It's a fairly okay attempt at mixing Indianness to the American horror pedestal. If the sole idea here was to establish Megan Suri as a performer who can do the heavy-lifting, then it does the job. Since it's Halloween season, way too many indie horror films are coming out, and most of them struggle to stand apart, even when I constantly applaud the effort. In this case, the plot and its beats come across as mostly derivative, with inspirations drawn from several Asian and Hollywood horror flicks. The developments aren't startling, and I don't think it's particularly great for a horror film when you're able to predict the exact moment of each jumpscare. The creature effects also remind you of certain other films, including Rob Savage's recent The Boogeyman.

The screenplay doesn't try to build the lore around the demon all that much, as it's more interested in throwing jumpscares at you, one after the other. And when it does make mild attempts, the outcome ends up looking unintentionally funny (like, the whole cooking scene to summon the demon.. and, for what?). Megan Suri is good at emoting, but I wish the character had more texture. Sometimes, I found it hard to differentiate her from "just another high schooler". The boyfriend, the teacher, and every other supporting character were always meant to be predictable bait.