Immortal Movie Review: A weak screenplay kills an intriguing creature thriller.
Review by Subhashini M
Director: Mariappan Chinna
Cast: G.V. Prakash Kumar, Kayadu Lohar,
Duration: 2 hours 11 minutes
Language: Tamil
Genre: Fantasy / Horror / Thriller
Positives.
1: Cinematography
2: Background Score
3: Concept
Negatives.
1: Screenplay
2: Average Direction
3: Pacing Issues
4: VFX
5: Characterisation
6: Climax
STORY
Immortal starts with an interesting mythological premise involving the birth of a mysterious creature and eventually connects that ancient mythology with a contemporary story. The film initially creates curiosity by presenting Kayadu Lohar’s character as an attractive yet mysterious presence in GV Prakash Kumar’s life. What appears to be a relationship-driven setup gradually turns into a supernatural survival thriller.
The basic concept has enough potential to sustain an engaging genre film. The idea of a creature using human attraction as part of its predatory nature could have been developed into something psychologically disturbing. However, the story remains largely focused on revealing the creature’s identity and explaining its mythology rather than exploring the emotional and psychological consequences of its existence. The result is a premise that sounds considerably more interesting than the story that finally reaches the screen.
DIRECTION
Mariappan Chinna shows ambition in attempting a creature-based supernatural thriller, a genre that is still relatively uncommon in Tamil cinema. The director establishes an atmosphere of mystery in the opening portions and understands the importance of keeping the creature’s identity concealed for a while. This creates some anticipation and gives the first half a certain level of intrigue. However, the direction doesn’t maintain the same confidence throughout the film. Once the mystery begins to unfold, the narrative becomes increasingly straightforward and loses much of the uneasiness established earlier. The director also misses several opportunities to make the horror more psychological. Instead of making the audience uncomfortable through character behaviour, silence and uncertainty, the film often relies on conventional suspense techniques. The ambition is visible, but the execution lacks the sharpness required for the genre.
SCREENPLAY
The screenplay is easily the weakest department of Immortal. The film has a central idea capable of generating mystery, horror and psychological tension, but the writing doesn’t extract enough from it. The first half benefits from unanswered questions, while the second half depends increasingly on explanations and revelations. Unfortunately, those revelations don’t carry the dramatic impact necessary to sustain the film. Several character decisions also feel written to move the plot forward rather than emerging naturally from their personalities. The screenplay establishes rules surrounding the supernatural elements but doesn’t always make those rules feel convincing. More importantly, the creature is treated primarily as a mechanism for the plot instead of becoming the emotional or thematic centre of the film. The film could have explored desire, loneliness, obsession, mortality and the frightening relationship between attraction and danger. Instead, most of those possibilities remain unexplored.
GV PRAKASH KUMAR – PERFORMANCE
GV Prakash Kumar plays an ordinary man who becomes trapped in an extraordinary supernatural situation. His relatively natural screen presence suits the character, particularly during the portions where confusion and fear are required. He doesn’t attempt to overplay the character and keeps the performance reasonably grounded.
However, the character itself doesn’t provide him with enough dramatic material. The emotional transformation from attraction to fear could have been much more powerful if the screenplay had spent more time establishing his psychological relationship with Kayadu’s character. As a result, the performance remains functional rather than memorable.
KAYADU LOHAR – PERFORMANCE
Kayadu Lohar gets the film’s most interesting role. Her character requires her to initially appear charming and approachable before gradually revealing a darker and more threatening side. She manages to create the necessary ambiguity in the early portions, and her screen presence helps maintain the mystery surrounding the character.
The problem is that the screenplay doesn’t give her character enough emotional or psychological layers. The transformation from mysterious woman to supernatural threat could have been much more unsettling. Kayadu does what the material demands, but the writing prevents the performance from becoming genuinely haunting.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Arun Radhakrishnan’s cinematography plays an important role in establishing the film’s supernatural mood. The darker environments, controlled framing and use of confined spaces complement the mystery surrounding the characters. The apartment setting, in particular, allows the film to create a feeling of isolation and uncertainty. The cinematography becomes more effective during the creature-oriented portions, where lighting and framing help create an eerie visual atmosphere. However, the visual language isn’t particularly distinctive enough to elevate the material beyond conventional genre filmmaking. It supports the film well but rarely becomes a storytelling force of its own.
MUSIC
The songs don’t make a particularly strong impression and largely function within the requirements of the narrative. They don’t significantly enhance the emotional dimension of the story or leave a lasting impact after the film. The music is therefore one of the less memorable aspects of Immortal, especially when compared with the potential of the film’s supernatural premise.
BACKGROUND SCORE
Sam CS’ background score is considerably more effective than the songs. The score understands the importance of creating tension during the mystery and creature sequences and helps establish an ominous atmosphere. There are moments where the background score succeeds in generating more tension than the actual writing. However, this also exposes one of the film’s problems: the music is sometimes doing the job that the screenplay should have been doing. It enhances the suspense but cannot compensate for the lack of narrative depth.
EDITING
Rajesh M’s editing keeps the film within a manageable runtime of around 131 minutes and prevents the narrative from becoming excessively stretched. The early portions move at a reasonable pace, particularly because the mystery keeps the audience engaged. The second half is less effective. Once the film begins explaining its central mystery, the pacing becomes less compelling because the revelations don’t consistently generate new dramatic momentum. The editing itself isn’t the primary problem; rather, it has limited material to work with.
VFX
The visual effects are reasonably adequate for the film’s creature-driven concept. The supernatural elements are integrated into the live-action portions without becoming completely distracting, and the creature itself has enough visual presence to function within the film’s world.
However, the effectiveness of VFX ultimately depends on how the creature is written. Despite having an unusual design and mythology, the film doesn’t use the creature creatively enough to generate sustained horror. The visual execution is acceptable, but the dramatic utilisation remains disappointing.
CREATURE DESIGN
The creature is arguably the film’s most promising creative element. Its connection with beauty, attraction and predation gives the filmmakers an opportunity to create something more disturbing than a conventional monster. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t fully exploit that contradiction. A creature that appears desirable while simultaneously representing danger could have become a genuinely memorable horror figure. Instead, the design is mostly used to support the plot and supernatural mythology.
SOUND DESIGN
The sound design works effectively during the suspense sequences and contributes to the film’s atmospheric quality. Environmental sounds, creature-related effects and moments of silence are used to maintain tension in several scenes. However, the sound design remains largely supportive rather than innovative. It creates the expected genre atmosphere but doesn’t consistently produce the kind of discomfort or sonic identity that could have strengthened the horror experience.
PRODUCTION DESIGN
The production design provides a suitable environment for the story, particularly through the apartment setting and the contrast between the contemporary world and the ancient mythology introduced at the beginning. The locations are functional and help establish the isolated atmosphere required by the narrative. However, there isn’t enough visual world-building to make the mythology feel particularly expansive or lived-in.
CLIMAX
The climax is one of the film’s biggest disappointments. After spending much of the runtime establishing the creature’s mystery and supernatural threat, the final confrontation doesn’t deliver the emotional or horror payoff expected from the setup. Instead of feeling like the inevitable culmination of the mythology and character arcs, the climax feels primarily designed to bring the narrative to a conclusion. The film needed a more inventive and emotionally satisfying final stretch.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
The technical departments are generally competent, with cinematography, background score, VFX and editing providing enough support to keep the film watchable. The film doesn’t suffer from a lack of technical polish. But technical competence cannot compensate for a weak screenplay. The film looks like a supernatural thriller and occasionally sounds like one, but its writing doesn’t provide the depth or sustained tension required to make the experience genuinely effective.
FINAL VERDICT
Immortal has an idea that could have produced a genuinely disturbing Tamil creature thriller. Unfortunately, the film settles for explaining its monster rather than understanding it. The premise creates curiosity, the performances keep it watchable, and the technical departments provide a decent supernatural atmosphere. But once the mystery begins to unravel, the film loses its grip. The creature had the potential to be unforgettable but the screenplay makes it forgettable.
Rating: 2/5
Review by Subhashini M
