages; which do work in parts but the level to which the sound effects are cranked to the max creates a sense of utter irritation at times. The stupidity of some of the characters is jarring but this is a horror movie and they are ghost-fodder so cant really expect any better.
Now for the hand-held camera part, which unfortunately, comes off as a gimmick, that isnt truly required. The director smartly makes sure we get only the stuff from the camera and no external shots which maintains consistency but for me seems a pointless gimmick.
Question Mark / ? is an interesting experiment which could have done with a smarter script but it does manage to offer up decent thrills without any of the frivolities that hamper most Bollywood productions.
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Seven friends head into the wild to make a film, a haunted mansion offers shelter. However soon enough spooky happenings disrupt the proceedings and when one of them is brutally attacked by an unseen force, stupidity prevails and they chose to stay back rather than make a run for it. How they meet their fate forms the crux of the tale; all chronicled by their trusty camera.
Rather than rely on any ominous background score, the director employs tricks such as falling objects or creaky appendages; which do work in parts but the level to which the sound effects are cranked to the max creates a sense of utter irritation at times. The stupidity of some of the characters is jarring but this is a horror movie and they are ghost-fodder so cant really expect any better.
Now for the hand-held camera part, which unfortunately, comes off as a gimmick, that isnt truly required. The director smartly makes sure we get only the stuff from the camera and no external shots which maintains consistency but for me seems a pointless gimmick.
Question Mark / ? is an interesting experiment which could have done with a smarter script but it does manage to offer up decent thrills without any of the frivolities that hamper most Bollywood productions.
view less
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