The Priest Malayalam Movie Review – An intresting watchable horror thriller. 

Review for The Priest: 

•Language: MALAYALAM. 

•Duration: 02 Hours 27 Minutes. 

•Genre: SUPERNATURAL THRILLER. 

•THEATRE: LM CINEMAS 

•STATUS: 80%. 

• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R.VALIYAVEETIL.

•POSITIVES: 

1: DIRECTION.

2: STORY.

3: CINEMATOGRAPHY.

4: PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS.

5: EDITING.

6: MUSIC & BACKGROUND SCORE. 

7: ART DIRECTION. 

•NEGATIVES: 

1: MEDIOCRE SCREENPLAY 

2: LESS HORROR.

•ONE WORD: An intresting watchable horror thriller. 

The Priest portrays the story of a Priest named Carman Benedict who also conducts investigation about murders and paranormal activities. Soon some series of murder happens on a rich family, three members of a house gets killed in the same pattern. So Father Benedict gets to assist the police team and he helps to solve the murder to find the culprits. But during the investigation, he came to see a teenage girl named Ameya in which Father Benedict came to notice that she has some weird and strange behaviour, hence many unusual contradictions comes to the path of Father Benedict. The rest of the story unfolds Father Benedict various path to solve a mystery and also what’s the actual reason behind Ameya’s unusual behaviour. 

The movie is directed by the newcomer Jofin T. Chacko who also handles the story, while the screenplay is written by Shyam Menon and Deepu Pradeep. The movie is produced by Anto Joseph and Unnikrishnan. B under the banner of Anto Joseph Film Company and RD Illuminations. The movie is distributed by Anto Joseph Film Company and Truth Global Films (Overseas). The cinematography is handled by Akhil George and editing is performed by Shammer Mohammed. 

First of all, as a newcomer Jofin.T. Chacko making was supreme with standard quality for a horror mystery film. The creation was unique with some interesting twist and turns also as a scriptwriter also Jofin. T. Chacko shines to bring a promising script. The entire making was passionate and the implementation was accurate according to the plot. The direction doesn’t get any off-balance, the plot has many kinds of happenings and events and these were executed convincingly without any form of confusing factors. The explanations were perfect, like said before all the reasons behind the different happenings have a proper motive which runs the movie ideally for a proper horror film. The clear and neat story written by the director was tallying without any fault to set the whole premise but the screenplay could have been done much better. It was the only drawback I felt in the film, the second half was promising but the full effect to create a wow impact was missing. 

The screenplay comprises of many factors like fear, horror, suspense, mystery, love, affection, betrayal etc and most of these elements were written down equivalently but expect creating fear haven’t worked out. So the ending and the plot twist was predictable by these faults. The ending was totally predictable, the real reasons underlying the climax was good but not great, the twist was ok but the impact of it was less. More than the second half the first part of the film was wonderful, the visuals of the interval twist were completely shocking. The ongoing situations in the second half which leads to the actual plot was found as familiar with many movies. Why a demon spirits arrive, for why the spirit enters a particular person, why it is haunting and what’s the reasons for its revenge, all these questions are the actual travelling path and these questions was executed mannerly but the impacts doesn’t work out much. As previously mentioned the answers underlying the above questions are the kind of usual and predicable answers which we have witnessed before so creating the influence for getting wondered or for a wow factor was on an average level. Still, by the remarkable making and direction, these factors don’t affect much in the viewing experience, for a smooth watching the complete making was adequate. 

It’s a film which was having many potential areas to create horror. Also, the supernatural elements were much more especially in the whole second half, so for me personally, I felt the makers haven’t worked that much to create these horrors. There are horror scenes like sudden jumps, exorcism, haunting etc and those were good but not scary. Like said on many areas the makers were having proper chances to create a scary scene but haven’t executed, the focusing was more on the story and the making which was disappointing for me. I was expecting more scary scenes especially the exorcism scene but couldn’t find anything fresh. Moreover, a school girl coming like a ghost was not that great, Baby Monica had done complete justice but the scary scenes which she performs were giving less impact due to her age, automatically not giving the proper sort of fear which one is looking for, the exorcism scene was also normal and usual, ended up with the usual kind of tricks. So fear factors were missing and still wonder why the makers haven’t used it effectively. 

Looking into the performance Mammootty who played the character Father Carman Benedict did a terrific job throughout the film. The characteristic qualities of a mysterious Priest were underlying perfectly all over his performance. The dialogue delivery was also fascinating especially in the anger scenes, the way he undertook the mannerism was genuine. The earnestness was witnessed all over the performance which I liked the most. He had cleverly once again shown his classic performance. Manju Warrier as Susan also did a fine job. The affectionate qualities of a loving and caring sister have rectified authentically by Manju Warrier. The combination scenes with Nikhila Vimal was pleasant to watch. Nikhila Vimal as Jesi did a great job, her performance was a highlight. She was having a very crucial role all over the film and she had given her best effort. Her combination scene with Baby Monica was remarkable, both of them had perfect chemistry, teacher and student relationship was genuine. Baby Monica as Ameya was outstanding, she is the real backbone of this film and her performance is the main apex. The mysterious manner and behaviour were performed brilliantly, all her facial expressions were mesmerizing till the end. The various expressions in different kind of emotions were acted out amazingly by Baby Monica, one can feel the actual weirdness which the character demands. Her combination with Nikhila Vimal was lovely and at a time strange which gives the viewers the actual question on what’s she is aiming into, am sure she can show more wonders in her upcoming performance. Ramesh Pisharody, Jagadish Kumar and Madupal come with significant supporting characters and everyone did total justice to their respective characters. Saniya Iyyappan comes with an extended cameo performance which was captivating in all manner, the plot twist in her character was shocking and she did a dreadful performance.

The cinematography of the film was by Akhil Geroge offering many interesting and wonderful frames. As a mystery horror film, the frames were elegant to set the premise. The lighting techniques used in indoor scenes for the horror scenes were powerful to set the tone. The camera movements in horror scenes were matching to give fear. The editing by Shammer Muhammed was modest and fair. The cuts were good and mismatches were less, the grading method used in various frames according to the genre of the scene was implemented flawlessly. The teamwork of the Art Department was also precise to set the various tone of each scene, especially loved the premise of exorcism scenes.  

So overall to conclude ‘The Priest’ had given me a mixed kind of experience, enjoyed the film by its remarkable making and promising storyline, also the performance by Mega Star Mammootty was a treat to watch. But as horror film the movie slightly disappoints me, not the expectation but the implementation of horror was missing. Still, the movie offers has it’s own striking moments and won’t disappoint anyone.

• VERDICT: ABOVE AVERAGE 

• RATING: 3/5.