Rakul Preet Singh's horror entertainer BOO directed by AL. Vijay started streaming on Jio Cinema on 27 May 2023. The presence of Vishwak Sen increased the interest levels. Let us find out what thrills BOO offered to the viewers.
BOO story is all about four girls partying for Halloween and what follows next and their experiences. Kiara (Rakul Preet Singh) organizes a Halloween party at her house and invites her friends Rithu, Aruna, and Kavya (Reba Monica John, Vidyullekha Raman, Manjima Mohan). As they start enjoying the party, they experience a power failure and to pass the time, Kiara shows them a horror book that should be completed without a stretch and tells them that even the writer who wrote it died after reading it.
Where this leads to and how journalist Malavika (Nivetha Pethuraj), Akash, Vishwak Sen) paranormal scientist Meera (Megha Akash) are connected to it from the rest of the story.
There is nothing much to talk about the performances. All the actors are well known to movie lovers and this generated interest among movie lovers. But all of them just passed through the motions. Anyway, they are not at fault as they got nothing much to do except for screaming, shrieking, and shouting with fear.
Rakul Preet Singh, Vishwak Sen, Nivetha Pethuraj, Megha Akash, Reba Monica John, Vidyullekha Raman, Manjima Mohan, and Aayira just performed those scenes to perfection. Vishwak Sen, Nivetha Pethuraj, and Megha Akash's roles are very limited. If the acting doesn't inspire any confidence, the fault lies not with the star cast but with the director.
BOO story penned by AL. Vijay is nothing new. He tried to come up with a horror thriller to scare all. But the story is mediocre and outdated to the core. Few people getting stranded in a house and then weird things happening have been dealt on the screen numerous times. Maverick director Ram Gopal Varma came up with similar stories way back in 2000 like Darna Mana Hai. This looks like a poor imitation.
The narration starts in a slow and silly manner and time was consumed with a song too. Then comes the book and the chapters in it, which goes on Hiccups, Lonely House, Soul Trapper, Uninvited Guest, and Haunted House. Viewers just watch the horror scenes as though they are comedy scenes. This shows the quality of the product.
There are no thrills and though pre-climax and climax is a little interesting even there logic goes for a toss. When the film ends, viewers heave a sigh of relief. The only saving grace is the length of the film which is very short. AL. Vijay's screenplay and direction puts even an amateur to shame.
There is nothing much to talk about the technical values. Sandeep K Vijay's cinematography is nothing to rave about. He just placed a camera in the house and then slept off. There are no highs in the camera angles. GV. Prakash Kumar's music is not good. He tried to elevate the scenes with his BGM which is just average. Editing is ok. Dialogues are silly and production values are ok.
Altogether BOO is a silly horror thriller. The makers roped in a good star cast but AL. Vijay came up with a pathetic story and with a ridiculous screenplay and direction, within minutes it sild into the disasters den. There is no script at all and with silly scenes, the makers became a laughing stock in front of even school kids. Watching this, people are left to wonder how the cast signed the film in the first place and how Jio Cinema gave the green signal for the project. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 1 Rating for BOO.