Horror Story (film)

Plot

The film opens with Vikrant Nerula (Bikramjeet Kanwarpal) entering the deserted Grandiose Hotel alone. He proceeds to room 3046, goes to the terrace and jumps off, killing himself.

Seven friends, Sam (Hasan Zaidi), Margesh (Ravish Desai), Achint (Nishant Malkani), Neel (Karan Kundra), Neena (Radhika Menon), Sonia (Nandini Vaid) and Maggie (Aparna Bajpai), reunite in a local pub after several years apart to celebrate the farewell of Neel, who is going abroad. They learn about an abandoned hotel that is reportedly haunted. It had originally been a mental asylum for the criminally insane, but was almost completely destroyed in a fire. The origin of the fire has never been fully explained. After years of neglect, the ruins were refurbished into a five star hotel by a builder. The hotel was unsuccessful due to strange happenings that drove the owner to suicide. Rumors state that he was pushed into suicide by the ghost of an asylum inmate.

All of them treat it seriously, except Maggie and Sam. They say that they wouldn't believe something they haven't seen. A worker at the bar says, that "...you would not be alive to believe once you see it". Sam suggests that the group explore the abandoned building.

They try to enter the hotel from the main door, but cannot, so enter by the back door. Neena observes strange things, but Neel brushes her claims aside. They find a TV set on with no transmission or power. Both Achint and Neel hear the sounds, "WELCOME". Ignoring it as a hallucination, they proceed to room 3046, a notorious room.

There, Sam is killed. The group flees in panic and come to realize that they are trapped inside the hotel with no way out. Achint and Margesh go to the terrace to try and find the network. There, Margesh is killed by ghost spirits.

The group starts being terrorized by a ghostly woman. Sonia is dragged into the darkness by the ghost. With three people dead, the remaining four find an abandoned jeep which they use to try to get out of the hotel, amid ghostly apparitions. After a tiring drive through misty areas, the group escape, only to find that they are back at the door of room 3046. They realize that the only way to escape is to survive until dawn.

Soon they are confronted by Sonia, whom Achint and Neel think is the ghost, but a tearful Sonia tells them that it is really her. The group learns that, when the hotel was a mental asylum, a possessed girl named Maya (Sheetal Singh) was admitted after she murdered her entire family. Maya would always claim to have 'married the devil', and would become very violent at the hospital, even killing the doctors. The fire that broke out killed all the inmates. The group realize that it is Maya who is terrorizing them.

Sonia tries to contact Maya to find what she wants. She gets a call from Maya, saying that the spirit wants to kill them all, nothing else. The terrified group then discover that Sonia is actually dead and Maya is speaking through her. Neena asks the time from Neel, only to be told that it is the same time (3:55 AM) she had seen on the clock in one of the rooms shortly after entering the hotel. Believing it is some kind of intuition, they decide to go back to the same room to understand Neena's extrasensory perception.

There they find a book containing paranormal explanations and a way to locate an energy source of dark spirits. With the help of incantations from the book, they have visions of the past. They see that the hotel was a mental asylum and find that the energy source of the dark spirit is in a shock machine. They decide to burn it down to end the horror.

Neel and Maggie go to kitchen in search of something flammable. Maggie sees a female spirit sitting on chair and reading newspaper. When she reaches towards her, Neel again brushes her aside. Maggie is killed by Maya who appears in the form of Neel. Achint is beheaded by the spirit, leaving only Neel and Neena alive.

Neel tries to burn the machine, but is pulled by the spirit into a closet. The spirit starts terrorizing Neena. Neena starts a fire. Amidst ghostly apparitions and obstructions, and with the help of the spirit of Vikrant Narula (who had died at the beginning of the film), she manages to burn the machine down. This results in the destruction of Maya's spirit. The film ends with the entrance doors of the hotel opening at dawn and a traumatized Neena, being the only survivor, walking outside.

Cast

Production

Of the film, Bhatt has stated that he did not want Horror Story to contain any songs or any sex scenes. He also remarked that he wanted to avoid casting "big stars" in the film, as he believed that they "cannot turn the audience fearful" in what he termed as a "hardcore horror film". Ravish Desai has commented that the movie will be the first in a franchise and that planning for further films has already begun.

Bhatt had earlier made films in the same genre, namely - 1920, 1920: Evil Returns and Haunted. In an interview, he had commented, "While [my] Raaz 3 and 1920 were romantic sagas with songs and full-on drama, this one is more of a Hollywood kind of drama. The horror lies in the story."

Marketing

The promo of the movie released at Tulip Star Hotel in Mumbai. At the event, the director-writer-producer unveiled both the look of the film and its cast.

Sequel

Work on a sequel is currently being planned.