“If you make brilliant films, the audience will be scared, which is the ultimate goal of a horror film.” Gul Panag on the elements that make up a horrific movie

Amazon miniTV – Amazon’s free video streaming service recently released a horror thriller – The Haunting. Ever since its release, the viewers are gripped by the suspense, spine-chilling narrative, and the strong on-screen character portrayals by Erica Fernandes alongside Gul Panag and Prakruti Mishra. The horror short film is a tragic chain of events that revolves around a girl named Moushmi who has been possessed by ghosts and is accused of killing her closest friend. The film is based on real events and is directed by Tanveer Bookwala.

Gul Panag who plays the psychiatrist in the short film expressed how the entertainment industry has only begun to scrape the surface when it comes to broadening the boundaries of the horror-thriller genre and its vast expanse. “The horror-thriller genre I have two views on — one as an actor and two, as an audience. As an actor, my view is that we haven’t done justice to the horror-thriller genre in India as we haven’t pushed the bar up or someone would say push the envelope as far as special effects is concerned. We have done one type of horror-thriller genre only. Whereas the scope is much larger”.

Gul Panag deciphered the components of a meticulously crafted terrifying movie, further shedding light on the international horror niche. “Look at what the rest of the world is doing. Koreans are doing with their horror genre. The Japanese are intense. Of course, Hollywood has long done incredible horror. So, I think the scope to perform in horror, and the scope to be part of films with incredible visual effects is very large. Now, coming to me as an audience, I’m terrified of watching horror films personally. As an audience, which just goes to share that if you make brilliant films, the audience will be scared, which is the ultimate goal of a horror film,” the actor-turned-producer said.