Raaz Reboot Review

Rating: 1.5/5 Stars (One and half stars)

Star Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Kriti Kharbanda, Gaurav Arora

Director: Vikram Bhatt

What’s Good: Setting the story in Dracula’s hometown Romania is the spookiest thing in the film.

What’s Bad: Raaz Reboot quite literally is a deja vu of most horror films from Bollywood.

Loo Break: Hell Yeah! You won’t miss much!

Watch or Not?: Raaz Reboot may be named as a Reboot but there is nothing different in it. Watch it only if you are a fan of Bollywood horror films!

User Rating:

Rehaan (Gaurav Arora) and Shaina (Kriti Kharbanda) are a married couple who move to Romania after Rehaan gets a better job offer there. The couple move into a plush house but there seems to be something bothering Rehaan, that is making him keep a distance from his wife Shaina. After trying to talk with Rehaan over their issue, Shaina is left wondering what secret her husband is hiding from her.

Soon after moving, Shaina starts to find weird energies in the house and is convinced that it is haunted. Not believing her, Rehaan refuses to accept it and consider moving some place else.

Just then, Shaina runs into her ex, Aditya (Emraan Hashmi). He convinces her that he believes her and also that he can help her get rid of it.

Will Aditya help Shaina from getting rid of the evil spirit? What is the ‘raaz’ that Rehaan is hiding?

Raaz Reboot Review: Script Analysis

One can observe quite a bit of similarities between the stories of Raaz Reboot and 1920 London Returns. A couple going through a tough time and an ex-boyfriend coming into picture, also the spooky backdrop.

Well, in this case, the reboot makes hardly any sense because Bhatt uses the done-to-death tricks to scare you.

The ravens, creaking doors, rattling windows, eye-in-sink elements are probably there in every Bollywood horror film and once again in Raaz Reboot.

Considering that he chooses Romania and mainly Transylvania in the story, for a little while, you feel this story is heading for a dracula twist, unfortunately not. This is a cliched story of revenge and in fact quite early on, you can gauge the suspense and the so called mystery surrounding Emraan Hashmi’s character.

The first half establishes the mystery well enough but the pre-interval twist is a huge give away of what lies ahead.

A boring second half with the cat and mouse chase between people trying to contain the spirit is a complete yawn fest.

Like all Raaz films, there is the forcefully added sexual angle which hardly works in this film.

What’s also funny is, the evil spirit’s obsession of using the F word. I mean are you really trying to scare us by saying that? May be you did scare the censor board though!

Also, unimaginably, the power to kill everything evil seems to lie in a ‘Mangalsutra’ according to the makers. This power of course unleashes in a terrible climax. Ladies! Note down, the next time you see a ghost of an ex, show him the ‘mangalsutra’!

Raaz Reboot Review: Star Performance

Kriti Kharbanda makes her debut with this film and she fails to impress much. Her act as the possessed person is amusing and at times funny. Also, an irritatingly monotoned dialogue delivery pulls down her performance.

Gaurav Arora does a decent job as Rehaan. He is not exceptional but not very bad either. There is not much fodder in his character to perform so he sticks to the script quite okay.

Emraan Hashmi is seen in a villainous role and he seems good. His look with a man-bun as the bad boy suits him a lot. Unfortunately, with a limited role, he cannot really save this film.

Raaz Reboot Review: Direction, Music

Vikram Bhatt does not seem to give up on his dedication to give us one bad film after another. Reworking on the Raaz franchise, this fourth installment should hopefully be his last attempt at giving us a spooky drama.

Supernatural thrillers are not everyone’s cup of tea and its high time Bhatt realizes that he has lost his mojo. I still consider the first Raaz to be the best and while this may be a rehashed version, it does not live up to the original one.

The cinematography looks good with the icy Romanian charm and the plush houses with antique furniture. As always, the music too is hummable even though forcefully added, I’d say it is a saving grace.

Pathetic CGI used for two scenes, one with the raven and another with a snake are a reminder of the fact that he is the same person who directed Creature 3D. They are laughable and annoying at the same point. Bhatt even expects you to get rattled and curl up in your chair by seeing a laptop that’s leaking with blood! Wait! Is that why the film is named ‘reboot’? May be if the laptop contained this film, we would have to set in on a reboot mode.

Background score too has no innovations as such. We are now so familiar with these eerie sounds that we could almost predict what comes when. Ghost theatrics such as moving from one place to another whilst conversing are completely passé and will scare not even a 2 year old kid who knows what editing is.

Raaz Reboot Review: The Last Word

Raaz Reboot is a classic fail at coming even little close to scaring you. I need to reboot my memory to have watched this! A 1.5/5 for this one!

Raaz Reboot Trailer

Raaz Reboot releases on 16th Sept, 2016.

Share with us your experience of watching Raaz Reboot.