Deadline's review of Half calls Samjad's Malayalam action-horror film "fast, fun" and super-violent, and the outlet's description gets right to the soundtrack: bhangra beats scoring brutal beatings. The film, about twin vampires taking revenge on a desert crime network in a dystopian future, premiered in TIFF's Midnight Madness and has since played Sitges. That's a very respectable genre-festival one-two punch.
The Pitch: Twins, Fangs, Grudges
Per Deadline, the setup is lean: twin vampires, a desert crime network, and a dystopian future where revenge is the main item on the agenda. The review praises that economy, along with the film's inventive violence and its world-building. It's hard not to read that as a sign the movie knows what it is and doesn't waste your time pretending to be anything else.
Deadline also points to a mix of influences: vampire horror, revenge thriller, neo-noir and spaghetti western aesthetics. That's a lot of genres for one film to juggle. Based on the review, though, the juggling is part of the fun rather than a sign of strain.
Why the Score Is the Story
The detail that jumps out is the techno-bhangra score. Pairing the pounding energy of bhangra with on-screen brutality is the kind of tonal collision that tends to separate a forgettable genre exercise from something fans quote at midnight screenings. Deadline's write-up frames the film as having real cult-movie energy, and the music appears to be a big reason why.
My take: vampire movies often lean on gothic hush, all candlelight and brooding. A film that instead scores its bloodletting with dance-floor propulsion feels like a deliberate dare to the genre's habits.
Reinventing the Rules
According to the review, Half retools vampire mythology, including how it handles vampire weaknesses and the twin dynamic at its center. I can't tell you the specifics here, since the coverage I'm working from doesn't spell them out, and it's best to go in fresh anyway. But the fact that the film is fiddling with the rulebook, rather than just recycling it, is a good sign for anyone tired of the same old stake-and-sunlight routine.
A Bigger Moment for Indian Genre Cinema
The film's festival run matters beyond one movie. Premiering in Midnight Madness and then playing Sitges puts Half in front of the audiences who champion cult horror, and it signals rising international interest in Indian genre filmmaking beyond mainstream formulas. Audience appetite for Indian cinema has grown since RRR broke out internationally, and it's reasonable to wonder whether a Malayalam vampire revenge movie could ride that curiosity into a different corner of the market: the midnight crowd.
To be clear, that's speculation on my part, not a prediction from Deadline. What the review does establish is a film with a distinct voice, a short runtime appetite for chaos, and a spot on the right festival circuit.
The Bottom Line
If you like your horror quick, mean and rhythmically unhinged, Half sounds like the kind of title to track down as it moves beyond the festivals. Vampires have been around for centuries, but few have apparently arrived with a bhangra beat behind them, and that alone makes this one worth watching.
