Three Common Plot Points in Bollywood Horror Movies

If you have heard about those cliched Bollywood action movies where the villain has killed the protagonist's parents and he/she is baying for revenge, you would not be too surprised to find out that even Bollywood horror movies have some statutory plot points around which a movie can be made. These plot points were generously used by the Ramsay Brothers, who literally held the torch in the '80s and the '90s to a dwindling horror film market. Here are the three common plots found in a Bollywood horror movie.

Youth in an Old Mansion:

Old mansions and farmhouses in Lonavla and other far flung places in India made a killing when they were hired for the shooting of a horror movie. The plot basically had a couple of college kids go out either for a picnic and be stranded in an old mansion, or actually plan a picnic in an old mansion which is supposed to be haunted - yes, there were those kind of movies.

A few risque scenes, a little song and dance, and then the killing spree would start, and the main characters would find out that the mansion was haunted by someone because of some kind of injustice meted out to them - it would normally be a poor girl who was killed off for some particular reason.

The movie would finally end when the spirit would either be exposed to sunlight or would be locked in some temple or church.

Reincarnation:

Reincarnation has been a plot point for many horror movies based in urban India, but is nevertheless a very integral part of the Bollywood horror industry as well as the Bollywood industry as a whole. Reincarnation movies have been made into out and out actioners, thrilling horror and even love stories. The plot would revolve around one, or sometimes even two people who were killed off in their previous birth by the evil people, and they would take a rebirth to avenge themselves - those were fun times.

The movie would finally end when the reincarnated person would take the revenge in lieu of their previous birth. There have been several superhit movies based on this concept.

The Possessed:

Exorcist is not the only movie that has played about with the concept of being possessed. There are several Bollywood horror movies which have revolved around a young child or a woman being possessed by an aatma (spirit) and how doctors and even seers and saints try to exorcise the demons from their body.

This concept was mainly used by film makers to debate about science and God, and there were many sequences where a priest and a doctor would argue hammer and tongs about who would be the right person to exorcise the ghost.