Movie Review: Asvins
I stumbled across a new release on Netflix today. It’s an Indian horror called Asvins, and the premise is intriguing, but does it deliver? Exploring an abandoned British mansion once owned by a mysterious archaeologist, a group of vloggers stumbles upon an evil presence lurking in its walls.
A Strong, Spooky Opening
This starts off as a very atmospheric and creepy found-footage horror. There’s a crap ton of suspenseful tension built up with freaky angles and tons of shadows. It also helps greatly that the characters each only have a small flashlight with a camera attached, so that not a lot of what we see is illuminated. Instead, we just have a very narrow field of vision, and there are so many setups where a jump scare is expected and teased, which builds anticipation and anxiety. We’re shown some horrors that affect five different people who are filming in the supposedly haunted mansion so that they can grab footage and sounds for a company to attract visitors for dark tourism.
I actually got a few chills during this opening sequence, because this setup while it is familiar and kinda rote was still able to create enough spooky ambiance that it made my hair stand up.
Structural and Continuity Issues
But then that’s, unfortunately, where the horror ends and the movie begins to fall apart. It is told in chapters or parts, and the second part takes us back to before the group arrives at the mansion. We get some exposition, but mostly this helps to just establish the setting with some really excellent aerial captures. It shows just how isolated the mansion is from everything else, which then creates loneliness and a sense of dread.
Once the characters get into the mansion, we watch the events play out that led up to and then include—what was shown at the start in that found-footage sequence. There are continuity issues where we watch the characters carry out actions in places that they just weren’t in prior. I do understand that some of what we see could just be extra that wasn’t shown in that first go-round, and that could be fine. But there are specific sequences in areas that should line up and they don’t in any way.
Frustrating Character Choices and Pacing
From there, the acting and the anxiety go downhill fast. We watch at least two different characters spend the majority of the rest of the film moaning incoherently and annoyingly, so that they sound like chimpanzees. I mean, no actual words are ever escaping their lips—just huge hyperventilation mixed with unintelligible mouth sounds. It gets annoying very quickly, and it continues for so much of the last half of the movie.
There’s a lot of lore for the story, and it’s explained to us a great deal through just a bunch of exposition that’s delivered through the thoughts of the main character, and then through some found videos. I didn’t mind this at first because it helped to build out the story more, gave context to what was happening and why, and it could also inform the characters of their goal on how to escape this waking nightmare. But the problem with so much exposition is that it gets in the way of building tension. We’re being told too much and not shown enough, and then it’s all just compounded again by that moaning idiot.
There’s also a lot of repetition in this. Like I said, exposition and plot points are revisited multiple times. While some of it does work to reinforce the elements, most of it only accomplishes to pad the time and create many feelings of déjà vu. The story itself, I think, has some good interest to it, but it also gets lost a lot along the way. If it could cut the moaning and the aimless wandering by the characters, and get to the context faster, I think this would retain a lot more of its creep factor. There are many times when the story branches off from itself, which is supposed to create suspense, but all that’s created are confused sequences that feel disjointed from the main story and just feel like they’re thrown in at random times.
Practical Effects vs. CGI
Most of what we’re shown uses some awesome practical effects, and really it’s just costuming and tricks of the light. But there is a point in the final act where CGI is used, and I really wish it hadn’t been. The effects look cheesy, and it broke me completely out of the narrative, which is really a terrible time to do that because the story was working up to its climax.
As an example, there’s this moment where a character disapparates—good gravy, it’s ugly. I mean, he’s got like some sparkles to him; it’s almost like he’s transporting from the original Star Trek, and then he just turns into this ball of light. It is a terrible transition, and it makes it more comical than impressive.
Final Verdict
I know that I’ve come down pretty hard on the majority of this, and really, so much of it is a poor experience. But I do think the story has potential and a good premise, and the beginning uses the found-footage aspect in a wonderful way—but then it also works to make the rest of the film appear amateurish and disorganized.
The makeup and the settings are expertly used, and when the production relies on practical effects through freaky movements and shifting objects, the atmosphere takes on a very ominous tone. But then all that is broken thanks to the non-verbal lamenting from the characters and the repetitive explanations. The story ends up spoon-feeding every bit to the audience repeatedly, taking away any cleverness, which then destroys any chilling emotions. I was hopeful for this, but in the end, it was really just a waste of an hour and 50 minutes, leaving me to then have to search for something else to cleanse my palate.
Rating: I give Asvins 1.5 out of 5 couches.
So, have you seen any good horrors or maybe thrillers lately? Let me know what you watched in the comments below!
